Three Months in Damascus

I want to thank the members of the Province for their warm welcome to me since I arrived in the Province. I am humbled by your patience as I struggle to learn Arabic and learn how to live and serve in Syrian society and culture.  

In early 2018 I began working with JRS a remote part of South Sudan. I returned to Ireland in early 2021. Given my mother’s advanced years, I was discerning with my Provincial that I might stay in Ireland for my next mission. On a Friday in April we were close to a decision on an assignment in Ireland. Over the weekend, JRS International Office contacted my Provincial and by Tuesday I was heading to Prov PRO and to JRS Syria! Such is the God of surprises. 

I have been surprised by many things in my first months in Syria.  Most of all I am surprised by how many smiling faces I see and how much laughter I have hear each day. It seems to me that Syrians easily find joy in many ordinary things and draw strength in the warmth of relationships of family and friends. Of course behind all the smiles and laughter is a fountain of tears that has shed many times and has volumes of tears yet to flow. They are a people crushed by not broken.

Friends and family members often ask me ‘what is the difference between Syria and Africa?’ Of course I always answer that it is impossible to compare and contrast human suffering across contexts. However as I reflect on the question and as I listen more to the stories of people I meet here, I am struck by how much people here have lost. Perhaps it is this dimension of ‘loss’ that strikes me again and again as pervasive and perhaps this gives a particular colour to the suffering that is common in Syria. Closely linked to this sense of loss, or perhaps a part of the loss, is the loss of belief in a future and the dreams of life. I have been struck by the amount of times I hear people say; ‘things are worse now than they ever have been’ and the struggle for daily basics has intensified during the year gone by. As hope is scare and people continue to leave or want to leave the country, it is all the more important that JRS stand with people in the pitiful present and whisper hope.

I have always been struck by the a line in Gaudium et Spes; ‘…{t}he future of humanity rests with people who are capable of providing the generations to come with reasons for living and for hope. (- Paragraph 37). This line has never had the strength of resonance than it has for me these days. It is not surprising then that the central mission of JRS and indeed all Jesuit ministry in Syria is one of kindling hope.

JRS seeks to offer hope, healing and capacity for dreams, to over 1,500 children attending our education support programmes in our community centres in Aleppo, Homs and Damascus. A wide range of peace building activities and programmes to promote social cohesion is another plank of the way JRS seeks to accompany and promote hope. Offering free health care with dignity remains a key service of JRS in Syria. 

More than what we offer is the way we seek to serve, and I am so grateful to see a heritage of interreligious working in the JRS team. The team is packed with people motivated by compassion and the desire for honest effort. I think this witness of Christian and Muslins working together in the service of the most in need, is the most important way we say that the ‘peace’ the ‘Shalom’ given to us in the Incarnation is possible Syria. The present struggle and crisis is not the final word. Nshalla!

Fr Tony O’Riordan SJ