Fr. Matthew the Poor (Matta Al-Maskin/أبونا متى المسكين) in Coptologia vol. III, Fall 1982

[dzheremi]

Note: I have made some slight revisions to remove cumbersome inclusions of transliterated Arabic words (placed below in italics) where their frequency may inhibit smooth reading, in those cases where removing them would not reasonably alter the meaning of the text itself. The only other changes I have made have been to style guidelines that are not necessary to observe outside of the journal format, e.g., all interview questions, and some sections of the answers, are in italics at original. Everything else is as it was originally presented in the text. – dzh.


From Coptologia vol. III (Fall 1982)

Conducted and translated by Fayek M. Ishak


Interview with His Reverence Fr. Matta Al-Maskin, the Spiritual Father of the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great by Fayek M. Ishak, Lakehead University (p. 19-37; introductory and epilogue material omitted.)


The interview took place in the Guest House of the monastery and it lasted for more than five hours with very few intermissions. The date is July 25th, 1980, and the time is Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m.

(The interviewer is referred to here with the letter ‘F’ and the interviewed father with the letter ‘M’.)


F: What made your Reverence give up city life and go to the desert?

M: In point of truth this question is intimately related to my inner self as it concerns the inner recesses and depths of my life. I may be able to answer in a few words. It is a matter of stirking a responsive chord which I inwardly felt in my heart since my childhood. This response was the outcome of an inter-balance between spirituality in a general sense as related to Holy Scripture, chastity, purity of adulthood and the close approximation (taqarrab) to the Almighty on one side and the youthful life of play and freedom on the other side.

My early life was a continuous process of knowing particularly in relation to vicious and philanthropic deeds and thoughts. It was a matter of development by knowing the ‘mentality’ of those living in the world and so certain views evolved particularly in relation to manhood and the possibility of gaining money, securing a good future and getting married.

This inter-balance was inwardly active in a permanent and very quiet manner. The scale of spirituality and the inner feeling of God’s Presence used to outbalance the other scale. My zeal and earnestness never waned. Their star was ever in the ascendency (fi as-so’ōd) most particularly after I completed my university education and worked as a pharmacist.

I was quite successful in my work and my income was very high and so were my profits. But all this never changed my views towards the world. Even my duties and my family attachments did not stand as obstacles against the possibility of ‘seeing’ beyond the immediate screens of the near future. I realized that my life with God will be altogether complete.

The last step in this way of progression was my growing earnestness towards God and the continuity of perceiving God’s Divine Love in the inward recesses of my heart as something far superior to anything in this world. This perception was associated with an inner call, which was still vague, towards Eternity. I gathered later that it was a real call and that is to me the essence of Truth.

This perception that Eternity has its presence and its complete entity was always attractive to me in spite of the too many relationships with the world. God has drawn me towards Him though nobody in my family was ever before a monk or related to the monastic life in one way or another.

My departure to the monastery was the first ‘call’ in my family. Thence I gathered that I would never come back to the world as soon as I entered the monastery. I gradually realized that my life with God is a lot more truthful and greatly deeper than what I previously discerned beyond the ‘screens’.

F: Are there grades or stages to monastic life in your view?

M: There are no grades in monastic life and this applies too to the life of the novice and the ermetic. [sic] We make then ask: Is there any difference between the secular and the monastic life? Considering the Holy Bible and the preparation for salvation and eternal life, I would not look at monastic life as a superior type of Christian life nor even a better way of living. Life with our Lord Jesus Christ has no shapes, no stages and no steps. It is life in depth and integrity. Christ sends His endowments to people without distinction between one way of life and another. The Holy Spirit does not discriminate between the bachelors and the married folks as God’s saints are among both.

Monastic life is an individual attempt to live in such a way as suited special temperaments so as to satisfy certain spiritual potentials and to be filled with Biblical knowability (al-ma’rifa al-Injiliya). Should the monk be lax in attaining this end, he is certainly a loser.

It has been proven by experience beyond any doubt that those who have plunged into the depths of spirituality in their monastic life are close to these depths than those who are living in the secular world.

