From Nothing, Everything Came to Be
From Nothing, Everything Came to Be
Christianity began with twelve disciples whom the Lord Christ, to whom be glory, chose. Then He added seventy to them, and through them He spread the Christian faith.
They began their work from nothing: no churches, no people, and no resources to help them. On the contrary, they encountered all kinds of torture and attempts to prevent them. But with the faith, enthusiasm, and conviction in their hearts, they worked with all their strength, and with all that the grace of God working with them helped them to accomplish, as Saint Paul the Apostle said: “.. yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).
Christianity, standing alone, was able to succeed in its work through the enthusiasm in the heart and through what divine grace could work in it. The Roman Empire was unable to stop that sweeping current of faith, enthusiasm, and work that was carried out through grace.
In the same way, the Church began to work in the twentieth century that we lived through.
With all enthusiasm and faith, Archdeacon Habib Girgis worked from nothing, until he filled the Church with service, preaching, and pastoral care by establishing Sunday Schools, which had not existed, and also by establishing the Clerical College, which had neither a building nor teachers! But grace worked in nothingness, and it became something important, possessing vitality in building and serving the Church.
The same was the case in establishing institutions for service… from nothing.
Homes for expatriate men and women, houses of consecration, the service of consecrated women in the Church, the service of charitable associations, the establishment of the evening section at the Clerical College, the establishment of the Institute of Coptic Studies, the Institute of Pastoral Affairs, and attention to Coptic music and hymns… All of this began from nothing and did not exist in the previous century. But it arose through faith, work, and grace.
In the same way, the service in the diaspora arose from nothing. It did not exist before 1967.
From nothing, churches were established in Canada, then in America and Australia, then in London and the rest of Europe, until we came to have more than 150 churches in the diaspora, from nothing.
In the same way, we speak about the schools that were established for us in the diaspora, the monasteries, and the seminaries. None of them had existed twenty years ago. They were nothing, and then they came into existence through faith, enthusiasm, work, and grace.
And so it was with the service in Black Africa.
We did not have a single church there. Then we came to have churches in Kenya, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and South Africa… about 27 churches from nothing.
But nothing became something, and something great, and there we came to have churches, peoples, priests, buildings, and institutions.
Do we really count this as coming from nothing?! Or from something called faith, enthusiasm, and work?
This is what turns nothingness into an established and widespread existence through the work of grace in it.
And here we ask: How were churches established for us in Rome, Milan, Cyprus, Greece, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Scotland, Ireland, and other places?
We had none of all this a quarter of a century ago. But God worked in nothingness, and by His grace it became something.
All this reminds us of the story of creation. There was none of the created things. Then God willed, and He said, and it came to be…
With this faith in the grace of God working in emptiness so that it becomes existence, and working in nothingness so that it becomes something, with this faith we begin every project in building the Kingdom.
We surrender our emptiness to God, and He fills it..
And we thank God for His work in our emptiness..
For better translation support, please contact the center.
