Address of Bishop Robert Rabbat on the occasion of the Feast of the Annunciation, on Thursday 3 April 2025.

From the Red to the White and to the Green Martyrdom

Dear Distinguished and Beloved Guests,

Good evening, allow me to begin my brief address by wishing:

·       The Christians of this world an ongoing Blessed and Joyful Lenten Journey.

·       The Muslims of this world a Happy Fitr Eid.

·       And, all the Lebanese, Christians & Muslims, present here tonight and all over the world

a blessed Feast of the Annunciation.

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“Lebanon is more than a country; it is a message of freedom

 and an example of pluralism for East and West.” (Pope St John Paul II)

I know of no other example of a formal national commemoration observed by both Muslims and Christians. Since 2010 the two principle religious communities of Lebanon have celebrated a national day of fraternal solidarity on 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin, our Lady Mary. The Blessed Virgin is revered by both authentic Christians and mainstream Muslims. Both faiths honour her as virtuous and pure, courageous and peaceful.

That the two faith communities have chosen the Feast of the Annunciation as a common festival, is one more example of our way of doing things that has made Lebanon a singular place, and I am sure will do so again.

Sadly, this year we are also marking the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the disastrous civil war, which began 13 April 1975; and we maintain in prayerful remembrance all those from whatever community who perished in the midst of these civil disturbances.

The English word “martyr” is derived ultimately from the Greek word martyros – a witness; just as in Arabic, shaheed is derived from shahed – a witness. By his or her death, a martyr gives witness to a transcendent value.

The rather enigmatic scholarly priest St Jerome of Jerusalem, writing in the fourth century, provided a threefold model of martyrdom – the red, the white, and the green.

·       The red was obviously a reference to the blood of the earlier martyrs who underwent often unspeakable sufferings;

·       The white was a reference to those ascetics who had chosen a life of spiritual struggle, usually in the monastic desert settlements;

·       The green was a symbol of those who had sought holiness not, as many had done in the deserts and the wilderness, but in the forests and isolated green places.

These types of martyrdom are often found in the theology and spirituality of religions other than Christianity. Thus, Islamic scholars speak of the lesser and the greater Jihad or Martyrdom. Moreover, the green colour has a great significance in Islam: It is linked to jennah (paradise), it also represents nature and life, etc.

Throughout the last fifty years, Lebanon has experienced periods of particular violence and discord. It is not for us to place any blame upon anyone, now that we are so far removed from the origins of the civil disturbances that led to decades of war; however, we can say that enough is enough.

A heavy price has been paid by families and whole communities, and ultimately the entire nation; a heavy price indeed, and what has been purchased with the blood of so many innocents? One could well say that the fruits of the civil war have been the fracture of a once thriving multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.

In the midst of all this there is a keening, a wailing that cannot be ignored or dismissed. The grief and pain of loss is not diminished across religious, ethnic or cultural divides. Throughout Lebanon, grieving parents are urging those who govern, those who lead, those who determine the affairs of nations, to find a solution, and to restore our nation; a nation which has ever been a sign of fraternal unity and solidarity.

And it does us well to think about the future that our young people will inherit if we do not turn the tide whilst there is still real hope. And I might suggest that a worthwhile future for Lebanon is to be found very much in its past, the past before the civil war.

I think it is appropriate to consider the current flag of the Republic of Lebanon. As you know the flag has had several forms, even looking back to the turn of the twentieth century.

At present the flag is composed of three colours, red, white and green. In light of what we have said previously, red can be seen as the blood of our martyrs. I do not suggest who, when or where; but they are there; and all they have given will have been in vain if we do not seize the moment and move towards a renewed and restored Lebanon.

Surely for our journey to a Lebanon reborn is for us to revere the martyrs but to put the red martyrdom aside. I am not suggesting for one moment that we should not be willing to defend our homeland…defend it, yes! but against hostile invaders, not against each other!

