One of the people that were martyred in the bombings of the Church of El Kedeseen (The Saints Church hereafter) in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve was Adel.
He was the owner of a textile factory in Alexandria and a very loving person. His generosity and care for the poor was very similar to Bishop Abraam, the Bishop of Fayourn.
Bishop Beeman went to visit Adel’s family to offer them the Church’s condolences. His wife was so much at peace to the extent that at the beginning the Bishop thought she was a friend or a neighbour and not Adel’s wife — given how peaceful she was.
His wife and daughter were recounting his actions before the bombings. She recounted the following: “Adel loved the poor — before Christmas he usually gives clothing to a lot of poor people so they have new clothes for the feast. He collects them from his factory and other factories around him. This year he decided that he wanted to finish this distribution earlier than usual. I questioned him on why he was rushed this year. He would only smile and say “I have an upcoming trip so I want to finish this work before I go.” By the 30th of December, he had finished distributing all the clothes and on the 31st he was martyred in the bombings.”
His wife was comforted in knowing that he knew was going and was prepared for that moment. Knowing the death was Divine gave a heavenly comfort that surpasses our earthly understanding. It begs the question, how many of us are ready to meet Christ the way Adel was?
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