Granted that there are no stages in monastic life, it is pertinent to state that there is only the revelation of the Divine Reality and the manifestation of salvation and atonement and the inner apprehension of the meaning of Divine Love and Eternal and Celestial Life. All these cannot be attained through man’s own will but through the sincerity of his attachment to the Word of God and his true love to our Lord. Hence his perception will be elevated and the manifestation of Divine Truth becomes a reality.

F: I gather many university graduates are following your example. How can this monastic revival benefit the Church?

M: In matter of truth I do not hold myself responsible in any way for the influx of these graduates. I am a monk who is quite obliged to be the spiritual father of monks. Dutiful obligation has made it mandatory for me to receive confessions. At the same time I felt that part of my duty is to transmit to the monks all my monastic experiences.

I have never thought of this question at all. However, I consider this ‘work’ effective in Egypt and abroad in so far as we found out that we have already attained a Biblical experience and a knowability of the Way to God and the way to monastic asceticism. The former has shed a sort of genuineness on the latter.

I gathered that the truthfulness of this tradition has already deepened the monks’ understanding of spiritual studies. It has categorically elevated spiritual apprehension among the monks. There are here approximately sixy books dealing with such views and these have changed the spiritual awareness of our generation whether in relation to our youth or to the people abroad. And this is one of the major benefits of this tradition. The experiences of our monks here have their counterparts in other lands where others are following or even applying the same principles after visiting frequently this monastery.

As for my hopes, these are far-reaching and far-extending aspirations which are not realized yet! I have high hopes of forming a group of monks who are of such distinction as to be culturally well versed in many languages. In this sense they would be able to transmit other spiritual experiences written in German, Greek or Hebrew into Arabic and vice versa. Such experiences would be beneficial to immigrants and foreigners who are concerned with spiritual development.

Still I earnestly entreat God to open the gates leading to this way. The monks here are studying old Greek and German and the latter is instructed by a professor from Gothenburg.

F: Apart from your whole-hearted devotion to religious studies, are there scholarly activities in other monasteries too?

M: Nothing at all; there is no scholarly activity in any other monastery (in Egypt).

F: In what way do you consider yourself the periods of silence and night vigils essential for spiritual development as far as your Tasbihah al-Yawmieh wa Mazamur as-Sawa’ii (“Daily Praise and Hourly Psalmody”) is concerned?

M: The periods of silence and night vigils are not everything in spiritual life. They compose part of the work of such life which springs from the inner depths of spirituality. It is its fruition. As such I cannot compel any monk to spend a sleepless night or be silent. But the monk who experiences silence and night vigil normally wishes to have more. These experiences are the outcome of spiritual maturity. The spirit in such cases desires earnestly to go through periods of silence and vigil and this gives the monk an opportunity to apprehend the true meaning of Divine Love.

What I should care to say to that effect is that there are no human factors that would support a person or improve his spiritual life, not even one step towards grace.

This is the logic of the spiritual life. Physicalities never lead nor improve spiritualities. To that effect the daily praise or hourly psalmody is the language used by the lover to address the Beloved. Many Fathers of the Church used to cry throughout the periods of praise and psalmody. They felt as if they were air-borne as they communed with saints and angels.


(Intermission)

 

[dzheremi]

F: You mentioned in Hayat as-Salah al-Orthodhoksieh (“Orthodox Life of Prayer”) that the inner activities of prayer might come to a standstill through spiritual aridity; how can this situation be improved?

M: In truth this subject has been thoroughly dealt with but I should like to clarify certain points. Spiritual aridity goes back to many causes and many effects that culminate in the feeling of estrangement and aloofness (bo’d) from Christ and the cessation (tawaqqof) of the inner working of Grace. What I should like to add here is that one should not give up or lose hope, otherwise he would be delved into a more serious period of spiritual aridity. Hence any source of consolation would be absent.

However, it is an experience like any other experience facing us in our life and all experiences are ‘good’ for us. At any rate we are supposed to try to open the door again as the period of aridity is not permanent. Only through sloth we may lengthen the period and so stop our prayers and our fasting.

