A Stranger I Am on Earth

[Mary Naeem]

H.H. Pope Tawadros II

Editorial Article by H.H. Pope Tawadros II in Kiraza Magazine: A Stranger I Am on Earth

It is rare for people to live without experiencing estrangement. Estrangement is moving from one’s place of birth to other places. It may be short or long, temporary or permanent. It may be voluntary or forced, or in search of a better place, better education, better work, or a better position.

We read about estrangement in Holy Scripture, and how many prophets lived as strangers and journeyed from one place to another, such as Abraham, the father of the fathers. We also read about the Holy Family, who lived as strangers in the land of Egypt for more than three years.

From a spiritual perspective, all human beings are strangers on the earth, to the extent that the Prophet David says: “I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me” (Psalm 119:19). The late Pope Shenouda III has a poem entitled “I Lived as a Stranger,” in which he describes estrangement both historically and monastically. Estrangement is a powerful human feeling that operates throughout a person’s life, whether academically, educationally, economically, or socially. It may even reach the point where a person feels estranged within his own home when he finds the members of that household drifting away from him through being endlessly preoccupied. It is striking that the world invented social communications tools about thirty years ago, and now it is discovering that they have become tools of social disconnection and isolation within the same household or society, affecting both young and old, drawing them into a virtual world filled with many moral, behavioral, and social perverted deviations.

On the other hand, if estrangement is positive and occurs under favorable circumstances, a person can benefit from it through virtues such as diligence, self-reliance, and learning new skills like languages, as well as forming many friendships that might not be possible if one remained in the same place. Thus the Arabs of old said, “Travel has seven benefits,” and the historian Kamal El-Mallakh said, “How delightful travel is upon the pages of a book.”

There are some places where a person feels estranged even while remaining within his society or homeland. One of these places is “the hotel.” When a person goes to a hotel for any reason—whether to attend a conference, meeting, exhibition, seminar, or even for leisure and tourism—he feels estranged. Whether his stay is for one day, several days, or even weeks, he finds people around him whom he does not know, carrying out the duties of hospitality, accommodation, and facilitating everything. The place appears at its finest, and all the staff are trained in kindness, courtesy, elegance of speech, and smiling. Everyone tries to please the person and satisfy his desires, no matter how many or varied they may be. Yet they do this as a job that brings them income, profit, and surplus—the goal is purely transactional. They do not know you, and you are a stranger among them; they look to what you will pay and what they will gain from you. Therefore, hotels compete in offering all kinds and forms of services that always attract people with tempting offers. Yet you remain a stranger, forgetting that your true comfort is in your own home, among your family.

Another place where a person feels deep estrangement is when he enters “the hospital” seeking treatment, whether for minor or major ailments. His stay may extend, based on the condition, for a few days, a week, or weeks. There he feels estrangement accompanied by pain. He entrusts himself into the hands of doctors he does not know, a nursing staff distributed according to duty schedules, and healthcare technicians. All of them do not know you, nor do you know them, but their sole concern is your healing and the removal of pain and illness. Their goal is your health. They study, observe, and serve with a high human spirit during your time of estrangement, offering of their health and time so that you may regain your strength and return safely. Oh, how beautiful are Your gifts, O Lord.

In the estrangement of the hospital, a person feels his weakness no matter how great he may be, and at the same time he feels the greatness of the Creator in the creation of the human being with this wondrous formation—how the body’s systems function with power, precision, and order; how the many medical sciences were formed; how they are studied from generation to generation; how expertise accumulates; and how numerous diagnostic devices have been invented, from imaging and analyses to examinations and medical practices without end—from the smallest things, such as a wound “bandage,” to the greatest medical and scientific capabilities. These are truly blessings from God through the “mind” that God granted to the human being to guide his life and needs.

This means that estrangement has a role in human life and in shaping one’s existence, and it is generally beneficial, for it always leads a person to resort to God, who preserves strangers, as the Psalmist says (Psalm 146:9). In Egyptian proverbs it is said, “The stranger is blind, even if he can see.” Estrangement builds a strong dimension in a person’s life from which he can benefit well, whether for himself or for others. In the final commandments of Christ, they say to Him: “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?” (Matthew 25:44). This placed upon the Church, since its beginning, the responsibility to serve all these categories and groups by all available means—building homes to host strangers, such as houses for expatriate men and women, establishing places of service and hospitality for strangers, as well as therapeutic places such as hospitals and clinics, and others. In all this, the Church deals with the stranger as if he were the person of Christ Himself. It is a service of love, completely removed from any profit-driven work or commercial activity. It is a service of love for the person of Christ, an implementation of His commandment, and an honoring of the human being in every circumstance.