Syria: “hope rising from the rubble”
In Syria, Jubilee is the space and time “to build future,” because hope is stronger than fear and pain…
Syria today is experiencing a great uprising in every sense: political, moral, social, cultural, intellectual and even spiritual.
A challenging, I would say almost impossible task to be able to give a reading of the future.
The shock for many was to discover the high level of cruelty of the Regime that had just fallen. This created much disappointment, uncertainty, but also for some a strong sense of guilt and general distrust.
To uncover such a great falsehood represents a collapse of one’s own history.
I do not want to talk about politics here, but reflections that may arise from such a unique situation. Why unique?
Various Arab countries have gone through this: a transition from a military regime for so many years, to an Islamic-based rebel leadership. The fear of losing religious and cultural freedom was the main cause that drove Christians and non-Sunni Muslims to
be under Assad’s power for all these years.
It is a unique situation because Syrians have suffered so much, victims of great injustice but, at the same time, they remain a very open, generous, creative, intelligent people with a strong will to live.
The experience of other neighboring countries after the so-called Arab Spring can be very discouraging, but it can also help to pick up bad signals and encourage a “change of heart.”
This jubilee year calls us to hope.
The evil of fundamentalism also touches Syria in its governmental system. And the situation could still get worse.
But this is a reading through human calculations.
I asked myself, why should I resign myself to this calculation?
I found that sometimes we are afraid to hope because we have been too disappointed is this has generated a deep wound that seems incurable, like that of the peoples of the Middle East.
But True Hope is that which is born out of the rubble, a Light that illuminates the darkness,
as the Pope expressed during the opening of the Jubilee Year.
Then if we make another reading, that of those who believe in the possibility of a better future, we realize that Syria is full of artists, writers, intellectuals, that there are varieties of peoples and faiths: Christians, Muslims, Kurds, etc.
This variety also offers so much creativity in dealing with problems. All are accumulated by the great suffering experienced in more than 13 years of war that has led to the loss of at least one member in every household.
Another guarantee is the large crowd of Syrians dispersed around the world who can support their country from afar, creating a real, evidence-based, and steadfast public opinion inside and outside the country.
The fear of disappointment is so strong, it makes us get to sweat blood, but at the same time we turn to the sky and then to our brothers and sisters to start loving and building the future.
Various groups of young and old, set out to clean streets, vandalize structures and color city walls with murals expressing hope for a better future.
The very great fear will be overcome by a much greater love through the work of God, who can do everything if we make ourselves his instruments.
Syria will flourish for sure, but we do not know when and how.
God is Greater, beyond our expectations; He is Holy, “Different,” Transcendent unlike any of our imaginations. peace will be there, but by surprise.
Those who hope in Him will never be disappointed!
Source
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- Wikipedia