Spiritual aridity is valuable so far as it arms us with all the graces of integrity in our earnest attempt to regain our spiritual life which was temporarily lost.

My advice in this respect is to read the Holy Bible continuously and in a well-organized manner. It is through the Holy Bible and with it too that the Grace of God is working.

F: Did you experience any mystical ecstasies or beholding of visions?

M: At certain periods in my life and on a limited scale ecstasy occurred in a compulsory and spontaneous way and without prior warning. Ecstasies were normally followed by immediate visions which may last for long periods. Some of them lasted for four continuous hours. However, they all imply a certain instruction (ta’leem) and direction (tawjeeh). With the passage of time I came to know that certain occurences or events were about to happen and they actually took place. This made me believe strongly in the truth of these visions.

There was nothing delightful about these visions as they were all meant for instruction. However, when a vision was over I used to feel physically exhausted as it occupied the whole of my being whether mental or emotional, physical or spiritual. Also these visions were intimately related to my personal life.

F: You seem to have developed enormously along monastic lines in a comparatively short period and you have actually followed the steps of the great desert fathers; what are the clues to such development?

M: In point of truth my development was totally unnoticeable to me. Even up till this very moment I am not aware of such development. What is really puzzling and at the same time distressing to me is this fact: why shouldn’t all monks develop like this? I cannot find in me anything better or more superior than any other ordinary person. The only thing that I know for sure is that I have been very faithful to the monastic rules, faithful too in reading earnestly the Holy Bible as sometimes I used to read sixty chapters every day! I still recall that I used to cry out of joy!

I never felt exhausted during my night vigils when I used to read for long hours having only a petroleum lamp! But my nostalgic love of the Coptic Church with all its rites and its hymns made everything easy. Whenever I heard the Coptic chants I felt that a deep inner sensation was running through the whole of my being. I came to understand without difficult the meaning or significance of every motion that takes place in the Church without the need to learn this from anybody else as I used to participate in the procedure of the rite with all my heart and my sensations in a spirit of utmost pleasure and rejoice.

F: Would you consider higher awareness and mystical immediacy in perceiving spiritual realities essential in any monastic endeavor?

M: The sensational feeling of spiritual proximity (taqarab rohi) and immediacy (ittisal mubashir) is itself intuitive. I have noticed that many monks who lived and are living with me have never experienced the intuitive life. It is a problem that can be re-phrased in the following question: Is spiritual immediacy essential in monastic life? Intuition does not give rise to spiritual concerns. But one would pertinently ask: Is there a way that would lead to such immediacy? My answer is that there are compulsory matters in monastic life like simplicity in one’s spiritual and ordinary life that would make them essential. I wouldn’t praise or attack anybody. I would be exceedingly faithful and honest in my spiritual life as the life of grace is quite essential for higher intuitions, otherwise such intuitions can be easily destroyed and this would bring about the destruction of the person himself. An ambitious person or a person who is not read yet should not be led to the intuitive life which is the treasure of those who are simple and upright.

F: Is your view in the monastic perception of the spiritual world of the Beyond a maturation of the religious experience? In what sense?

M: A mature person would certainly have a true perception of the world of the Beyond. This perception, however, largely depends on the degree of his maturity and his spiritual experience. He would have reached an elevated standard of sincerity and proper apprehension of te Holy Bible and a certain degree of uprightness and piety. The feeling of salvation is full of rejoice [sic] in so far as it opens the threshold of visionary perception and the world of the Beyond quite easily.

F: How would you interpret the experience of spiritual uplifting and the celestial joys of the ‘spirit’ in those who are unfamiliar with these areas?

M: Intuition and spiritual experience are not indicative of salvation and they are not a guarantee of a person’s salvation. However, there are states of inner preparedness (isti’dad) and inner aptitude that would make one ready to proceed towards spiritual experiences in depth. These states would lead to an access to the domain of what we call “spirituality in activity” as the speaking in different tongues or the lifting of oneself above the level of the earth or the act of prophecy or inhaling aromatic odours (rawa’ih ‘itrieh). And all these activities are within the domain of spirituality and are experienced by those who have attained certain degrees of preparedness. As such it is a matter of aptitude or readiness rather than spiritual maturity.

