Those Who Have No One to Remember Them
Those Who Have No One to Remember Them
- The Midnight Prayer of Analysis + The Forgotten in Visitation
- Sinners without care + We care for the case after it is lost!
- Unserved neighborhoods + Servants of difficult cases
- Village ministry + Ministry to prisoners and their families
- Street children ministry + Spiritual care for the poor
- Certain groups and professions + Shelters, the disabled, and the sick
- Ministry to delinquent youth + The rich and people in positions—no one remembers them
- Those whom we despair of
- He seeks and saves what was lost
In the Midnight Prayer of Analysis prayed by the fathers the priests, there is a very deep and touching petition in its meaning, which says:
“Remember, O Lord, the helpless, the cut off, and those who have no one to remember them.”
Yes, those who have found no one to care for them, nor even to remember them in prayer—those whom everyone has neglected, and perhaps even forgotten.
There is no doubt that there are people whose pains no one feels, whose needs no one senses, and whose loss no one notices—as if they are not members of our society, nor members of the body of the Church. Perhaps the verses found in the poem “The Star” apply to them:
“I am cast in my wandering; there is no bishop to shepherd me, nor one who visits me.
My path is in deep darkness; I have long gone astray, and God I have not found—
that Guide who guides my hand.”
This type also reminds us of the sick man of the Pool of Bethesda, who spent thirty-eight years in his illness without help from anyone. He said to the Lord Christ about his condition: “I have no man to put me into the pool” (John 5:7).
It is indeed a beautiful service to serve these poor, needy souls who find no one to care for them or visit them.
Unserved Neighborhoods
There are neighborhoods in which churches serve them, with spiritual and active priests who visit every home, every family, and every individual. They know how to provide the appropriate service for everyone, resolve problems, hear confessions, and surround their children with a spiritual atmosphere. These are served neighborhoods.
But what shall we say about unserved neighborhoods, cities, and villages that find no one to remember them?
And what shall we say about servants who prefer to be ordained priests over large cities and already served neighborhoods, and refuse villages and neighborhoods in need of service?
Is this the way of the Lord Christ, who would leave the ninety-nine and search for the one lost and needy of service? Yes, He is the Good Shepherd who “went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matt. 9:35). Yes, He is the Good Teacher who said to His disciples: “Let us go into the neighboring towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth” (Mark 1:38).
Whoever prefers the glitter of the city over the need of the village is in fact thinking of himself in a secular manner, and not thinking of the needs of others and their service.
The same applies to:
Ministry to Street Children
I remember that this matter deeply stirred my emotions in the 1940s when I was a servant. I said then to my fellow servants that we serve children in schools who wear clean clothes, while we forget to serve the poor children. At that time, I gathered a new class to serve.
This class consisted of street children, lemon sellers, shoe shiners, and other children who would jump on and off the tram. Sometimes they even threw stones at the association. I cared for these children spiritually and loved them very much.
Circumstances later led me to serve in another area. One day, as I was walking near Hikr Ezzat, a small boy jumped from a shoe-shining stand, ran toward me, greeted me warmly, and said, “I am your disciple.” When I recall this story, my emotions are stirred within me.
How much these need the crumbs that fall from your table, while others are satiated with concentrated service!
Those who live in alleys, lanes, and villages are more in need. The one who lives on a main street may find many who serve him, but the one who lives in a side alley or narrow lane may be among those who have no one to remember them.
How beautiful, then, is what our brothers did when they dedicated their efforts to serve the neighborhoods of garbage collectors and other popular areas in Cairo. And how beautiful are those who gather poor children from the streets—children of craftsmen, laborers, sweepers, and the unemployed—and bring to them the word of God that is brought to the children of the rich.
How beautiful is that phrase in the Didascalia about the shepherd, that he must “care for everyone in order to save him.”
I was pleased when one of the fathers the priests told me that he would celebrate a liturgy every Monday. When I asked him why, he said: “For barbers and people of other professions—this is their day off. Others who work shifts find no free time except on a certain day. The Church is supposed to provide care for everyone.” Among these we mention:
Ministry to Delinquent Youth
Unfortunately, we often care only for the youth who come to us in church meetings, Sunday School, or activities and services—and we are satisfied with that.
Rarely do we have a ministry among youth who wander the streets, waste their time in entertainment venues or cafés, whose appearance, clothing, and speech indicate that they are far from the Church.
Such youth are of the kind who have no one to remember them. Worse still, some religious people despise them and refuse even to speak with them. How then will these be saved? Are they not also in need of care?
When a bishop is ordained over a diocese, he is ordained over all of it—not only for the righteous who attend church, but for everyone. His work is to seek and save what was lost (Luke 19:10), as his Master did.
Under the heading “what was lost” fall many categories of those who have no one to remember them: students whom Sunday School servants removed from their lists because of frequent absence; families whom priests considered not to be church members because of their behavior; and many kinds of delinquents whom servants prefer to avoid out of fear, caution, inability, or despair. These have no one to remember them.
How dangerous it is for a person to be one whom the Church despairs of, forgets, ignores, despises, expels, or considers worldly!
The Forgotten in Visitation
There may be families in Alexandria or Cairo whom no priest has visited for many years. The Church does not care for them until Satan does—and visits them!
Then the Church comes to know them through a divorce case or an incident of apostasy. The reason for all this is that they had no one to remember them, even though they were not in poor or remote villages, but in the heart of the capital itself.
Sometimes we do not care for a case until it reaches its worst stage. Had we remembered it at the beginning, we would not have grieved at the end.
I do not mean by “those who have no one to remember them” only those in the depths of Africa or the Native Americans in America—though all these undoubtedly need care. I mean the “Native Americans” in the heart of the capital, or in the heart of a bustling city, perhaps even close to the church!
