Feeling of Responsibility
Feeling of Responsibility
On the occasion of my return from traveling abroad, I would like to speak to you today about the feeling of responsibility. This feeling is the reason for all our travels.
Responsibility before whom?
Every person must feel responsibility: before God first, then before the Church, before society, and before himself.
- He feels responsibility before God, because he will be judged before Him.
As we say every night in the Prayer of Sleep: “Behold, I am about to stand before the just Judge, terrified and trembling because of the multitude of my sins…” And every person will give an account to God not only for his sins and transgressions, but also for the good deeds he could have done but did not. About this, St. James the Apostle said (Jas. 4:17):
“He who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
All this means that a person must feel responsibility both negatively and positively—in all that he does, and all that he ought to have done.
- He also feels responsibility toward the society in which he lives.
Responsibility in obeying laws and public order; responsibility in preserving the safety, cleanliness, and reputation of the country, and in caring for his home. Also his responsibility regarding the work he performs, his honesty in it, and his worthiness of the wage he receives for it.
- Responsibility before the Church.
This we will speak about in detail in this article.
- A person’s responsibility before himself (before his conscience).
For the conscience is also a judge. It often rebukes and disciplines, and may trouble its owner so that he does not rest. One of the prominent examples of responsibility before conscience is Judas Iscariot, who was not confronted by anyone with judgment during the trial and crucifixion of Christ. But he judged himself, felt the grave responsibility for his deed, went to the chief priests, and returned to them the money he had taken from them, saying: “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And unable to bear the weight of his conscience, “he went and hanged himself” (Matt. 27:4–5).
Results of the feeling of responsibility
- A person who feels responsibility is faithful to his responsibility and behaves well in all that he does. He is driven by an inner motive, from his heart and conscience, and does not need oversight or monitoring from others.
- He who feels responsibility is faithful in his confessions and tries in his repentance to remedy the consequences of his mistakes…
- He who feels responsibility is always serious. He never neglects any task entrusted to him, nor is he careless, nor does he seek excuses for himself, because he fully understands the measure of his duty.
In speaking about responsibility, we ask an important question:
Responsibility for whom?
For whom is our responsibility, when we go into details?
It is responsibility for duties and for persons…
Responsibility for oneself, for one’s children and entire family, and for one’s work.
We are responsible for this generation in which we live.
Indeed, we are also responsible for preparing the coming generation.
We are responsible for this generation—to see that it behaves well in every respect. This is the duty of shepherding and the responsibility of leaders, priests, and servants.
And we are responsible for the coming generation by caring for children and youth, for they are the ones who will become the next generation. We must prepare them as they ought to be prepared—spiritually, culturally, and socially.
This is the duty of fathers and mothers, the duty of servants in church education schools, and the duty of the priests and the Church with all its activities—not only for the coming generation in Egypt, but also in the diaspora.
Our responsibility for the diaspora
When my responsibility in the Church began, I found before me Copts in the diaspora, and I felt my responsibility toward them, fearing that they might be lost in an environment unfamiliar to them.
We had only two churches in America, two in Canada, two in Australia, and one in all of Europe. And what about the rest of the countries and cities? Nothing!! And here there had to be a feeling of responsibility.
It was necessary to establish churches in every place where Copts existed.
And it was necessary to send priests to conduct liturgies, baptisms, confessions, and the rest of the church sacraments.
Thus began a long journey and tremendous effort, supported by divine grace, to carry out this responsibility: preparing suitable priests for this work—first from Egypt, then from the youth of the diaspora… And the matter was not easy. The priests whom we sent from Egypt needed others to be ordained to take their place… Thus, the number of priests for whom our son Magdi El-Deiry arranged insurance in America reached 106 priests.
And the number of priests serving in Australia reached more than thirty, not counting those serving in Europe, New Zealand, the Arab East, and in Africa, where the number of our churches reached 27—from nothing!!
It is the grace of our Lord working through the feeling of responsibility.
We also had to unify the laws governing our church systems:
What they call the Bylaws or Constitutions. This was not easy, due to differences in local laws among states and countries. Great effort was needed to unify our churches in America, in Germany, and in Sydney, Australia. The rest is on the way.
But it is a necessary matter driven by the feeling of responsibility.
The establishment of churches was followed by wide efforts in translation.
