Forgotten – Victim and Prisoners

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Armodoxy for Today: The Forgotten, part 4 – Victim and Prisoner

In Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11f), there is point of awakening, which leads to his repentance and return home. When he had money and means, he was surrounded by friends, but once the money ran out, so did his friends. He found himself alone, searching for the bygone days. Fortunately, there was a loving father who welcomed his son’s return and celebrated. But what if he came to that point of repentance, that moment awakening, and there was no who wanted his back? What if they designated him as “forgotten” and no doors were open for him to return to life?

Meet Silva. She’s a forgotten inmate at the California Institution for Women. She has been confined behind prison bars since 2007. Like the Prodigal Son, she was on top of the world financially. She had friends and she was well respected in the Armenian community in Southern California, until she was incarcerated. Slowly, she found herself alone, and isolated. Unlike the Prodigal, there have been no open doors for her to return.

Her story is all too common, and especially in immigrant communities such as the Armenian one. She was a victim of domestic violence. And, she still is.

Quick, what’s wrong with this picture? She’s a victim, so why is she in prison? And if she’s in prison, how can she still be a victim of domestic violence?

While everything seemed fine on the outside, Silva was being abused emotionally, psychologically and physically by her husband. They were married for over 25 years and the level of abuse became intolerable for Silva, to the point that she wanted out in the worst way possible. And so, she did the worst thing possible by deciding to kill her husband as a solution, to end the violence. She hired a person to kill him. The murder was botched. Silva was tried and convicted of attempted murder.

In the nearly two decades that she has been in prison, she has been a model prisoner. She has educated herself and holds several degrees. She’s been up for parole a couple of times only to be passed by. Ironically, if she had killed her husband, she probably would have been out by now, perhaps on a self-defense plea. Instead, she was abused for 25 years in her marriage and now she’s being abused in prison and by a system that is broken.

This story is a personal one for me. Jesus sought out and ministered to the forgotten, giving us an example to do the same. I have met with Silva and chronicled her struggle through the system. The story itself is filled with intrigue, betrayal, hatred, and much loneliness and despair. It would make for a very interesting novel or film. My intention is not share those details, but to place this in the context of the Church – Christ’s Holy Body – in response to evil. I’m determined to get this story out and hope that somewhere someone will pick up and join the cause of righteousness.

We will continue tomorrow. We pray today, Lord, have mercy. Amen.

Forgotten: Point of View

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Armodoxy for Today: The Forgotten part 3, Point of View

Not everything that is “forgotten” is due to our failure to see or to remember. Don’t discount the role of the editor, the broadcaster or the storyteller in what is remembered and what is not.

I often think about how news reaches us. I’ve had occasion to watch the news outside the United States. What strikes me is the way the news is presented. It was like watching a sitcom without a laugh-track, that is, there were no cues to when to laugh and when to cry, and the news was weighty, meaty and of substance.

Here in America, news is presented with a peppering of humor and entertainment, as a sidenote to the tragedies that take place. As bad as things may be – a natural disaster such as an earthquake or a hurricane which claimed thousands of lives – it is never so great that they can’t give you the latest football or basketball scores. Wars can escalate to genocide and scenes of cities destroyed by bombs can fill up our visuals, but fear not, the next news item is about a rapper or singer who has won a Grammy award, or better yet, will be entertaining at the Superbowl halftime event!

The consumer of that news eventually loses perspective about the weight and gravity of the different news items. Two hundred people killed in a hurricane is a tragedy with grave consequences. The love life of a celebrity may be of interest to a very large audience, but is it as weighty as the other story? Yet, the juxtaposing of these two stories back-to-back dilutes the magnitude of the consequential story. Think of your social media feed. The story about the escalation of nuclear weapons by countries is on the same feed as the picture of your neighbor sharing a funny experience with their dog. The two stories do not have the same weight or impact on life, but their positioning together desensitizes us to truly large events and stories that carry impact.

News editors are charged with arranging items such that they will be alluring and attractive to the viewer. It is the news editor and the production staff that decides which stories are worthy of broadcast and which are forgotten. Hence, the decision is made to prioritize news items for us, the consumers. Language, the perspective and the way a story is revealed, is adjusted to accommodate their goals.

Think of how we have been desensitized to the atrocities that took place in Gaza. In October 2023, Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage in Isreal. Israel retaliated by proclaiming war on the Palestinians and at the end of two years close to 70,000 Palestinians were killed. During the war Gaza was obliterated. We kept hearing the numbers. It is easy, and in fact it is natural, to compare the numbers and the scale of the war on both sides. That’s where they want you to look, instead of looking at the human side of this tragedy. Which child – the Israeli or the Gazan – is not mourned by their family? Which person – the Israeli or the Gazan – did not bleed when struck down?

We have forgotten humanity.

In Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9, a paralyzed man is brought to Jesus. Jesus turns to him and says, “Your sins are forgiven.” He did not see the physical trappings of this man. Jesus did what he knew was necessary, to heal the man of his spiritual baggage. The people were incensed at Jesus. Who can forgive sin but God? they asked. Jesus answered, “…which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’  or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And he arose and departed to his house.

The people who brought this man to Jesus had forgotten that he had a soul, he had a spirit. But he was not forgotten by Jesus. The man was not to be identified only by the confines of his physical body. There was another way of understanding the picture. It was by God’s rules and not by any other. We will continue tomorrow.

