In the mid-1970s, my parents, siblings, and I lived in the Bekaa town of Ablah, about a hundred meters from the military barracks where my father served as a non-commissioned officer in the Lebanese Army.

At the time, I was actively involved in a youth movement dedicated to shaping children's characters through cultural programs that nurtured their intellectual, social, and practical development.

That year, I was among the leaders of this movement, working under the supervision of the town’s priest, Father Saïd Abboud, who was later killed in the Chouf region during the Mountain War in 1983.

Father Abboud was a man of boundless kindness, unparalleled humility, and remarkable selflessness.

One day, during one of our regular meetings with some of the movement’s leaders, I had a heated argument with him. Frustrated, I stormed out of the meeting room and went home, seething with anger.

That afternoon, at around four o’clock, on a beautiful spring day, I was standing on the balcony with my father when I saw a white car approaching our house and stopping at the entrance. To my surprise, Father Abboud stepped out and walked briskly toward us.

For a moment, fear gripped me—I immediately assumed he had come to complain about me to my father over the morning’s incident. I rushed toward him, hoping to speak with him privately before he could say anything in front of my father.

As I reached him, he took my hand, shook it warmly, and said in a gentle voice: “Saint Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians 4, says: ‘Do not let the sun go down on your anger.’ I have come to reconcile with you before sunset.”

I was stunned by the purity, nobility, and magnanimity of this great priest.

Nearly 50 years later, only Sheikh Samy Gemayel, in his bold speech in the Lebanese Parliament last week, managed to bring back the memory of Father Abboud’s words—the call of Saint Paul to reconcile and accept one another before the sun sets on our homeland.

The political vision put forward by the leader of the Kataeb Party—one that stands apart from all others in its emphasis on forgiveness, coexistence in diversity, and unity under the rule of law—is the only viable path to building a state founded on dialogue and pluralism. A State carried forward by people who, though different, are bound by common aspirations and shared goals.

This is an English adaptation of an article written by Professor Antoine Gedeon, former Vice President of Sorbonne University, and published in Nidaa Al-Watan newspaper.