Those Who Have No One to Remember Them
Those Who Have No One to Remember Them
1- In the Midnight Absolution Prayer for the father priests, there is a profound petition: “Remember, O Lord, the helpless, the forsaken, and those who have no one to remember them.” Today I wish to speak to you about those who have no one to remember them.
Perhaps among them we may also remember the sick man at Bethesda, who spent thirty-eight years in his illness. He said to the Lord Christ concerning his condition: “I have no man to put me into the pool” (John 5:7).
It is a beautiful service to minister to those poor souls who find no one to care for them or visit them.
2- There are districts crowded with churches, having spiritually active father priests who visit every home and every family. These are well-served areas.
But service is sweeter in places that are not served—
places where there are no churches, no priestly ministry, no one to shepherd or visit, where the word of Christ has not reached, or has reached in a weak manner that neither convinces nor influences, and the people remain unserved.
We must ask about these, of whom the Lord said: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Matt. 9:12), “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Mark 2:17). Truly, the Lord came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He came for those who have no one to remember them.
3- Therefore, let us first set before us the needy villages and districts—even those that may have churches and clergy yet remain unserved.
Perhaps the number is greater than the father priest can handle. Perhaps he is elderly, ill, or overburdened, and the people remain unserved.
Affluent and prestigious neighborhoods, and large famous churches, attract many more than the alleys, narrow streets, and villages that no one remembers—yet these are more in need.
4- How beautiful it is when a servant dedicates himself to going into the streets, gathering poor children—the children of craftsmen, laborers, sweepers, garbage collectors, and the unemployed—and bringing to them the word of salvation just as he brings it to the children of the wealthy.
5- How beautiful what our brethren have done who devoted their efforts to serving the garbage collectors’ community at Moqattam, at Matariya, and in other popular neighborhoods. These now have their spiritual meetings, their hymns, and their liturgies, along with care for their personal lives and the solving of their problems.
6- I was very pleased when one of the father priests told me: “I thought I should establish a liturgy every Monday of each week.” I asked him why, and he said: “For the barbers, whose day off is Monday, as well as certain other professions that are free on that day.”
7- I also rejoiced in another servant who heard about a newly built residential city and said: “The Christians in this new city, who do not belong to any church or priest—shall we leave them without care, having no one to remember them? Or should we send them a spiritual servant to know them and serve them?”
Thus we summarize: villages, new cities and housing areas, remote places, poor neighborhoods, unserved districts, the poor, laborers, craftsmen, forgotten trades—those who have no one to remember them.
8- Another forgotten group is the lost and wayward youth.
We care for the youth who come to us in church meetings, youth gatherings, Sunday School classes, and family groups. But rarely do we have service for the youth who waste their time in cafés, cinemas, and places of amusement, or wander the streets—whose appearance, clothing, or speech may indicate they are far from the Church.
These also are children of God and need more care than those who enter the church. They too have no one to remember them.
9- When a bishop is appointed over a city, he is appointed for all of it, not only for the righteous who attend church.
“To seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), as his Master did.
Under the title “that which was lost” fall many categories of those who have no one to remember them: those whose names Sunday School servants have struck from their lists due to frequent absence; families whom priests have considered not truly belonging to the Church because of their behavior; many kinds of the wayward whom servants prefer to avoid—out of fear, caution, inability, or despair. They have no one to remember them.
10- How dangerous it is for a person to be despaired of, forgotten, ignored, despised, cast out, or considered worldly by the Church!
There may be families in the heart of Cairo or Alexandria who go for years without a visit from a priest.
The Church does not attend to them until the devil does.
Then the Church may encounter one of them in a divorce case or an incident of apostasy, all because they had no one to remember them—even though they were not in poor or remote districts.
Sometimes we do not care about a situation until it reaches its worst stage. Had we remembered it at the beginning, we would not grieve at its end.