F: Would you consider the end of the monastic endeavor to be the revelation of the divine realities of God and His devout saints?

M: The purpose of monasticism is not to possess anything or have anything in return. The main purpose is to lose one’s will in the divine Will of God.

A person may be a monk for thirty or forty years without having any access to the life of revelation. Normally he is contented to have devoted his life to the service of God and this would be a matter of satisfaction and rejoice to him. However, in most cases God re-pays one’s devotion to Him on earth and would let him ‘taste’ the divine realities and this would make him feel happy.

St. Paul stated that he was uplifted beyond heaven and he rejoiced after such revelation. His faith was more confirmed and he was more than ever ready to sacrifice and face more perils.

F: Is the indwelling of Christ in our hearts the main objective in prayer? Are the outward manifestations like our attitudes to others the result of this basic fact?

M: The first part of the question concerning the indwelling of Christ in our hearts is true. Prayer is an inner activity towards Christ and He in return moves towards us too. We would be at fault to stand away from Him. Through His Goodness He repays us tenfold.

Here I wish to transmit a great ‘gift’ to many others. The greatest gift we may offer to other persons whether they are Christians or non-Christians is our upright conduct that is the result of Christ’s indwelling in our hearts.


(Intermission)

 

[dzheremi]

F: You mentioned in your writings that monastic development is subjective in the sense of being personal. Don’t you think that there is also the responsibility to the objective world outside? Would you agree that objectivity takes over when subjectivity ceases to engage all our thoughts? Would your view of ‘Synergy’ be appropriate here?

M: In truth the monk who succeeds is the one who is of special benefit to the world. Benefit here is a matter of giving. If you consider it a personal matter, then it becomes a necessity. A person cannot give before he has gained the necessary spiritual experience. However, it is practically impossible for a man to secure spiritual ‘endowments’ and then he remains alone. And it is pretty dangerous for a person to think that he is capable of offering much to the world when in reality this is beyond his reach.

‘Synergy’ is a state that is never attained at the beginning of one’s endeavor. Also ‘secretion’ is a state of offering after attaining an overflow of grace. These states are attained after maturation. And the more one offers the more he feels the pressure of the spirit. Bountiful offering without affectation is what we should be aiming at. It is a spring that never dries up.

F: Is it legitimate for the monastic experience to be engaged in disclosing the realities of ‘pure’ being?

M: This is a monastic necessity. However, monasticism does not aim at the revelation of facts; but true monasticism reveals the facts day after day after a great deal of effort and remarkable sincerity. The awakenness [sic] of the self is the beginning of the proper way leading to spiritual revelation. And this is a mystical term.

From purely the monastic point of view awakenness is followed by a remarkable conversion and witnessing that the rose speaks, the sun emanates a pleasant odor, the noise of the wind is musical and the birds are joined together for worship – and this is the World of Eternity which is imbued with the essence and perpetuity of being.

In Biblical terms awakenness of the self is the revelation of Jesus Christ our Lord.

F: You mentioned in your works the possibility of beholding and union with God; what are the prerequisites for such elevated experience?

M: My experience is mainly based on the Holy Bible. I believe that it is impossible for me to ‘know’ God outside the Holy Book. Reading and apprehension of Biblical text have led to my belief that it is through Scripture that revelation is at all possible particularly in relation to the Godly Essence and God’s view of man. I have found that the Old Testament has evidently given ample ways and means of how to ‘know’ God and has opened many avenues which are commonly practical and explicitly aim at projecting such view.

This has been the subject of great solace and remarkable rejoice to me. I managed to discover the very beginning of the ‘way’ and gradually I came to understand how to draw nearer to God through the New Testament.

I became fondly attracted to the persons loved by God. I was attracted to Abraham and I learnt from him how to commune, plea and obey God. The Old Testament handed me, so to speak, a ladder for climbing to Heaven in a very simple and clear manner.

