During the mass prayers at Mdinet el salam Church..

Archbishop: Inner faith must be followed by obedience

Dr. Samy Fawzy, Archbishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria, presided over the prayers of the Divine Liturgy in the Episcopal/Anglican Church Jesus Prince of Peace in Madinet el Salam. Reverend Fayez Nagy, the pastor of the church, shared the prayer with him.

The Archbishop devoted his homily to talk about discipleship, highlighting the saying of the German theologian Bonheoffer, who said about discipleship.

Discipleship “When Christ calls a person, He invites him to come and die,” indicating that inner faith must be followed by outward obedience.

The Archbishop explained that the essence of true discipleship is to die to the world and to love ourselves, emphasizing: Of course, not every Christian is called to die like a Bonheoffer, but every Christian is called to a life of discipleship at all costs.

The archbishop emphasized that the student is the one who learns a trade or science, and the students in the time of the New Testament are the disciples of Moses who studied the Law and were students of the Pharisees, and were interested in studying the Jewish tradition and the Torah and studied to become teachers themselves

The Archbishop continued: The closest examples of Christian discipleship were the disciples of John the Baptist who attached themselves to him, fasted and prayed, and were related to John at the time of his imprisonment and until his death, they were loyal to their teacher and his message, the disciples of the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist.

The archbishop considered that Christian discipleship is a call to the life of communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and with others, the call of Christ to Peter and Nathanael, emphasizing: The most important thing in it was their personal meeting with him when Peter saw the presence and power of Christ. He fell at the knees of Jesus, saying: “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! » Luke 5:8

And the archbishop continued: When Nathanael heard Christ addressing him about prophetic matters, he cried: Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

 John 1:49, emphasizing: Christ called his disciples to share his life with him, but he responded to everyone who gave himself for the life of fellowship with him.

The Archbishop concluded: Christian discipleship is to say no to old sins and yes to Jesus. You cannot be a disciple and you do not obey the commandments of Christ. The inner faith must be followed by outward obedience. There is no Christian discipleship without faith and obedience.

Since his ordination as Archbishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Church of Alexandria, the Archbishop has been presiding over the Divine Liturgy in different churches, so that it becomes an opportunity to inspect the service and meet the people of the Church closely.