In Society

The Wearer of the Single Robe...

What is beyond doubt is that in Lebanon there are groups toiling in the cause of public relief, thereby lifting no small burden from the shoulders of the treasury. It is regrettable that the works of these groups, scattered here and there, are not regarded by the higher authorities with genuine attention or with a sympathy grounded in fact... And the fact is that Lebanon has serried battalions of volunteers, men and women, working gratis and for the face of God alone, for the sake of the sick, the poor, the disabled, the blind, and the families crushed by the costs of living. The whole body of these groups has been tending, for decades now, what is today called "social affairs" — which people surround with halos of esteem, founding bureaus for it and intending to make it one of the great departments of the state. The government need only coordinate these battalions to find itself with a mobilized army, unpaid, unique of its kind in all the countries of the world.

Social affairs?? The Lebanese man and the Lebanese woman laid its foundations eighty years ago and more — ever since the first voice was raised to found circles concerned with the abandoned child, the wretched sick, the disabled man, the family that has lost its pillar, and the girl looking out upon life with nothing wherewith to set up a small house to live in with a young man and found a virtuous family.

All these efforts passed through our mind on the day of the golden jubilee festival of "the Confraternity of Damascene Families in Beirut," the circle that labors unceasingly to help girls establish new homes, outfitting them with what furniture and clothing can be managed.

George Baz — historian, without rival, of the Lebanese families and Lebanese enterprises — tells us that this confraternity has outfitted 400 brides, aided 500 families, done good to 3,000 persons, paid school fees, sent strangers back to their homes, distributed monthly allowances to straitened households, and provided medicine to those who could not afford its price. Nor did it withhold its hand from the displaced: from the victims of Adana, to the White Russians, to those uprooted by the revolt in Syria, to the victims of Palestine. A singular work, which its members have been carrying on for fifty years without any noise or pretension.

As for the golden jubilee festival held at the beginning of this summer, it was among the most splendid of celebrations. A number of men and women of letters shone in it, and Mrs. Asma Tubi delivered an eloquent oration, some passages of which we shall not deny the readers of this magazine, who appreciate the ripe literary art of the Palestinian woman writer and her limpid thought.

Among what she said:

"... I looked about me at the world of men, and I saw much: fortunes heaped up, industries and professions reaching the summit; I saw great statesmen and great men of learning —

and I cried out: our world has no need of all this...

"... Our world has no need of professions and industries behind which lie only mighty minds — else the mind schemes and contrives, man tears the flesh of man, creature exploits the sweat of creature, and the world withers with cruelty. What our world needs is professions and industries behind which lie merciful hearts..."

"... Our world has no need of great statesmen who turn the world into a slaughterhouse whenever the fancy takes them, who drive people from their homelands with a stroke of the pen, so that those of them who perish perish, and those who remain live on, on the margin of other men's homelands — while the foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests. What our world needs is statesmen with mighty minds and merciful hearts..."

"... Our world — this fevered world that has become one mass of misery — needs mercy, brotherhood, humanity; it needs souls that grow pure and translucent, translucent until there shows through them that spark, that breath breathed into them of the spirit of God. And then, then only, can heaven whisper thus: We created man only to be in the image of God and after His likeness!..."

"... And I looked about me a second time, and went folding back the centuries to before two thousand years ago, or about two thousand years, and I saw the world one mass of cruelty and corruption without limit, of horror and evil without limit, as though all who dwelt in it were wild beasts that knew nothing but rending their prey.

I saw the ruler pass sentence upon the criminal, saying: Throw him to the lions to tear him limb from limb — and the crowd shouts: What a pleasure that never dies! — then rushes off to watch the lions tear men to pieces, eat their flesh, and lap their blood..."

"... I saw luxury and wealth and pomp, and slaves flogged with whips for the smallest slip; and if one of them died under the lash, his children and his wife remained in the service of the murdering master, and so on without end — for they and their offspring had been bought as slaves.

I saw gloating over captives: eyes put out, limbs cut off... And suddenly, about the holy country, the martyr country, there appeared the wearer of the single robe..."

"... The wearer of the robe walked the earth in his body, but his spirit hovered above men... and he went whispering: Love! Show mercy! He who loves feels tenderness and mercy from the depths of his heart, and rushes forward and bends down to bind up the bleeding wounds of humanity! He who loves gives lavishly, though the giving be of his very soul; he who loves becomes more than a man — he becomes an angel of mercy. They said: And whom shall we love? And he cried out: You shall love your neighbor, love your enemy, love the king, love the child, love the wretched — love all! They said: Define it for us! And then he told them the story of the tender Samaritan — for the wearer of the single robe saw that nothing can set this world right but love, and the mercy that springs forth from love..."

And the lady went on to survey the world since the appearance of the Nazarene, with the evil in it and the good: evil is struck down for a moment, then soon raises its horns again and returns to its old ways, and back come the riot, the obscenity, the wars, and the slaughter — a survey that greatly delighted the listeners, who applauded long. She closed it with this cry:

"... I saw all this, and I cried out: O owner of the tender voice and the gentle eyes, O wearer of the single robe — the one robe that sufficed you — teach us anew to love and to show mercy!!!"