Then I moved to the New Testament and I apprehended the conclusive part of God’s story with man and how He spoke to us through Jesus Christ in order to reveal Himself and His views towards man and the extent of His Love towards him. I came to realize that the Old Testament is complementary to the New Testament. This has been to me a matter of revelation that removed all mists and all hindrances against a clear and spotless beholding of God!

Should we add also an element of piety, we would shorten the span between Him and us. There is nothing left after this state except for God to reveal Himself to me. And this would pomprise all the states spoken of before.

God’s revelation of Himself is not the result of a plea or earnest beseech or even an expectation. It is merely a volitional act on God’s part. He drew close to me and then revealed Himself in sundry ways. He may speak in an audible manner or He may appear to me in dreams.

About the state of union with God, it is not a matter of witnessing; it is a fact which reveals for us throughout our life its benefits and its effects. And in this climactic state we are united with our Lord.

The benefits we gather from this union are our confirmation in addition to our firm convicition regarding salvation and the rejoice in thinking of the heavenly Crown that is prepared for those who love our Lord.

We united with Him through that relationship. Hence, union with Christ is a relevant fact of our faith.

F: Do you consider the metaphysical problem of ‘knowing’ to be related in some way to the monastic experience? In what sense?

M: Most certainly, but not in a direct way; however, it is difficult to be a mystic without being ascetic, otherwise he would attain nothing. The person who is fasting is certainly in a better position to speak with God than that man who is not abstaining. He who lives on the bare necessity and who abstains from the materialistic pleasures of this age feels at heart that he is close to heaven and has communion with God’s devout saints.

At any rate, the metaphysical matter will remain problematic as long as the ascetic has not experienced the state of awakenness.

F: I am a fond believer in considering monastic life as a continuous experience of ‘knowability’ which is mainly ‘revelatory’. How far do you agree?

M: Monasticism is a series of knowability, but vision and manifestation are not on the same line with it. However, I believe that if the inner self is clear and upright, earnestness would invoke the state of manifestation. This implies that there is a line of demarcation between what is volitional and what is nonvolitional. I wish to know something and after some trial and effort I came to ‘know’ it – and this is a volitional act. In the case of visionary perception it remains an earnest desire until it reaches the state of manifestation.


(Intermission)

 

[dzheremi]

F: At this stage I am quite anxious to know your views on the “monastic experience” most particularly as you are a leading ascetic.

M: I am not supposed to have a special view on monasticism for this will lead me astray away from my Fathers. I have before me the superb example of St. Antony who found out in monasticism the quick and easy way to apply Biblical text in a practical manner. He listened to the Bible reading in the Church and sold what he then possessed and realized the truth of the Holy Scripture through his own experience.

In my case I build my experience on the same edifice as that of St. Antony. I believe that there is in monasticism a true life which could be experienced in accordance with the dicta of Holy Scripture. It has been for me a source of unsurpassable rejoice through which one could also bring happiness to others.

F: In the light of the foregoing argument would you consider our monastic experience of Godand our mystical apprehension of God as continuously interacting or separate entities?

M: They are mostly together. However, for some people, they are satisfied with asceticism in spite of the fact that movement in the mystical range would redouble our happiness. Even then it is possible to be an ascetic without being mystic or occupied with mysticism.

F: Would you agree that our awareness of the relationship between experience and apprehension is an essential step towards the dialogue between God and man which is one of the foremost exuberances of monastic life?

M: The dialogue between God and man is what created in me the monastic life. My dialogue with God which occurred through the persons and dignitaries referred to in the Old Testament has created in me a certain aptitude which led to my inner perception that I am one with them.

It is also the same with the New Testament. I feel that I am not neglected.

This dialogue which occurs to those who are engaged in worship or asceticism is what creates the monastic experience of spirituality through the Holy Scripture. One finds that he is still a dwarf and at the beginning of the way and then proceeds and matures spiritually under the name of abbotship.

Throughout this dialogue there are periods of learning and periods of spiritual aridity and punishment which we have to go through until we reach the state of spiritual maturity.

