Personal Responsibility

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Armodoxy for Today: Personal Responsibility

Late one night, as I was getting ready to turn in, the phone rang. It was early-on in my ministry. Later on I learned that there’s something about the inconvenient hours that seem to coincide with these types of calls. It was one of my parishioners, asking if I come down to the hospital to offer a prayer for her husband, Marty, who was taken in by ambulance.

I got in my car and drove cross-town to a San Jose hospital, not knowing what to expect. The call was a quick one, not enough time to ask for details.

At the hospital’s reception area, I asked for the patient by name and they directed me to the intensive care unit. I made my way through the hallways and found the doors to the ICU. Just next to it was the waiting room for the family members. The patient’s wife, Rose, stood up and came running over to me. She gave me a big bear hug and between the tears she scratched out a few words, “Why did God take him away?”

I was late, at least that’s how I understood this scene. Did I mention it was early on in my ministry? I went into the ICU where Marty’s breathless body lay on a hospital bed. With Rose and the family around, we offered a prayer for his soul and covered the body with the bed sheet.

Why did God take him away? Her question haunted me at that moment and for years to come. At the moment I almost crumbled under the weight of the question. I felt as if I needed to give an answer. She was asking me to defend God! Why did God take him away?

We spent some time in the ICU – an environment that is very conducive for pastoral counselling, and yes, people look at the priest as one who can and will answer for God. It was sometime later that I understood that God doesn’t need defending. He can take care of Himself quite well. Thank you very much. But even that night, on my way back home I came to realize the God factor is merely a comfort for the family. God is a catch-all, a way of passing along the pain off of yourself. The reality was that Marty was quite a large man, up in age, struggling with diabetes, and had a three-pack-a-day smoking habit. Perhaps God did “take him away” but the circumstances around his death point to something more earthly and more personally controllable.

One of the many criticisms of religion is that it eschews personal responsibility from the practitioner. It is a problem that becomes even more accented with personal saviors and the deities that control our actions as if we were pieces in a cosmic chess game.

We believe that each of us is endowed with Free Will, and as such, we create our own lives, our own destinies, so to speak. We eschew the term destiny because as long as you – we – have the ability to do otherwise, responsibility for our lives is not destined, whether by God or by the stars, or cards, or anything outside of our selves.

And it follows that on the basis of personal responsibility, judgement takes place. Through the Gospels, Jesus invites us to take responsibility for our lives. He points to the beauty of life in his parables, a beauty that is manifest in our willingness to engage with life.

In this season of the Asdvadzadzin, let us continue with the John 15 discourse about the vine and branches. The operative word to listen for is “if” – that “if” is defined by our free will,

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit… By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:5-13)

Natural Solutions with Supernatural Consequences

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Super Solutions that are Natural

Next Step #780 – August 18, 2023 – Looking for solutions to the supersized crises from the blockade in Artsakh to the wildfire in Hawaii, Fr. Vazken points to natural solutions with supernatural consequences. Empathy comes alive, lip-service ends, children learn, and so do we. Begging others –  America, Russia or France – ends. Weapon and resources we’ve always had and echoed by Khirimian Hayrig himself. A call to donated to Hawaiian Wildfire Relief. Effective protest- to the point and ones which get answers – tried and proven. Religious prejudice and Carlos Santana’s Supernatural. Jesus’ natural supernatural abilities.

Links from today’s podcast:
Blockade in Artsakh
Open Wounds and you’d never know
Los Angeles Freeways Blocked
Carlos Santana gets away with Supernatural talk
Hawaiian Wildfire Tragedy
In His Shoes – Hawaiian Wildfire Relief
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Cover Photo – Finger & statue at Cascade 2014
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for http://Epostle.net
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The Psalm 24 Q&A

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Deacon: He is the King of glory!

With a war that cost thousands of lives and the loss of land, another question surfaces: Who is this King, so mighty in battle, that we lost the war? Perhaps not as audible as the chants of the deacon in church, but in the solitude of the mind, many ask this question and for some, it becomes the tipping point to abandoning hopes in a Divine Protector, or just plainly, a disbelief in God.

The Q&A of Psalm 24 is about relevance. What is the relevance of our church service and our Faith to the events shaping the world today? It is an echo of Jesus’ condemnation, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” recorded in Matthew 23. What is the connection between our actions on Sunday mornings and our response to the tragedies that take place during the week? There is an existential crisis brewing in Armenia, in Artsakh, and ultimately, we have to ask, what does it mean to proclaim God as almighty – mighty in battle – in the face of horrific tragedies – rape, mayhem, and executions?

I began the week sharing with you my frustration at a Church which provided the Blessed Mother and grapes, without making the connection to their relevance and significance. We journeyed together along a path that looked at the faith we profess and its application in real terms, that is, to understand miracles as part of our daily life. We spoke of the transformation of the supernatural to the natural. Religion, and especially our religion, Christianity as practiced by the Armenian Church, is about accepting the truth of our belief, without compromise. In the case of Psalm 24 Q&A, Yes, He is the King of Glory, mighty in battle. Accepting this, now the burden is upon us – you and me – to believe it to the point where we stop looking for worldly and political solutions and trust the Faith that has brought us here against the odds.

Today’s lesson is a proclamation that has been repeated in our Liturgy for two millennia. If He was not mighty in battle, if He was not the King of Glory, we certainly would have written it out of the text of the Liturgy. There is a reason why it is repeated and repeated often, because it a profession of reality. We come to find this one profession is at the Center of our Divine Liturgy, which is celebrated throughout the world. In that profession, we are called to engage with the King of Glory. And so, today, we take one step closer, where we understand the answers and solutions to our dilemmas, difficulties, wars and evil, are not in the hands of others, but the invitation has come to us. We understand that the supernatural, is the natural, and it is in us – you and me. Now enters responsibility, our personal responsibility.