Specialization in serving “the lost” is essential in pastoral care.
Without doubt, the Samaritan woman was one of those who had no one to remember her, as were Zacchaeus the tax collector, Matthew the tax collector, and others. The Lord Christ said: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Matt. 9:12). Can some servants specialize in such ministry?
There used to be a type of servants we called:
Servants of Difficult Cases
They would go to cases that seemed complex, that had reached the worst stages—yet the servant would not lose hope in them.
These are cases that may not accept servants, may reject them, may not accept words or persuasion, and may reach a level of stubbornness that leads to despair.
For other churches, such cases were abandoned in despair, shaken off, and left among those who have no one to remember them.
But servants of difficult cases would visit these situations, even at the last breath, grieving that they had not been visited from the beginning.
Difficult service has a greater reward with God, because the servant labors in it, and God does not forget the labor of love.
Calling Joseph of Arimathea to serve the Lord Christ is easy; calling a man like Zacchaeus is difficult. There is a difference between inviting someone like John the Beloved to a meeting and inviting someone like Saul of Tarsus. It is easy to visit devout families; what is required is visiting dissolute families, laboring to solve their problems, and reconciling those in conflict.
The great reward is not for the one who sows good soil, but for the one who reclaims barren and salty land and turns it into good farmland. Such barren land may have long been among those whom no one remembers because of the difficulty of working in it.
Prisoners
Prisoners need special care to restore their dignity and morale, and to return them to God and to a pure life with Him—whether while in prison or after release.
Many consider prisoners to be difficult cases and therefore do not think of serving them, leaving them among those who have no one to remember them.
I remember a young man who had been sentenced to death about thirty years ago. The late, virtuous Fr. Mikhail Ibrahim visited him and was able to lead him to repentance, confession, and preparation for death. He lived the period before his execution in a good life with God and people, with astonishing inner peace. He was very beloved by the entire prison staff. He met death with joy, went to the gallows greeting and joking with those around him, and even an officer and prison employees wept for him.
This young man found a heart that remembered him while under a death sentence. That heart remained beside him until he met his Lord in peace, with a smile on his lips.
A prisoner whose neck you cannot save from the gallows, you may still be able to save his soul from hell.
What spiritual service, then, do we offer to prisoners? And what social service can we offer them? What care does a prisoner receive after release? There is also a very important point here:
Ministry to Prisoners’ Families
Especially those whose breadwinner is imprisoned, leaving the family threatened with total financial and moral collapse. Is there an organized, stable ministry for such families—providing care, visitation, assistance, protecting them from disintegration and loss, guarding them from social or moral collapse, and meeting their financial needs? Or do such families fall under the title “those who have no one to remember them”?
The Poor and the Unemployed
I do not mean those who are remembered materially—many remember them—but rather their spiritual care.
There are social service offices in the Patriarchate, dioceses, and churches that provide financial and material aid and help them find work and a livelihood. This is very good, and we hope it reaches its full form. But the problem is this:
How often the poor come to social service offices using methods of lying, deceit, and manipulation. We may give them material aid, yet their souls remain lost!
Despite the assistance given to them, spiritually they remain among those who have no one to remember them.
Some churches hold spiritual meetings for them, which some of the poor see merely as a prelude to receiving aid, without the depth that changes their lives, leads them to repentance, and keeps them away from lying and deceit.
Social service centers must realize that “man shall not live by bread alone” (Matt. 4:4). Just as they examine the social condition of those receiving aid, they must also care for their spiritual condition, to lead them to a better life.
And if this happens for those receiving regular monthly assistance, does such spiritual care also occur for emergency cases who receive aid and then leave, with the Church knowing nothing more about them?
Shelters and the Disabled
The same situation applies: what is often offered is material and social care, while spiritually and psychologically they remain among “those who have no one to remember them.”
Much attention is given to education, vocational training, and job placement. Yet amid this intense focus, they remain in need of great spiritual work—to be healed of psychological complexes, to be raised in sound spiritual formation, to find love, tenderness, good treatment, and a strong relationship with God.
Even with care for those in shelters, their families may remain among those whom no one remembers.
The Sick
Most of our attention to the sick focuses on their physical condition. Spiritually, however, no one remembers them.
A person may be gravely ill, just steps away from death, yet no one cares about his eternity or prepares him for it. Often everyone surrounds him with lies, hiding his illness from him so that he will not be psychologically distressed, or distracting him with worldly entertainments.
Visitors and relatives may sit around the sick person for long hours in continuous conversation, entertaining him, without giving him an opportunity for prayer or repentance.
Why are there no spiritual servants specialized in visiting the sick—who know how to speak to them spiritually and psychologically, and who care for the eternity of those whose departure is near, preparing them so that their souls may be saved on that day?
The Rich and People in Positions
I would like to address a group opposite to all these, yet included among “those who have no one to remember them”: the rich and people of authority.
Servants or priests may feel shy to speak to them about repentance and abandoning their sins. Perhaps all the Church seeks from them is their donations or mediation in matters concerning the Church. As for their souls, hearts, and eternity—no one remembers them.
They too need a word that leads them to God, so they may repent if they are in need of repentance.
Therefore, Scripture requires of a bishop that he “shows no partiality”—that is, he does not flatter the rich and great, especially donors, at the expense of their spiritual life. We do not mean using harsh rebuke with them, as John the Baptist rebuked Herod.
Rather, at least use spiritual guidance mixed with respect and affection, as Abigail did with King David when he intended to avenge himself and kill Nabal the Carmelite (1 Sam. 25), or as Nathan the prophet spoke wisely with David (2 Sam. 13).
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