The dialogue appears on a very high level. It signifies the realization of what is divine and what is human in addition to the continuous endeavor to reach the desired end. Hence, the dialogue reaches a state of crystallization through which the divine and the human are encountered and reconciled.

F: To proceed another step further, how can this dialogue be a living reality?

M: The experience connected with this dialogue can never be realized as a reality until a person finds out the extent of change that occurred not only in him but in others as well particularly with regard to modes of thought, preparedness, wisdom and visionary perception. This means that this dialogue has brought forth certain effective results as it changed everything in us and related to us. We came then to realize that we are in fact created after God’s divine image; otherwise the dialogue would be transitory and can be uprooted very easily.

F: Would you agree with me that this dialogue is the summit or the climactic point in the life of a monk through which he comes to grips with the spiritual or celestial realities?

M: I agree. However, this largely depends upon the seriousness of one’s approach. We should begin with prayer and end where communion is possible.

F: What is the most exciting personal experience you have had in your life as a monk or an abbot?

M: The manifestation (isti’lan) of Christ is the greatest of all my monastic experiences as a monk. This has been accomplished in three distinct ways:

a) Manifestation is associated with my deep feeling that He is quite close to me. This has been to me a real source of rejoice as He grants peace and rectitude to all those who come closer to Him.

b) I have experienced also the sudden manifestation and I felt that Christ came with the purpose of instruction. Here I realized that my life is at a cross-roads and that I would be facing either certain difficulties or further changes in my way of life. It was then that I came to understand that something had to be done and that I should be ready at any time.

c) Personal manifestation of Christ face to face – and this occurred twice to me. In both instances I was about to make very serious decisions and He came to bless them and make me feel at ease. This was associated with an unfailing feeling of fulfillment.

Manifestation was always accompanied with words of wisdom and enlightenment. It has been the greatest and most lasting experience throughout my monastic life.

F: Is there any guarantee that the monastic revival which is at present associated with your name would survive? How?

M: This has been my major concern since I became a spiritual father and an abbot.I feel the great seriousness of this responsibility as I indeed strongly believe that the proper and successful work is the type that would in reality survive after the death of its initiator and would then continue to grow.

As for how this can be accomplished, I may say that I usually convince a monk that he shouldn’t have any other ambition in life apart from the close communion with God. Should the monk be convinced that the monastic life is a complete life which aims at fulfillment, I would then guarantee the very first condition for the survival of monasticism.

The second matter is concerned with me personally. I do not want the reputation and everything related to it to be concentrated on me as in the case of failure, the monks will also fail to bear the responsibility after me. In this sense there is no guarantee for the survival of monasticism.

Therefore, I feel very strongly that I should withdraw gradually and go in hiding willingly even at the risk of a little loss so that the reputation of the monastery would emanate from within instead of being realted to a certain person.

At any rate I have been endeavoring to accomplish this end with all my abilities and the whole of my being.

To that effect I feel that I have succeeded to a great extent.

+++

Notes:

The language which was originally used in the interview was Arabic. However, it was rendered into English in the spring of 1981.

 

[archer75]

Interesting, even "inspiring. I will read this again in less haste.

I was rearranging my icons a couple days ago, and had stray thoughts about monastics and whether to arrange my icons in some sort of order - Christ and those who knew him as a specific person on this planet during certain years, monastics, "folk-hero" saints (like St. Mary of Egypt or St. Dymphna), hierarchs...and then it just seemed like not the best idea. Enough separation, we are all trying to conform ourselves to Christ. Let them be all together. And I thought of that when I read

Life with our Lord Jesus Christ has no shapes, no stages and no steps. It is life in depth and integrity. Christ sends His endowments to people without distinction between one way of life and another. The Holy Spirit does not discriminate between the bachelors and the married folks as God’s saints are among both.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I will definitely read these more in depth later. keep them coming!

 

[dzheremi]

There are two more articles by Fr. Matta (actually 3, but one turned out to be a translation of some material from his "Orthodox Prayer Life", which at the time would not have been available in English, but now is) from the same issue -- "The Living Truth" and "Christians in the Society" -- but I will have to get to them later, as my Word program is acting up lately, for some reason. It shut down on me three times just today as I was finishing typing up the last three pages of the interview. Oh well. I'll get to the others eventually. They are shorter, so hopefully I can finish them before everything goes haywire.

