A Sign For Good

When Metropolitan Silouan Moussi entered the Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon, succeeding Metropolitan George Khodr, I told him: "you, Master, have come to a Church who loves her bishop". My intent was obvious. Her bishop, that is, any bishop who will take over the ministry after Metropolitan George. Metropolitan Silouan came to succeed a bishop who has lived as a bridge to Him Who is perfect, as a call to people to love God and His Church, as someone who is given up, not expecting anything in return, poor even in the reassurance of his fate in his old age. He once said to some of his companions: “what will be my fate after my old age prevents me from serving, my home and my library…?”! Metropolitan George knows that he is loved by many brethren; and yet, he did not build for himself anything that would comfort him in this life! What is going on deep inside him today after God has reassured him with a successor with whom He has worked in him “a sign for good”? On the day he entered his Archdiocese, Metropolitan Silouan did not comment on what he had heard. He has entrusted his comment to love. In his actions, he has said: “to my predecessor, I am both a brother and a son”.