Letting Go: Ascension

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: Ascension from the Other Side

FORTY days after Easter, today, is the celebration of Ascension. Jesus gives the Great Commission to the disciples, telling them to baptize and keep the commandments he had taught them. Before Ascending to Heaven Jesus reminds us, “I am with you to the close of the ages,” (Matt. 28:20). He is with us forever!

We are comforted by these words, because we have come to know him – we have  broken bread with him, laughed with him, cried with him, he has cared for us, healed us, tended to our problems. He has supported us in our vulnerability and our loneliness. We certainly receive much assurance and comfort from a pronouncement that he will always be with us. This is a nice reading from the point of view of the Disciples.

But what about the point of view of Jesus Christ? Have you considered that it was difficult for Jesus to leave us, and what assurance did he have from us?  He was about to leave the children he had cared for. Would they stick to the game plan? Would they take on life the way he thought they would? Would they be safe? Would they stay faithful to all they had learned?

Perhaps the closest parallel might be with parents whose children leave home to start their life? You have cared for them, cleaned their wounds, helped them through the difficulties of childhood and adolescence and offered unconditional love. You’ve been a friend in their loneliness and let them lean on you during their most challenging moments. But there comes a time when they have to break off. It is the order of life. Every beginning has an end. Unless a mother bird backs off and allows her young to fall out of the nest, their wings will never spread to fly. And yes, there is a chance that the young bird will fall onto the ground, but it will never test its capability of flight until it tries to catch the wind.

A parent who gives their child in marriage may worry; will my child make it? Or, a parent may believe that their upbringing, the foundation they laid, will give the child the ground from where the family tree will grow and blossom. I suspect, this is the feeling Jesus had when he left his children on that Ascension Day, knowing that they were going to meet all kinds of challenges in life, but confident that his prayers, his love and his connection to God gave his children the necessary tools to take on life.

“Lo, I am with you to the end of the ages.” Of course. We have no doubt. And neither did he.

Today, I share a prayer by Yeretsgin Susan on the occasion of our son’s wedding:

Lord, we thank You for Your heavenly benediction in joining our son, and now daughter, in the sacrament of marriage.

Bless and enrich their marriage in love, companionship, mutual support, oneness of heart and progress in faith and life.

Protect their holy wedlock from sin, evil and danger. Foster between them the spirit of understanding, the spirit of forgiveness, and the spirit of peace, that no resentment, quarrel or other problems may cause them to stumble and fall.

Remind them of the lessons they have learned from their loved ones, especially those who have returned to their Maker. Grant them to see their own faults and to not judge each other. Keep their bond of love always new.  May they feel Your presence in their lives through the joy of marriage, that with one heart they may praise and glorify You forever.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Cover: Watercolor, The Ascension Jesus POV

Stale Vision of War

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: Stale Vision

The word “stale” describes food that is “No longer fresh and pleasant to eat; hard, musty, or dry,” says the dictionary. The word easily can be applied to nonedible items, even to the abstract.  A quick glance at the geopolitical situation of our world and you can easily apply the “stale” descriptor to visions that breed hatred, vie for power and lead to wars. As it states in Proverbs, Where there is no vision, the people perish. (29:18)

The stale vision of fighting fire with fire, that might makes right, or stratagems such as, appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak, only guarantee the perpetuation of wars.

Look closer at the holders of these so-called visions, and you’ll find they belong to older men who draft the young ones to fight those wars.

Jesus came to the world to challenge the stale visions with an option for life.  “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’” (Matthew 9) says Jesus, to a world that is desperate for a vision, a vision which is articulated by love and its manifestations, such as mercy.

Today we fund wars throughout the world based on stale visions which propagate more hatred and more war. Death, disease, famine instead of life, health and wealth. Think of the billions, if not trillions, of dollars that can be used to fight larger wars, such as housing and sheltering homeless populations, or truly finding meaningful solutions to refugee issues, abolishing slavery or physically transferring flood waters to areas devastated by drought or exploring new innovations in medicine and technology to improve the quality of life. Yes, life, health and wealth.

The stale vision of war is literally and figuratively a one-way ticket to death – “the people perish.”

As the Body of Christ, the Church, has a responsibility and duty to continue to herald the vision for peace as delivered to us by Christ, “Peace on Earth and goodwill toward one another.” This a sacred calling which is pronounced by God and heeded by humanity.