 

[archer75]

but I will have to get to them later, as my Word program is acting up lately

I have given up on Word and Word-alikes. LaTeX knocks them all into oblivion, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[prodromos]

A little bit longer than your usual posts

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

I'm really glad the أبونا متى المسكين was included in this thread or else I'd have never known who it was! there are so many Arabic speakers in TAW that this is a great help, Jeremy.

 

[dzheremi]

My thinking with that is that everyone I knew from church who had a computer did not have Arabic fonts installed even though they were all native Arabic speakers (I don't blame them; I only actually learned to type in Arabic earlier this year, despite having Arabic font support installed for at least the last four years; it's a bit daunting to actually sit there and learn a whole new keyboard layout that is counter-intuitive compared to the one for, say, Greek: with Greek input installed, if you press the "A" key you get A, whereas in Arabic the "A" key is ِِش, which is the "sh" sound in "shop"), so they would rely on being able to cut and paste strings of Arabic text in order to search the internet in Arabic. So having his name in Arabic might actually help someone in the future if they were to come here, see the thread, and want to find more about him on Arabic-language websites, where most information about him can be found.

 

[archer75]

My thinking with that is that everyone I knew from church who had a computer did not have Arabic fonts installed even though they were all native Arabic speakers (I don't blame them; I only actually learned to type in Arabic earlier this year, despite having Arabic font support installed for at least the last four years; it's a bit daunting to actually sit there and learn a whole new keyboard layout that is counter-intuitive compared to the one for, say, Greek: with Greek input installed, if you press the "A" key you get A, whereas in Arabic the "A" key is ِِش, which is the "sh" sound in "shop"), so they would rely on being able to cut and paste strings of Arabic text in order to search the internet in Arabic. So having his name in Arabic might actually help someone in the future if they were to come here, see the thread, and want to find more about him on Arabic-language websites, where most information about him can be found.

Can you not get a phonetically more guessable layout? Or you want to learn the "true" Arabic arrangement?

 

[dzheremi]

There are a few different standards, but they don't seem to differ by much, and I don't know how to get a different one. The one I have now is just what comes out whenever I switch the input language in the language bar to Arabic. It would probably be pretty difficult to do what they did for Greek with Arabic, anyway, since there's not that easy "This letter looks like this other letter" correspondence that there is between Greek and English writing systems (though some people try to do that by using numbers like 7, 3, and 5 for sounds that we do not have in English), and there are several sounds in Arabic that would be ambiguous if you tried to map them on to their closest representative English letter (three different Arabic sounds could be transliterated with Z, for instance).

 

[dzheremi]

The Living Truth [Al-Haq wal Hayah]

By Abuna Matta Al-Maskin (Translated by Fayek M. Ishak)

ibid, p. 53-55


Truth is the concern of religion which should proclaim it; say, religion itself should be a manifestation of reality.... This is the primary engagement of every religion… Reality as a single entity contains within itself the meaning of life and its fullness, the source of inspiration and creativity which brings about inner quietude to any soul that is storm tossed.

This truth is the alpha which taps the inner recesses of the heart and sends them all aquiver [sic] on a series of innovations. It is the creative and living truth which accosts man who has to respond in a satisfactory manner. And when the will and the intellect and life itself take tentative and free approaches towards truth, only then can one embark on a mutual communication with its reality.

Change and conversion are then quite possible through the inner power of truth.

And with this inner contact truth may thus be considered on a personal level. It becomes the subject of manifestation when he (or she) is in a state of full and free consciousness and when the will is also free from inhibitions…

Truth in this sense is the buttress of manifestation rather than imposition…

It does not need any proofs; only its reality has to be proved in order to be easily accepted by the intellect; but truth is its own criterion as there is nothing higher to prove it. It is the only absolute criterion of a fleeting idea, a principle or a doctrine.