11- By those who have no one to remember them, I do not mean those in the jungles of Africa or the Native Americans in America—though all are in need. Rather, I mean the “Native Americans” in the heart of the capital, in the heart of the bustling city, perhaps even near the church!
12- Specialization in serving the lost is necessary in pastoral care.
The Lord Christ left the ninety-nine and went to seek the one lost sheep. When He found it, “He laid it on His shoulders, rejoicing,” and said: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7). Can some specialize in this service?
13- There is a type of servant we used to call “servants of difficult cases.
They go to complicated situations that have reached the worst stages, yet they do not lose hope. Cases that may reject servants, expel them, resist persuasion, or stubbornly persist in their ways, causing despair for some. These the Church visits even at the last breath, regretting that she left them at the beginning and that they had no one to remember them.
Difficult service has a greater reward before God, for the servant labors in it for the Lord, and God does not forget the labor of love.
It is easy to invite someone like John the Beloved to a meeting; the difficult task is to invite someone like Zacchaeus the tax collector. It was easy for Joseph of Arimathea to serve Christ; difficult was the calling of Saul of Tarsus.
It is easy to visit devout families; necessary is visiting broken families, laboring to solve their problems and reconcile their conflicts.
The great reward is not for sowing good soil, but for reclaiming barren and salty land and turning it into fertile ground.
14- We also add to these the service of prisoners and their families.
Prisoners need special care to restore their identity and morale. Some priests care for them, but there should be organized service for their families to protect them from disintegration, loss, financial or moral collapse, and social or ethical ruin.
I remember a young man sentenced to death about twenty-three years ago. The late and virtuous Father Archpriest 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 and faced death with joy. Even the prison officers and staff wept for him.
That young man found a heart that remembered him while under sentence of death, and that heart remained beside him until he departed with a smile on his lips.
The criminal whose neck you cannot save from the gallows—you may be able to save his soul from hell.
What service, indeed, do we offer to criminals and prisoners?
15- Among those who have no one to remember them are also the poor.
I do not mean those remembered materially, but spiritually.
There are many social service offices in the Patriarchate, bishoprics, and churches that provide material aid. Many poor come to these offices, sometimes using deceit to obtain money. We may give them aid while their souls remain lost. In their spiritual loss, they may find no one to remember them spiritually and lead them to repentance. “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4). Who will specialize in giving them pure hearts that leave falsehood, just as they are given money?
16- Also among those who have no one to remember them are those in orphanages and the disabled.
Material, social, or educational care may be provided, or employment arranged. Yet they need great spiritual work to be saved from psychological complexes and to be raised in sound spiritual formation, finding love, tenderness, kind treatment, and a strong relationship with the Lord.
17- I would also mention the sick and spiritual care for them.
Most of our attention to the sick focuses on bodily health. Spiritually, no one remembers them. A person may be gravely ill, only steps away from death, yet no one prepares him for eternity. Often he is surrounded by deception and worldly distractions, without spiritual concern. Visitors may talk continuously, entertaining him, giving him no chance for prayer and repentance.
Why are there no spiritual servants specialized in visiting the sick, who know how to speak to them spiritually and psychologically, drawing them near to God before their departure?
I have spoken about the poor, the sick, and the needy. Let me also mention the opposite side:
18- Among those who have no one to remember them are the wealthy and those in authority.
Servants or priests may feel shy to speak to them about repentance and freeing themselves from spiritual errors. Perhaps the Church seeks from them only donations or influence. But their souls, hearts, and eternity—no one remembers them.
They too need a word that leads them to God in repentance.
Therefore Scripture requires of the bishop that he “does not show partiality”—that he not flatter the wealthy and great, especially benefactors.
We do not mean harshness, as John the Baptist said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you,” but at least spiritual guidance mingled with respect and affection, as Abigail spoke to David when he intended to avenge himself against Nabal the Carmelite, or as the prophet Nathan wisely spoke to David.
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