Armodoxy is a testament to the power of Life, and it comes from the Body that proclaims that power, the Body of Christ, His Holy Church. Here, Faith, Hope and Love are advocated, in the Divine Vision offered by the One who is The Way, the Truth and the Life!

We end today with a prayer by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. O God, we thank you for the lives of great saints and prophets in the past, who have revealed to us that we can stand up amid the problems and difficulties and trials of life and not give in. We thank you for our forefathers, who’ve given us something in the midst of the darkness of exploitation and oppression to keep going. Grant that we will go on with the proper faith and the proper determination of will, so that we will be able to make a creative contribution to this world. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Love Found

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: Memorial Day

There is a park that I pass by occasionally on my morning rides. It has a sizable monument dedicated to the veterans of US wars. On the center plaque there are the insignias of the different branches of the military hovering around a lone statement that reads, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

I happen to know that this quote is from Jesus. In the Gospel of John (15), Jesus proclaims this truth in final discourse with his disciples before being betrayed and handed over to trial and crucifixion. But for others who had not read the Bible passage or had no reference to Jesus, the quote seems like a basic truth. And that’s how it is presented to the visitors of the park and this monument. The quote is without reference, neither to Jesus, nor to the Gospel in which it appears.

One of the most beautiful traditions we have in the United States is expressed in the Memorial Day holiday. It is an expression of appreciation for one of the greatest gifts, namely freedom, and the price that has been paid for it.

A value can be ascribed to everything, except to human life. Life is a gift given only once by God and therefore it is priceless. When someone loses their life for a cause, we say they have paid the ultimate price, again, emphasizing its pricelessness.

We have heard that freedom is not free, and interestingly enough, the price of freedom is measured by life, that is, the value of freedom is so great that it can only be measured, or given value, in terms of human life.

Stephen Stills writes,
Do we find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down

Whether the words of Jesus are referenced to him or not, the words “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” stands as an axiom. As Christians, however, we are consoled in knowing that our Lord, Jesus Christ, said these words as a statement about his offering, his love for his friends, for his children.

Memorial Day gives us a beautiful opportunity and a chance to reflect on something that should be reflected upon regularly, that is, the value of life and those things that are measured by life itself. Are there things that you love more than life itself? Freedom? Family? Love? Country? A close inventory can reveal much. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King has said, “If a man has not found something worth dying for, he is not fit to live.”

Jesus made it clear, that he loved us so much that he laid his life down for us, his friends. In return he asks that we lay our lives down, not to the grave but to surrender to loving one another. It is the greatest testimony to Memorial Day, to respect the price others have paid and understand that in living, and living fully, we honor their sacrifice.

Let us pray, On this Memorial Day, we pray for those who courageously laid down their lives for the cause of freedom. May the examples of their sacrifice inspire in us the selfless love of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless the families of our fallen troops, and fill their homes and their lives with Your strength and peace. Amen. (from Common Prayers)

Beyond Empty Words

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: And then what?

For the past week I’ve shared with you stories and events of silence-in-the-face-of-atrocities. From the Armenian Genocide – the first of a series against different people, that continues until today –these horrendous and heinous crimes took place, and take place, on the world stage with relative ease, because of that silence.

I’ve shared with you that the word “Genocide” should not be thrown around lightly. Its meaning is beyond war and is fueled by pure hatred and prejudice. It may be manipulated by politics, but the fuel is evil, just as hatred is.

And finally, I’ve shared with you the urgency of this singular moment. We throw around the words such as, “Never Again” but they are merely rhetoric and empty words without our actions behind them.

Today I add a common theme of Armodoxy to these messages, and that is that our Christian faith is not something that comes alive Sunday mornings only. Jesus is very clear that we must be in sync with God all the time. It is not complicated, it’s merely doing His will, which is to love, to care, to forgive, to nurture, to share, to oppose evil.

Jesus instructs with this parable and asks, “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered.

Of course, the first! The one who promises to do the work and does not, is like those with the empty talk of “Never again.”