What of the white martyrdom?

Our journey must now enter a period of heavenly quiet, of silent waiting, what the Greek Christian theologians would call hesychia.

One of the noticeable features of both Ramadan and our Great Lent is that there is a real discernable peace and quiet throughout our communities. Anyone who has been in a shopping mall these last few weeks would have noted the relative quiet during daylight hours.

We Lebanese have to learn to wait in silence, like the Virgin Mary, and stop talking over each other. Perhaps then we will hear the voice of God, not in the storm and the earthquake, but in the gentle breeze, as did the Prophet Elias.

And the green martyrdom?

It is to be noted that the green on the Lebanese flag is in the form of a tree, for us a Cedar tree. The response to the idea of the green martyrdom was for many ascetics, especially in well-wooded lands, to seek spiritual refuge in the great forests.

It is significant that the tree in the centre of the national Lebanese flag is a Cedar, “the trees planted by God.” It was in the green forests that the first white martyrs sought spiritual security, it was there that they sought life. In the symbology of colours, green is often used to denote life…and like them, as Lebanese, we are called to find life, and as Jesus says, ‘To have life in all its fullness.” (John 10:10)

If we consider the Lebanese flag, it becomes for us a paradigm recalling our past, especially these last fifty years, and suggesting to us a pattern for the future.

The red panels recall the blood of our martyrs. The white central field invites us to embrace the way of non-violence, the reliance on Divine Providence, whilst the green Cedar, symbolically at the heart of our history, calls us to find peace and communal fraternity in the Nation, the Land of the Cedars.  

Upon whom can we rely to guide us into a national period of white martyrdom, the bloodless, nonviolent witness to national unity, and hence to our national destiny, a community that is founded on our life together, Christian and Muslim?

In the usual order of things, we expect our recently elected national authorities to lead the way in peace rather than violence, fraternity rather than disharmony, prosperity over destitution. However, those to whom we have committed our future, are constrained at the very beginning if the people, Muslim and Christian, do not support and encourage them.

As I said above, the celebration of a National Feast Day in common by Christians and Muslims, and a formal celebration at that, is a remarkable testimony to the inherent goodness of the Lebanese people of whatever religious, cultural or ethnic community.

The time has come, and let it be said that the time is this year, at this gathering, that we put the past behind us. Now is the time to be honest, to view our history in a clear light…now is the time to forgive, and to ask forgiveness; now is the time to offer our talents for the good and furtherance of the Lebanese community; now is the time for humility and reflection.  

It is worthwhile to recall the Lebanese philosopher and scholar, Charles Malik’s assessment of the process we call “history”. 

“The conception of history as unitary and purposeful was first dawned in the Middle East. And today the greatest service that history can perform in the Middle East, both as the making of history and the writing of history, is to help in restoring wholeness and integrity to its future and unity and continuity to its past.” (Charles Malik 1906-1987).

We can never forget those who have suffered and those who have died, but we best revere their memory by striving to restore and renew our beloved homeland, the Land of the Cedars.

In closing my address, allow me my dear beloved, to finish by saying:

The Lebanese people, Christian and Muslim together, can only move forward in order for their beloved Nation to achieve its historic destiny, being the “nation – message” to the world as Saint John Paul II called it.

Hence, we are called to own the past without allowing it to own us, and this will be possible if we follow the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the peaceful and gentle woman ever obedient to the will of God, and we keep on gazing at the central colour of our National flag, the green colour of the Cedar tree.

Many thanks, my dear friends, for your kind attention as I shared these few thoughts with you.

And, for a truly beautiful gathering this evening, my particular thanks go to the Interfaith Council for the Annunciation under the guidance and leadership of my brother in the episcopal ministry, His Grace Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay.

May the peace and blessings of God be with us always.

✠ Robert Rabbat, DD

Eparch

Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Australia, New Zealand and All Oceania.

3 April 2025

Beit Maroun (Strathfield, NSW)