Modern Conflict, Ancient Egypt

"When Israel was a child then I loved him, and I called him out of Egypt." --Hosiah 11:1


While there are two thousand years of Coptic history, today history positions Copts at a critical juncture. The United States government is making movement to attempt restraint to the conflict now boiling in Egypt. There are at this moment, thousands of Coptic Christians being slaughtered for no other reason than they are Christians, not Muslims.
Many outside of the middle east are wholly unaware that the intensification of what some call a 'holy war' between Christians and Muslims is again on the front burner. Today it is more often Christian communities who are suffering. Egypt and Iraq are two such examples.

Otto Meinardus writes about this history, which replays itself again today in his book of the same title, Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity. "The history begins with the traditions of the visit of the holy family to Egypt... to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy" regarding the coming of the One, The Christ. "Undoubtedly Egyptians filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit... returned to their homes along the Nile Valley, and established there the first Christian communities," so records the Bible verse, Acts 2:10. Regarding Saint Mark the Evangelist as the founder of their church, Coptics, as did Saint Mark, suffered much persecution for their faith.

Yet today few realize "that Egypt once was a great Christian nation." Following its initial establishment in Egypt in the earliest of the common years, the Coptics became a firm part of Egyptian life from the second century onward. In Alexandria, with Constantine's rule in 313C.E. the Church emerged to face numerous conflicts with their neighbors. By the sixth century there is recorded to have been 600 hundred monasteries in and around Alexandria. Saint Cyril is by tradition said to have constructed the first Egyptian cathedral. However the Copts split from the Byzantine church in 451 C.E. The most famous Coptic Theologian of the early period is Origen, who settled in Alexandria and founded a school there which had great influence over the Coptics.

Also in the early church there arose a disagreement regarding the understanding of the "body of Christ." Further developments led to schisms and emerged with four groups, including the Nestorians claiming ascendancy. With these divisions in place, the Coptic Church was further weakened by the arrival of the Muslim invaders, under which many more adopted the beliefs of Mohammad, the Prophet.

Currently, writes Meinardus, the Coptics have been revitalized and are increasing. The "Africa Project," whereby the Church of Alexandria joins forces with the ancient churches of Africa has yielded a harvest for both groups, strengthening them and enriching their ancient traditions. Today the style of worship remains in the ancient Coptic language and her song remains equally vibrant, fueled with ancient rhythms. Yet the unfolding conflict in Egypt threatens, the innocent, the minorities, the Copts directly.

The Human Self, One, Irreplaceble

"I would know you in order to know myself."

The word person has great significance. "Today our way of thinking about people is defined in quantity...so many thousands, millions...yet there is always one, human person indivisible." That person is unique, irreplaceable, the creation of which remains a metaphysical mystery.
Persons may be described and regarded as form, physical bodies, not unlike other bodies, both animate and inanimate. However in the individual a development takes place. The development of thought, knowledge and intellect takes place on a deeper level in the person.
All are on the developmental plane as persons. Even the least gifted person whom we may meet belongs to this great human reality of the person in development.

Is each human person really created in the image and likeness of God, the Creator? While man may not deny his link to nature, and resemblance to the world known in past times as the animal world, it is not possible to integrate all that a person possesses without recognition of the "something more" that defines him.
The something more which defines him may be called the conscience. A person is, in the view of theologian and philosopher, Karol Wotjyla in fact, conscience. The conscience provides the definitive structure which differentiates the person from other elements in the created world. It is the basis of the definitive and unrepeatable I.

A story that comes out of the World War II era, one from a Polish concentration camp, recounted by Max Kolbe regarding his own execution by a camp executioner. Both he and the executioner were human beings, each presumably with a conscience. On one hand, one is one admired and esteemed for his faith and courage in horrible circumstances; the other is a person to be rejected by others of every faith, scorned and repudiated.

The greatness or smallness of a person is first developed within his conscience. When considering this notion, we must look to the ends of its development, that is in death. Is then death the full ends of a person? Is it in fact a defining reality? The materialism of the world sees death as an end, so much so that a person's life is a steady progression towards its inevitable end in death, beyond which there is nothing.
The Judeo-Christian tradition teaches in the Tanakh or Old Testament book, Genesis, "You are dust, and to dust you will return."
But if death is really the final end, then what happens to lead one to a final heroic act of faith and courage, and another to play the part of executioner, halting a life?
What about good and evil?
The French thinker and writer, Jean Paul Sartre wrote that man aspires to that which he defines as God, "even if this is an empty word, so that it is a useless passion." Yet persons are multidimensional. They develop slowly, unevenly; they develop judgment and wisdom over time. That development is the beginnings of eternal life.
In the course of a person's development he comes to know that there is a tree, if you like, of good and evil; he finds that at any turn he may choose good or evil. This knowledge, these decisions, and actions are of value. They present a person with either the good, or the evil as value.
Indeed human life is lived between good and evil. Human beings are great because they can freely choose, they possess what Augustine of Hippo called, free will.
 Despite the will and the ability to choose, man, in knowledge, has chosen evil; he has played the executioner. In a certain sense, the ability to choose evil testifies to man's greatness in freedom.

Yet freedom calls, requires something of the chooser. It exacts a price. In evil we are cut off from the source of life, from love, from co-union with the Creator. The created are then exceeded in the bounds of the "tree."
The God of the Bible remains steadfast in regard to his creations. He does not cut himself off from them; he is more like the story of a lover seeking his beloved, the Song of Songs, his lost child. He looks everywhere for him.
His first and last thoughts are for the Beloved, his creation. The precepts of the Bible, of the Buddha, have come into the world to lead the Way to our redemption, our enlightenment, to our peace, our joy, our rest in the One.
--paraphrased from The Way to Christ by Karol Wojtyla