The Gospel message is very clear. It was pronounced by the angels on the night of Christ’s Birth: Peace on Earth, goodwill toward one another. The message is that God is love. Hatred cannot eliminate hatred. Ask any mathematician: 1 Hate +1 Hate = 2 Hate, not Ø Hate. The only thing the bombings of innocent people will do is ensure the continuity of hatred for generations to come. The message of Jesus is simple: Light is more powerful than darkness, Love is more powerful than hate, and Life is more powerful than death. Not empty words: He proved this with his life. It’s the message the Apostles preached. It is the apostolic message that we share through our means.

We pray, Lord Jesus Christ, you proclaimed You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. Take me beyond empty words to see You as the Incarnation of Love, and let me understand that the Only Way, the Only Truth and the Only Life is Love. Use me as an instrument of that Love. Amen.

A Genocide Degree of Hatred

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: Genocide Degree of Hatred

Toward the end of my first week in Rwanda, I made a very unusual discovery. I guess being in such a new and different country had consumed my attention to the point that I had not noticed this, or perhaps because it’s something you really don’t think about. But, after several days meeting with genocide survivors, I realized there was no one with grey hair!

The year was 2006 and I had been invited with a group of six educators from USC to visit the country that had experienced genocide 12 years earlier. The people I was meeting on the streets and in gatherings were children during the time of the genocide in 1994. But it just didn’t seem right. There had to be a few older people. There had to be some grey-haired people left. If there were, I wasn’t seeing them.

I asked around and one of our hosts took us for a drive out of town. We arrived at a camp for widows and orphans, and there, there they were: people with grey hair! These were people who, instead of being slaughtered, were allowed to live. There were about 200 ladies assembled in an outdoor auditorium to meet with our group.

After we were cordially introduced to the group, the turn was theirs. Our host introduced this group of genocide survivors to us. These were ladies whose husbands were taken at night and killed. And it goes without saying that taking advantage of the absence of the men, these ladies were brutally raped and abused. As tragic and as painful it was to listen to their stories, the question still remained: why were these women allowed to live? Why were they given a pass on martyrdom so that their hair could age with them? Why were these grey-haired ladies so special?

To continue with the introductions, and to make a point to us about the ravages of genocide, our host asked the ladies, “How many of you have HIV-AIDS?” All of them – yes, all of them – raised their hand!

Let it sink in. These 200 women at this one camp were allowed to live because they would then infect future partners, insuring death to survivors who fled the genocide.

Genocide is no ordinary crime. It’s not war. It’s the deliberate, sanctioned and systematic destruction and annihilation of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the intent to destroy the group as such. Imagine the degree of hatred toward a group of people that measures are taken, in this case infecting them with HIV-AIDS, so that if by chance someone survived they’d be stricken down.

My grandmothers and grandfathers were children when they fled the Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. It wasn’t until they had grey hair that I got to know them. We’re always thankful that countries in the Middle-East, Europe, the Americas opened their doors to them. Fortunately, there were people who cared. It’s something I can’t forget and am bound morally to call out the horrendous crime of genocide. It’s not a political issue, it’s a humanitarian issue.

Today we echo our 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 the walk to bring aid. You who opened the hearts of those who hate, open our hearts to give to those in need. Amen.

 

World Central Kitchen, here and there

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: WCK, here and there

The day after the Feast of Theophany this year, wildfires broke out throughout Los Angeles. Our area was hit severely forcing evacuations. After three days away we were allowed back to our home in Pasadena. Thank God we had one to return to. Many of our friends and acquaintances returned to find their houses leveled, burnt to the ground along with memories. The standing brick chimneys in neighborhood are an eerie reminder of those ravaging fires.

For the weeks, which turned into months, the World Central Kitchen was busy at work throughout the city, providing meals and supplies to the victims. The World Central Kitchen serves chef-prepared meals to communities impacted by natural disasters and during humanitarian crises. Check out their website for a map of all the places on Earth where they are cooking tonight. Over 450 million meals!

One of the greatest humanitarian crises on our planet right now is in Gaza. World Central Kitchen was there. In April, seven of their aid workers were killed in an air strike by Isreal. They were recently eulogized at the National Cathedral by the founder of the World Central Kitchen, Jose Andres.

Seven people who went to help in a humanitarian effort were killed. You wonder, where is the justice in all of this?

Just a couple of days ago, World Central Kitchen announced that it was halting all aid to the Gaza, “After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza,” it said in a post on X.

This, while more than 2 million people, the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA announced, face severe food shortages.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s message, what I am talking about is not about the politics there, but about the humanitarian crisis of innocent children and people being deprived of medicine, food and water.

