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.

All Saints – A Need for Today

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Armodoxy for Today: Child’s Play

I often wonder why we complicate things. Why is it that children are flexible and bounce back from difficulties? Why does Jesus point to a child, challenging us to understand that Kingdom of God it belongs such like the little children?

Halloween is one such time when I can’t help but think about the innocence that is lost when adults jump into children’s lives. Halloween is a church feast. It is the night before “All Saints Day” or “All Hallow’s Eve” slurred to the sound of Halloween. Yes, the roots are pagan, but so are the roots of just about everything else. Christians have taken the tradition of remembering the saints – the hallows – and celebrating them. All Saints Day is celebrated on November 1st in the West, and so October 31st is the Eve of All Hallow’s Day. In the Armenian Church, All Saints Day is celebrated on the Saturday closest to November 1st and so the eve is on Friday night. In Armenian we refer to the evening celebration as nakhatonak or “before the feast.”

Saints are very special people in our lives. They are not gods, that is, they are people just like us, with their frailties and imperfections. They have sinned, doubted, betrayed and have been found to be insincere. Yet, despite their imperfections, they have risen from their humanity to touch the divine. In other words, because they are like us, the door is opened to the possibility for all of us to excel and strive for perfection.

Because we believe in the continuity of life, we believe saints live beyond their earthly existence. The practice of intercessory prayer is merely asking the saints to remember us in their prayers, much like you would ask any of your friends or your priest or pastor to pray for you. Because saints have passed on, the notion of connecting with someone in the grave conjures up spooky thoughts and expressions. Add to this the money motive, and you have the formula for what takes place today at Halloween, with scary movies, zombies, bloody masks, and disfigured disguises.

Here’s a challenge that comes straight out of the Armodoxy playbook, take back Halloween. What a beautiful way to share the traditions of the Church with your children, but to have them dressed up as the saints of the Church! Each saint brings a story of devotion, dedication and challenges us to overcome. Halloween can be a means of learning and celebrating your religious heritage.

As you dress up in the costume of your favorite saint, listen to the intercessory prayer made to our saints.

O Christ our God, you crown your saints with triumph, and you do the will of all who fear you, looking after your creatures with love and kindness. Hear us from your holy and heavenly realm by the intercession of the Holy Mother of God and by the prayers of all your saints. Hear us Lord, and show us your mercy. Forgive, redeem and pardon our sins. Make us worthy thankfully to glorify you with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit. Now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

 

Seemingly makes the difference

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Armodoxy for Today: Seemingly

In the eight chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus makes a pronouncement that, had he been concerned about ratings as would a politician, he would have certainly be abandoned by the crowd. After sharing a few parables he warns the listener, “Take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.” It’s the words that political opponents accused each other with: The rich get richer and the poor get poor. “…Whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”

But Jesus does not allow for a debate on this statement, and so he adds a qualifier, “seems to have” makes all the difference.

Material wealth is and always has been an illusion because it is not permanent. The intrinsic value of an object or an amount of money is the dependent on the circumstances in which it exists. A million dollars in the bank is a “1” with six zeros behind it. There is no intrinsic value to it, until it is spent. It can buy an object, a house, a car, an education, health care, all things that give that 1+six 0’s its value.

Today we are challenged to look within and at our lives. What are the things that we truly possess? And things that we seem to possess? Are they things that can be taken away? And what are the things that are impossible to take away from us? An education? Faith? Belief?

Because of the constant displacement of the Armenian people, along with the ransacking of their homes, churches and institutions, Armodoxy arrives today with an understanding of are the true treasures? As Jesus directs us,  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.1 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

From the Book of Hours, we pray, “O Lord, do not turn Your face from us. Benevolent Lord, we ask You, be our helper. Send us Your angel of peace who will come and protect us from temptations. Almighty Lord our God, save and have mercy upon us.”

Humility as the Separator

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Armodoxy for Today: Humility as the Separator

In this week following the feast of Discovery of the Holy Cross of Christ, there is a common thread tying together all the messages we have presented. The thread, in fact, makes up the fabric of what we refer to as Armodoxy, namely, understanding ourselves as people and God as God. This may sound odd, but as humanity take more and more control over the elements of life, the line between the Creator and creation becomes more blurred. We succumb to the illusion that everything is subjected to the will of man. And along comes the unexplainable. The mysterious.  

Death is inevitable, we know and we can prepare for it, but the painful hurt of parting with a loved one catches us off guard as we scramble to contain our emotions. We see evil manifest in the forms of intolerance and even greater, in the form of war, and we ask the question, why can’t we live together? We can create weapons of mass destruction but have yet to find a way of producing even the simplest expressions of life, such as a single paper-thin fingernail of a newborn which is packed with the DNA code that will guide her through a lifetime. And of course, on the larger scale we look into the depths of space, and expand our mind into the thought of multiple universes, and all the while learn that most of our own planet’s surface – over 75% of it – is unexplored.

The Discovery of the Cross is to search, find and absorb humility. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, sacrificed himself, is an open invitation to all of us to find the definition of Love in that sacrifice. In the Armenian Church Tradition we have a saying: God became man so that man can become god. It is a simple meditation to understand ourselves as people, on a journey, together as humanity and our only salvation is loving and caring for one another.

From the Book of Hours we pray, Peace and life, our Lord and Savior, the Only-Begotten Son of God, give us Your peace, that You grant to Your holy apostles by breathing into them Your life-giving and all powerful Holy Spirit, so that having found our peace from all worldly commotions we may become a temple and a habitation of Your grace. Amen.