For today, we pray, “Lord, have mercy. Amen”

Forgotten: The Silence of Friends

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Armodoxy for Today: The Forgotten, Part 2 – Silence of the Friends

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., made this observation during his struggle for Civil Rights: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” As a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he did not understand how a Christian, follower of Jesus Christ, could stay silent and be apathetic in the face of injustice and violence against others. In April of 1963, while arrested for civil disobedience, he penned the remarkable “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in which he echoed the Call of Christ, 2,000 years after Jesus walked the Earth, to care for your fellow human being. (https://letterfromjail.com) “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” he said.

The “anywhere” in his case was the United States, particularly in the South. He lived through the injustice of bigotry and discrimination, manifesting itself in violence, hatred and apathy in the face of that injustice.

The “anywhere” at the turn of the 19th century was the Ottoman Empire where the Armenian population would come to be known as the first victims of Genocide in the 20th Century. One-and-a-half-million Armenians were slaughtered and killed in a mass program of systematic annihilation and ethnic cleansing. The headlines on the world’s largest and most widely circulated newspaper screamed the news of massacres, rape and murder – hangings, beheadings, death marches photographed. The Ambassador of the United States to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau Sr. painstakingly detailed the atrocities committed against the Armenian and Greek populations. Despite the horrendous details of barbaric acts, the world stayed silent.

The Armenians were overlooked by the world. They were the forgotten. Seemingly good Christian people, who attended church regularly, and listened to the stories of Jesus, probably shook their heads in disgust of the atrocities, but were quiet about these things. So much so, that the silence was deafening.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The “everywhere” was not too far away. In 1939, Adolf Hitler on announcing his plans to invade Poland, was questioned by his military personnel about the feasibility of such an invasion. What would the world think? What would the world say? What would the world do? Hitler infamously responded, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

Forgotten. Yes. It didn’t take long. Only fifteen years after the end of the Armenian Genocide, it was forgotten, because it never entered the consciousness of the people.  It makes us think about our reaction to violence, war and even genocide today, in Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Ukraine today. We’ll get there, tomorrow.

For today, I’d like to share with you a prayer which is my answer to Shnorhali’s nineth hour of prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, you who opened the eyes of the blind man, open our eyes which are blinded by hatred. You who gave hearing to the deaf man, open our ears which can no longer hear the cry of babies. You who loosened the tongue of the mute, open our mouths so we may share our voice for justice. You who restored strength in the legs of the paralyzed man, give us the stamina to walk to bring aid. You who opened the hearts of those who hate, open our hearts to give to those in need. Amen.

The Forgotten, part 1: Why?

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Armodoxy for Today: Part 1 – The Forgotten, Why?

In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 7, we read that as Jesus was passing by the gate of the city of Nain, a funeral procession was taking place. The Gospel narrative gives us these details, the dead man was “the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.  When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.” (12-15)

The details in this story are not randomly placed here. When reading the Gospels in general, you’ll find that Jesus has a special concern and care for widows. In this story, these details – that the dead man was the only son of a widow – are essential to understanding Jesus’ compassion and why Jesus reacted the way he did. In the society of that day and age, women were identified by their fathers, their husbands, and in the event that they were widowed, by their male sons. In this story, we find the widow has lost her only son, and therefore, she will be an outcast, betrayed to a life of indigence.

Jesus paid attention to the forgotten, to those who slip through the cracks become shadows.

In my personal library I have a large selection of books related to genocide, more specifically, about the Armenian Genocide. One book stands out. Its name in large block letters on the binding call out “The FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE.” As the grandson of Armenian Genocide (1915-23) survivors, I am very sensitive to the plight of the forgotten. As a priest, committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the forgotten are part of my mission.

In this miniseries of daily messages, I’ll be sharing with you a few stories of forgotten people, from Sudan to a prison which has housed a victim of domestic violence for 18 years. Yes, you heard right a victim, a survivor, of domestic violence, who is forgotten in a prison cell. These stories, I will present over the next days, as today’s widows, today’s only son’s mothers, who have God’s attention and deserve ours.

Lord Jesus Christ. You did not turn away from the forgotten children of the world. With your actions, you taught us to extend ourselves to hurting, to the forgotten, as a reminder that before God, there is no one who is forgotten. We are all His children. Fill my heart with compassion to extend myself beyond my reach. Amen.

Family Affair

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Armodoxy for Today: Family Ties

The reading for this Sunday came from the eight chapter of the Gospel of Luke. While Jesus is actively engaged in His ministry, by teaching and sharing profound parables, his mother and brothers come to him, but, Scripture records that they “could not approach Him because of the crowd.” (19) He’s told that his mother and brothers are standing outside and want to see him.

Jesus, changes the conversation, taking the emphasis off of the actual characters of his family, including the Blessed Mother by saying, “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” (21)

With this statement Jesus has opened the doors to God, the Kingdom and to all of Eternity to everyone. Hearing the word of God and doing it, is a formula that is simple and doable. It implies that the word of God is action. It has to be done. “A new commandment I give to you,” says Jesus, “that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Being a member of Jesus’ family, that is, being a Christian, comes down to doing, loving, sharing, caring, reaching, hugging, consoling, praying, comforting, listening, sacrificing, extending yourself to others.

Accordingly, todays  prayer asks for the essentials to be a member of Christ’s family. Lord, open my soul to the courage and strength to be a member of your family. Amen.