We began by translating the liturgical books: the Holy Liturgy Book, the Agpeya, the Synaxarion, the different types of Katameros, the Psalmody, and the liturgies of the sacraments such as Baptism, Chrismation, Marriage, and the consecration of churches, baptisteries, altars, and sacred vessels, and so on. Then came the translation of spiritual books, the lives of the saints, and teaching curricula…
The process of translation was not easy due to the multiplicity of languages.
If America has only one language—English—and Canada uses two languages, English and French, then Europe has almost a distinct language for each country: in addition to English and French, there are German, Italian, Greek, and unique languages in Holland, Sweden, Denmark, and others… And we must translate our liturgical and spiritual books into all these languages.
The same problem exists in Black Africa, where languages are many—almost every tribe has its own language… And we must translate for them.
A strenuous effort, but driven by the feeling of responsibility.
Responsibility toward Africa
The Coptic Church is considered the mother church of all Africa.
It is the oldest church established there in the apostolic age, since the first century. It founded the Church in Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Nubia, and Sudan.
We began working in the rest of Africa from zero, without any resources.
In Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Zaire (Congo), South Africa, and now in Tanzania and Uganda. Bishop Paul asks me about work in Ivory Coast… You ask: what is the reason for all this? The answer is the feeling of responsibility.
For this reason also, a bishop was ordained for mission work.
And Brazil
We felt responsibility toward our children who migrated to Latin America. We sent a monk to serve in Brazil, and he began learning Portuguese. He had no church to pray in. He prayed in another sister church, and his service was unstable. So we bought land with two houses: one used as a residence and the other as a church—and so it was. You ask: why all this effort? It is the feeling of responsibility. There are other regions in South America that responsibility urges us to serve… The responsibility which is expressed in a phrase from the Didascalia: “Let the bishop care for everyone that he may save him.”
Could we have said: we care for our children in Egypt and leave the rest?! And the rest—are they not our children as well?! And if we leave them and they are lost, will not God require their blood from us?! Therefore, we must care for our children from one end of the inhabited world to the other, as we learn from the prayers of the Divine Liturgy, and from the words of the Lord Jesus: “You shall be witnesses to Me… to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8), and also, “to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
Do not be surprised, then, that I traveled to Germany and saw some of the activities of Bishop Damian in the Coptic village and in our new monastery in Höxter, and then in Trier, which was the center of St. Athanasius the Apostolic during his exile, where I hope to see our Church’s activities in a future visit, God willing. We now have a Coptic center there consisting of three houses.
The Coptic Church began from nothing in all these lands.
And now it has this flourishing, these homes, and this spread…
I tell you this so that you may rejoice in these news…
It is the grace of God working through the feeling of responsibility.
The work began as God sent His disciples with no moneybag, no bag, and nothing for the road (Matt. 10:9–10; Luke 10:4), yet they lacked nothing.
Here I remember the story of offering Isaac as a burnt offering, when Isaac said to his father Abraham: “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (Gen. 22:7). His father answered him…
God who commanded us to offer Him a burnt offering will Himself provide the lamb, my son.
Yes, God who commanded us to build houses for Him everywhere knows how to provide for their construction. Believe me, in every story of a church and its building, there is something like a miracle.
Whenever we work in building a place, we remember the words of the Psalm: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Ps. 127:1).
We feel responsibility and begin the work, and He completes it with the power of His Holy Spirit. All that remains for us is to witness God’s work and rejoice.
The story of St. Mark is repeated with his children every day. He came to Egypt with no moneybag or provisions, with no people, no church, and no capabilities—but he had a feeling of responsibility, remembering the words of the Lord to his teacher St. Paul the Apostle: “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent… for I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9–10).
What else about responsibility?
The feeling of responsibility is not only for the Church, but for all.
Parents must feel responsibility toward the spiritual upbringing of their children.
Their responsibility is not limited to caring for their physical health, education, food, clothing, employment, and marriage, but also caring for their spiritual life, fulfilling their role as godparents, following what they receive in Sunday School, and training them spiritually at home.
Everyone also has responsibility in service—
spiritual, social, or cultural—each according to his gifts and abilities. We have responsibility toward preparing the next generation, each person within his sphere.
No one should say like Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9), nor should anyone wash his hands and say: “I am innocent of the blood of this just person” (Matt. 27:24).
Many flee from the feeling of responsibility, either by placing it on others, or by claiming ignorance, or through excuses and justifications. Do not be like them.
[1] Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III: The Feeling of Responsibility, Al-Keraza Magazine, 10/10/1997For better translation support, please contact the center.