Crushed thorns don’t hurt

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Armodoxy for Today: Crushed Thorns

Fear breeds worry. Worry, like a can of carbonated soda which is shaken over and over, will push through the weakest point, to find relief. The can of soda explodes when the top is pulled, and even worse, if the top isn’t pulled, will burst at the seams. In the case of humans, the body has many points that are not meant to be put under such stress. Pressure builds up and something has to give, sooner or later. The sooner you abandon the worry, the less chance of catastrophic effects on the body.

God speaks to us through His Holy Church. His Voice is heard through the Scriptures and Teachings, and often in ways that our dull faculties find it difficult to sense.

A few days ago, a friend sent me a picture of the interior of a Catholic church in Rome. The message accompanying the picture asked if I could decipher the writing under one of the arches. I zoomed in on the picture and found Armenian letters ոչ եղիցին փուշ ցաւոց staring at me. I looked at the words and translated the words respectively, “no be thorn pain.” I didn’t understand much else beyond the individual words, and my mind, which is usually up to the challenge of deciphering codes, was preoccupied with worries over recent health issues affecting a loved one.

The worry caused by those concerns kept me up that night and the following day I went into church with the baggage of these worries weighing me down. I happened to run into a priest that morning, one who had spent many years at the Vatican. Just the right person to ask, I thought. I showed him the picture and asked if he was aware of this writing and he too had not seen it, but he went beyond a word-for-word translation and gave me the gist of the message: Not even a thorn will hurt you!*

It was a message that came to me loud and clear. My worries were to no avail. Not even a thorn could hurt us.

If this was only one example in my life, I would not bring it up, but God’s promise has been reiterated to me. Ask and you shall receive, says the Lord. Why do we continue to doubt? Or in the words of our Lord, “…Do not worry…  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.”

I leave you with this important adage which I never tire from reminding myself: If you’re going to pray, don’t worry. And if you’re going to worry, don’t pray.

*cf. Ezekiel 28:24

First Discovery is Enough to Celebrate

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Armodoxy for Today: First Discovery is Enough

One of the celebrations of the Holy Cross takes place this week. It commemorates the discovery of the Cross of Christ. It comes from the fourth century. The mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, having converted to Christianity, sets out to find the Cross of Christ. She travels from the Roman Empire to Jerusalem and there finds the True Cross of Christ.

It is a story that is laced with beauty, wonder and what is often described as miracles. It points to one of the most precious objects of our faith, the Holy Cross, and of course, its discovery is a reason for joy and celebration.

But there is a very special message that is woven into the Scriptural passage of the Day. The Church Fathers have assigned to this day a passage from Matthew chapter 24 (verses 27 to 36). In it, Jesus speaks about the Second Coming of Christ, and likens it to “the lightning [which] comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be… the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” At the end of the description Jesus reveals, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”

Discovering this “second Cross” of the Jesus has turned into an obsession with so many people, with books, seminars, sects and denominations that have sprouted in particular over the last century. Some churches have even published timelines and dates for the Second Coming. Dare I say, the Second Coming of Christ has turned into big business, bringing in millions of dollars for access to this information. Tragically, these groups and sects even confuse people by using titles such as “church” and have misinformed people about Scripture. The real tragedy is that many have abandoned the opportunity to live, in hopes of deciphering God’s will.

Plainly, Jesus says, dates and times are in God’s domain. Trust God. Don’t miss the opportunity to live and celebrate the day has God has given you. Live your life today. Or as Jesus so eloquently stated, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness… do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6)

Politics, Religions & Connections

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Armodoxy for Today: It’s all connected

If you want to keep the peace in the family or among friends, you’ve been told from an early age to steer clear of discussing politics and religion. Even Peanuts character, Linus Van Pelt, with security blanket in hand, knows, “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people – Religion, Politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”

It’s all connected

It was the 18th century satirist, Jonathan Swift who put his finger on the reason for this unfriendly mix when he wrote, “You cannot reason someone out of something he or she was not reasoned into.” Yes, most of the time we’re “born into” our persuasions, be they religious or political, we adopt them from our family and friends.

But the basic understanding in Armodoxy is that all things are connected in a universal network of life. Economics gives us the resources to buy the Bible, which defines sin, which psychology attempts to diminish. Physics explains the movement of the building blocks which chemistry and biology exploit into physical realities, that art presents in forms that express ideas that form ideologies that philosophy dissects and analyses. Politics creates systems that organize those ideologies, and religion is there to ensure the equity of distribution, claiming to have a connection to a higher understanding of fairness.

We get into trouble when we claim one system of distribution is better than another. An old Hindu proverb claims, “There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading to the same place, so it doesn’t matter which path you take. The only person wasting time is the one who runs around the mountain, telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.”

Jesus avoids the discussion by turning the responsibility onto the individual. Equity is achieved by sacrifice – by giving of yourself. He teaches this, and then demonstrates with his own life. There is no argument here, for when we give, the giving is between us and God. We do not give to prove a system better than another, nor do we give to the justify the system. We give, because it is the expression of love, which is the expression of God. It is not up for discussion nor debate. If you want to practice Christianity, then love, then sacrifice yourself. Plainly, religion is not to be debated but is to be lived.

The Armenian Church saint, Hovhaness Voskeberan (= St. John Chrysostom) 4th century writes, “If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice.”

We end with one of his prayers, Almighty God, you have promised through your Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

Cover: WordArt