Our Lady of Bechwat and National Reconciliation

The list of miracles « confirmed » by experts or medical certificates somehow brought the proof that the Virgin was present in Bechwat.

This reassuring presence opened the possibility of a horizontal attachment between « Muslims and Christians », between «Lebanese citizens ». Expressions like « national reconciliation», « union » and « reunion » formed the structure of official declarations and newspaper commentaries.

Bishop Mounged Hashim is a fervent defender of Islamo-Christian dialogue and a recognized expert on Islam. Today he is the apostolic nuncio in the Gulf region. When he arrived in Back in Dayr al-Ahmar in 1995 after a long stay in Rome, he quickly went to work to establish good relations with the Muslims of that region.

He faced strong resistance from the part of the Dayr al-Ahmar families, but was able to impose himself on the local political scene as a « strong man » (qabaday).

His efforts toward a rapprochement with the Muslims have been in a sense strengthened by the Virgin's apparition in Bechwat.

The bishop efficiently campaigned for the removal of all symbols of the Lebanese Forces from the village.

He constantly underlined the political and social dimension of the events. « The Virgin Mary invites the Christians and the Muslims to more love and respect. She invites us to reconciliation and forgiveness», he explained in a homily pronounced in the church of Bechwat in August 2005.

In Bechwat, only the little chapel which houses the statue of Our Lady of Bechwat is there to welcome the faithful of different religions. In this shared space, Muslim and Christian faithful look at, touch, caress and kiss the same objects: the statues of the Virgin, the painting of the Assumption, the altar and the pink granite stone.

One gesture clearly sets them apart: the sign of the cross, which only the Christians make. The Muslims are sometimes more numerous, but they never organize collective prayer. Sometimes a devout Muslim might ask to be left some room for prayer which, in that place, consists of two prostrations in the direction of Mecca and two others in the direction of the statue.

You will find no blending of doctrines and religious practices, but a « strategy of resistance » calling upon union in the midst of division, upon agreement in the midst of disagreement. In Lebanon, the common enemy is a kind of Janus with an outward face (Syrians, Palestinians, and Israelis) and an inward face (society's internal dissensions).

Will the Virgin Mary, mobilized for her qualities of peacemaker and gatherer, be able to become an invincible bulwark against the demons of war?

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Emma Aubin-Boltanski cnrs,

Excerpts from: Emma Aubin-Boltanski cnrs, Centre d'études interdisciplinaires du fait religieux, La Vierge, les chrétiens, les musulmans et la nation Liban, 2004-2007, in « Terrain » Religion et Politique, issue # 51 2008/2