Tomorrow, I’ll share with you how an encounter in post-genocide Rwanda explained this reality and what it means.

Today, we pray, “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 long 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 restore strength in the legs of the paralyzed man, gives us the stamina to the walk to bring aid. You who opened the hearts of those who hate, open our hearts to give those in need. Amen.

Next Step with Fr. Vazken #802 – Listen Here

No Escape, Don’t Miss the Flowers on the Floor

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: No Escape, Engage

This last Sunday I stood in church next to a visiting clergyman. We didn’t have an opportunity to speak before the morning service, but when the celebrant priest went to the vestry to prepare for the Liturgy, we had a few moments to exchange pleasantries. I asked him from where he was visiting. He answered quickly, Ukraine. I looked over at him in the moment of the unexpected answer, and he quickly pinpointed for me a precise location: Odesa, he said. He serves the dwindling Armenian community there. I asked him if he was close to the fighting, to which he again snapped, Every day, bombs are dropped around us! We see them fall in the middle of the city.

The war was right next to me in this holy sanctuary. There’s no escape. The Divine Liturgy began but I could not get Ukraine out of my mind. I had just recorded my “Next Step” podcast (#802) the day before, with a call to activism against the wars. Ukraine, Gaza, the Congo, India, Pakistan, are all areas that are referred to in news stories. But, there I was, in church, with priest who was in proximity of bombs and gun fire every day. There’s no escape from the new reality. War is all around us and it’s invading all of our spaces. We can choose to ignore it, or take an active role in advocating for peace.

Every Sunday, during the Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Church, the celebrant priest, descends from the altar area and processes around the inner circumference of the church.  As he walks by the congregants, he holds a cross in one hand and censes fragrant incense with the other.

There are a variety of reactions to his presence in the congregation. Some lower their head to ask for a blessing, while others kiss the cross in the priest’s hand out of reverence. Others smile and acknowledge his presence, while others are too busy reading the bulletin or perhaps scriptures. Still, others watch as he goes by, not interested in engaging in any manner. And of course, for those who are not there at that moment, the opportunity to interact is lost because the priest processes through the sanctuary and ascends back to the altar area to continue the Liturgy.

This part of the Divine Liturgy, is as old as Christianity itself. It symbolizes Christ’s descent from the comfort of heaven to live, walk and be among us, after which he ascended back to heaven. During Jesus’ life, there were many reasons and many different interactions with him, just like the congregants on a Sunday morning interacting with the processing priest. There were people who sought him for miracles and healings, while others engaged with him for a blessing or merely to touch his garment. And, of course, for many, the opportunity to be made whole was there and they let him pass by. They were busy praying, reading, rationalizing or philosophizing and, he went by, never to be engaged.

In life, there are moments that are singular and they demand our interplay at that moment, otherwise, they go by. Sometimes, events demand that we interact.

Today wars are taking place. Genocide is happening on the world stage. Ethnic cleansing is the plot. To stay quiet and/or to ignore the horror, is an opportunity lost.

We pray, Heavenly Father, I see pain and suffering in this world. I have walked that path in the past. I said, Never Again. Today, grant me the courage to speak out against evil everywhere, so that I may have the moral authority to voice myself whenever evil confronts me. Amen.

What more? Try The Next Step with Fr. Vazken, Episode #802: Unapologetic Apologies

Order from the Spirit

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: Order

Chaotic life is difficult life. Chaos is characterized by random or unpredictable behavior. Hence, chaos carries a negative connotation because unpredictability leads to undesired results, disorganization and confusion. As people we opt for organization. The laws of gravity are organization on a large, astronomical scale, but on a human scale, we like things to fit properly and have order to them.

And then there’s life, which can be unpredictable, almost to the point of randomness, but not quite. In gambling casinos, slot machines are very popular, and though they are computerized and have schedule of payouts, we know that they are a very popular attraction as people try to beat the odds of a seemingly random spin of the wheels. In fact, most gambling games are based on certain formulas that include random factors, and yet the popularity of these games is a testament to people trying to beat the odds, or we can say, predict the unpredictable.

A chaotic life is a difficult life. Religion is a means of bringing order to the chaos by explaining the unexplainable. Something as beautiful as childbirth, for instance, is accompanied by excruciating pain. In the Book of Genesis, when God says to the woman, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children…” (3:16) we find one such example of an explanation. With a curse by God, we receive an answer to the question of why does a lovely and natural event such as childbirth come with massive pain?

