Ordination to the Priesthood:
“And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.” (Hebrews 5:4)
We can say that Fr. Mettaos was satisfied completely in thought, attitude and behavior of the monastic life with all its principles, teachings and expectations. So we see, from his knowledge of the lives of the saintly fathers and their sayings –that he wanted to imitate them, even if he had to flee from all church ranks and orders, whether outside the monastery or within it. He put it in his heart not to accept any rank of the priesthood.
After seven or eight months of his monasticism, he was alarmed one day by his confessor and the monastery’s secretary, the late Hegumen Sedaros the Great when he told him that Bp. Theophilus asked him to inform him [Fr. Mettaos] to begin memorizing (learning) the divine liturgy because he intends to ordain him a priest soon. In his great well-mannered monastic behavior, he opened up to his confessor of his inner intentions –that he does not want to accept any rank of the priesthood and asking in exchange for discipleship in insistence and urgency that he let Bp. Theophilus know of his desires. Fr. Sedaros then told him calmly, “OK brother, don’t be upset as if you didn’t hear anything.”
As Mar Isaac the Syrian the great in knowledge says, “Whoever runs after honor, honor escapes him, and whoever escapes from it knowingly, it follows him and directs people to him”.
We will stop here to allow our beloved father tell us of how his ordination took place forcefully at the hands of the late Bp. Theophilus abbot of the monastery, through a simple nice trick he is known for!!:
“During the vespers of 10/22/1950, I was cleaning the entrance of the church of the Virgin Mary which was my normal work and there, one of the elder fathers (the late Fr. Benyamin the Great) was sitting on the bench at the entrance. He told me, ‘By the way Fr. Matta, there will be ordinations for new priests for the monastery today!’ So I replied, ‘It comes to me, I don’t want it!’ And after the prayers of the psalms for vespers, H.G. Bp. Theophilus stood at the royal doors of the sanctuary and in front of him stood: Monk Makary El-Suryani (the late H.G. Bp. Samouil “Samuel”, bishop of ecumenical services, who was martyred in the well-known event of the podium [assassination of Sadat] in October 1981) and Monk Haile Selassie the Ethiopian. H.G. began with the three blessings for the ordination. At that time I was standing at the back of the church, and I saw Bp. Theophilus pointing to me with his hand to go to him. So I thought that he wanted to ask me something regarding the church so I went to him. When I arrived at the royal doors of the sanctuary, I was alarmed when H.G. placed his hand cross on my head and began with the three blessings for my ordination into the priesthood.
I was taken by surprise and I tried and struggled to get away from between his hands, apologizing regarding this venerable order but H.G. was insistent as he made up his mind and did not accept my apologies (meaning he carried out the ordination). The insistence of H.G. and the principles of submission and obedience to the one in charge made me yield to the situation and consequently my ordination was carried out with Monk Makary El-Suryani and Monk Haile Selassie the Ethiopian on Sunday morning 10/22/1950 (12 of Paopi/Baba) feast day of the martyrdom of St. Mark the Evangelist.”
And he told us that the one who passed down to him the rites and hymns of the Divine Liturgy was the late Hegumen Gobrail (Gabriel) El-Suryani the Great.
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