Evidently truth is not a collection of theories. It is not even knowability, nor a bundle of instructions. It is not an accumulation of facts about religion or anything else. Truth is a living and free emanation which brings forth a new living power…. It does not need an external proof (as it is the absolute reference to any reality) because it is its own proof…It is God in Essence Who said:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (St. John 14:6)

Example:

There might be many proofs for His Being partly through contemplating the structure of the universe and partly through the mental consideration of His Absoluteness. One might also listen carefully to the inner voice of conscience and proceed step by step along the nostalgic way towards the Ineffable. But it is also possible to put forth the question: are these proofs sufficient? They prove only the possibility of faith.

However, these proofs are united in one proof only when the Almighty freely meets the soul…as this meeting is possible in the beauty of creation and the enigmatic greatness of the universe. You too might enjoy such a meeting by listening carefully to the voice of your conscience and its yearning towards the science and its yearning towards the Absolute…. Hence the soul might ponder over the manifestation of Truth through an act of elevated aestheticism far beyond the visible…!

What is really disturbing is the sense of egotism. The microcosm becomes the centre of the universe and claims that everything else has to fall within its limited orbit. Consequently I struggle hard in order to persuade others to accept my personal views and to include them among my sect and my congregation. This is one’s craving for supremacy, a satisfaction for arrogance and a hunger for divination. In the end it is inevitably the dance of death!

Sticking to truth has its liberating efficacy. It has changed me. I am no longer a worshiper of vanity but a lover of the Beloved Who is the only One to be worshiped. Others try to share this sudden change and willfully follow this example…. I have chosen Truth to be my guide that needs no proof.

Truth and Love are one; they are inseparable and indivisible. Our love should know no bounds. It is the emblem of infinitude…the bountiful granting of what is precious. It is the act of sacrificing one’s life to the point of death.

This type of love is the manifestation of reality and it is its only witness…

If it is absent, egotism reigns. Nothing is then left save bewildering chaos and enveloping anarchy. This is an act of regression and a distortion of reality!

Rivalry and challenge which are occasionally noticed among religious people usually speak of willful attempts to impose ‘truth’ on man in spite of his free will…. This imposition is contrary to any act of true love which should be the manifestation of reality and its sole witness that needs no proof…. It is opposite to truth and life and man.


(Note: The original version of this article is published in Arabic in St. Mark Monthy Review, Vol. 232, Nov. 1981, pp. 28-9)

 

[dzheremi]

Sadly, "Christians in Society" appears to be a summary of an earlier (1968) work, rather than a proper translation, so this is it for now, unless I find some more actual translations/interviews in some other issues of this journal. I have 12 or 13 other issues, I think, and I haven't really looked though all of them very thoroughly because I've spent the last few days just typing out the interview.

 

[Phronema]

Thank you for spending time to share this here.

 

[dzheremi]

You're welcome. I hope the words of Fr. Matta will be helpful to everyone.

 

[Barney2.0]

Who exactly is Matta Al Maskeen I did a quick google search in Arabic about him, so I see he was a Coptic Monk.

 

[dzheremi]

Fr. Matta is one of the modern desert fathers of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and was the abbot of the monastery of St. Macarius the Great in Wadi El Natrun, which he helped to restore beginning in the 1960s. He wrote many books and articles, and was the father of confession and spiritual guide of Fr. Antonios El Suriani (the future Pope Shenouda III), Fr. Bishoy Kamel (a priest in Alexandria who died in the 1970s who many people consider to be an uncannonized saint; he founded the Church of St. George in Sporting, Alexandria which was afterwards was served by Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty, the contemporary archpriest and popular Coptic author), and Iris Habib El Masri, the modern Coptic historian (d. 1994).

 

[~Anastasia~]

Thank you again for doing this. I have purposely saved reading and commenting on this thread as I've been really sick and just didn't trust my brain to really comprehend something very well and I wanted to give this the attention I felt it deserved. Hopefully I can read it later today. I finally slept well last night (could have been the cold medicine lol).

But I wanted to lyk it is very appreciated. If you don't mind, I think I will save it too.

Thanks again.