Much of life is filled with these puzzles, some are associated with the mundane, while others address issues of war, pain and suffering. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? These twin questions usually stimulate people to seek answers in the spiritual world, in religion. There seems to be a random distribution of goods in the world. Why are some born to poverty and struggle through all of life, while others, of no effort of their own, are born in prosperity and seem to enjoy a life of luxury?

Religion gives, or should attempt to give, answers to these questions. At the end, the object is to bring order from seeming chaos.

In Christianity, the answer is given by Jesus Christ. His answer is pure and asks that we engage with Him in such a way that “Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” That engagement is the gravity that brings order to the chaos of our lives.

Today, by way of prayer, we read the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10) – Jesus’ definition of a life lived with the order of God:

  • “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  •  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
  •  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
  •  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
  •  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
  •  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
  •  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
  •  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Too Much Silence

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: Too Much Silence

Her name was Marie. Some called her Mary, once or twice, Maria. To me, she was grandma.

She was the oldest of six children. She was married and had two children herself before her life changed drastically. Her small family found refuge in the home of her parents, where they lived until they were exiled. Political unrest was all around her, and there was news coming in regularly of killings – individual and mass – in nearby villages and towns.

Marie was forcibly removed from her home, but only after her father and husband were seized and taken away, leaving the household with women and children only, an easy target for rape and physical brutality.

It became apparent to Marie that the government’s plan was much greater that singling out her family or her town. The government was executing a program of mass annihilation of an ethnic population, which later became defined as genocide, or for ease of understanding, “ethnic cleansing.” Marie didn’t understand why it was necessary to dumb-it-down to basic understanding. In fact, throughout her lifetime she had a hard time understanding why, people of seeming intelligence, upright moral character, people who would worship in churches, and praise God and proclaim the name of the Lord, why would these “nice” people allow such atrocities take place?

Marie died in 1985 in a bed in America, distanced by 70 years from the events that brought her to this country. Fortunately, she did not live to see, nor did she have the need to question the silence of the world over Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Sudan, Congo and now Gaza. It was enough that she lived through the quiet world over the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany and the antics of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.

The great minister of the Gospel, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” It was addendum to his warning, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

Inspired by Shnorhali’s 10th hour, I offer this prayer today, All provident Lord, open my eyes to the hurt and pain in the world, so I may see the beauty of life in all. Open my ears so I may hear the cries of your children, open my mouth so I may speak against the evil in the world and promote peace, open my hands so I may work for justice, guide my feet to walk in the paths of righteousness, so that my faith comes alive in a life lived by your commandments. Amen.

Mother: A Second Womb

/0 Comments/in ,

Armodoxy for Today: A Second Womb

In the not-so-distance past, in a time before cell companies offered unlimited calling plans, the connection between two telephones cost money. The farther the distance between two points – between two callers – the higher the price of the call.

AT&T, which was once generically known as the phone company, kept statistics of calling patterns. The most telephone calls made were on Mother’s Day. And on Father’s Day, they reported the most collect calls were made! A collect call was one in which the charges were reversed from the caller to the called number. An interesting statistic which offers a look at the changing times, in many ways, including phone calls and gender roles.

On the second Sunday of May, we celebrate Mother’s Day in the United States. A beautiful tradition, indeed. The Hallmark greeting-card company offers us another tidbit of information that Mother’s Day ranks third in the number of cards sent in the US, and ranks number one for card exchange in the Hispanic community.  Some cynically will point to Hallmark as fabricating this celebration, for profit motives.

The Church had a day on its calendar, from the early centuries, known at “Mothering Day.” On that day people would visit the church where they were baptized. There they would offer gifts of flowers, candles and incense to their spiritual mother, the Holy Church.

The font of baptism is known as the womb of the Church. We are “born again” from this womb to our Mother, the Holy Church. This is based on the scriptural exchange twixt Jesus and a man named Nicodemus who questioned, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3)

Today we pray, Lord our God, we thank you for the blessing of motherhood. We remember the mothers that have nourished us and led us in paths that bring us closer to You. Keep us ever respectful of all mothers especially our Holy Mother Church which has renewed us in a new life in Christ. Amen.