We will take a break here to continue next time. Until then, let us pray, “Lord our God, you have called each of us to serve within the Kingdom. Give me the strength and courage to overcome the difficulties of the day and bring my talents to the quest for Peace. Amen”

The Supernatural Within

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Armodoxy for Today: The Supernatural Within

Continuing our journey through Armodoxy, we bring the supernatural home today. If we put away our prejudices, and keep the ego in check, we find it easier to see the supernatural in daily occurrences, whether in the pollination of a flower, the amazing structure a duckling’s tail feather, or the supernatural occurrence healing of the physical.

When we look at the metaphor of the Vine and the branches which Jesus articulates, “I am the vine and you are the branches… you cannot bear fruit without being connected to the vine,” we find a natural progression of events. A branch cannot bear fruit if it is not connected to the vine! Yes, obviously. It’s so natural that it is a given, not even necessary to mention. But our “dull faculties” (Einstein’s words) have become conditioned to the point that we doubt the obvious, and so we must repeat it for clarity. Jesus should not have had to give this lesson in agricultural botany to a group of people who cultivated the land for their livelihood, but he did. Now imagine how much more we need to, and must, reiterate matters with which we are not familiar.

In the last century (and those of you following this series will know why I place the time as such), in my first parish I had a young lady named Leslie, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The diagnosis was devastating enough, without learning of the many horrible and frightening treatments she would endure to fight this disease and with no certainty of winning that battle. Within our parish community the word spread quickly, and we were all in various degrees of anguish. She was a mother of a beautiful daughter who was too young to realize what lurked ahead for mom. Her husband, stoic at the news, but ever so supportive and determined to overcome the cancer. We braced for the worst with members of our church even discussing how to take care of the little child in her mother’s absence.

That Sunday, as all Sundays, we celebrated the Divine Liturgy and distributed the Holy Eucharist. After church services, Leslie approached me. She told me – not asked me – “I received Holy Communion today. It is the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ.” I nodded my head, yes, you did. She continued, “Well, if Jesus Christ is within me, what cancer can survive inside of me? There is no place for that cancer!”

She said this with such conviction and strength. I picture her face saying this to me to this day and my eyes water as I swell up with emotion thinking about it. If Jesus Christ is inside of me, what business does cancer have within me? Yes! That’s exactly what she said.

Leslie went on to live. She and her husband brought two more beautiful daughters to this world and through the years, we stay in touch, even if only for a Christmas card, with pictures of the family growing and flowering. Even more, she is forever connected to me through the “Vine” that connects us all. Her story has helped me through some of my worst days, and I share it with others, not only to offer hope, but to change our perception of the supernatural to natural.

What we call Supernatural is natural, normal, for those who exist in a different plane of understanding. That plane is not that far away. It is no different than perceiving heaven here on earth. The exercise of losing ego and the dropping of the prejudices we harbor against the miracles of life bring us closer to that reality.

We pray today from St. Nersess Shnorhali’s prayer of the evening hours, “Gracious Lord, commit me to a good angel, who may guide my soul in peace, and carry it undisturbed through the wickedness of evil to heavenly places. Amen.”

Prejudging Prejudice toward Religion

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Armodoxy for Today: Packaging the Supernatural

At the end of the last century, musician/guitarist extraordinaire Carlos Santana put out an album of music under the title Supernatural. The album was a huge success, including breaking the record for most Grammy Awards, which up to that time was held by legendary pop star Michael Jackson. The album featured artists from CeeLo Green, to Dave Matthews to Eric Clapton, and many others. Santana used the name “Supernatural” for his album because it was beyond natural, that such greats would come together to put together this music. He felt that the call to come together was also supernatural.

Often, we find ourselves in unexplainable situations, and when we run out of those explanations we appeal to the supernatural. For instance, how is that that all of these top, renowned musicians would come together? How is it that together they would produce such music that it would win critical and popular acclaim? Yes, we can say that it was a talented group of musicians, to say the least, but Carlos Santana chose to say the most, and said it was supernatural.

Some will doubt that there was anything supernatural. Others will swear by it. While still others, will not even care how the music was produced, as much as it was good music which they are able to enjoy it. In other words, not everything needs to be analyzed. But over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at mystery, at practical and impractical approaches to the big issues that confront us, and most recently with the question of genocide, which is being waged in Artsakh. To date, all of the solutions that are being proposed are on political grounds, even with the request for aid from governments, including superpowers. But the option for supernatural solution is pushed to the wayside by the prejudice we harbor toward the religious and religion.

Before the Civil Rights movement and legislation in the 1960s, Black Americans were asked (or forcibly placed) to the back of the bus. That was “their place,” they were told by people who pre-judged them, which is what “prejudice” means – to pre-judge. Because religion has not presented the supernatural in an accessible manner, or, as Einstein alluded, “our dull faculties” are not tuned to understand senses beyond us, we harbor these prejudices.

It is not enough to speak about the supernatural, it has to be presented properly. Packaging and presentation are important. At the beginning of today’s message, I placed our story at the turn of the century. The year was 1999, slightly over 20 years ago, but to present the supernatural, terms like “last century” or “turn of the century” will attract the listener into a frame of reference that can’t be matched with merely “20 years ago.”

Within that packaging, the effects of the supernatural have to the presented as well. Think of Santana’s album; finding the effects is easy because it is the product itself. Armodoxy strives to make the effects of the supernatural just as easy to find in the work of the Church. The fact that that Armenian live life is more than a miracle of the supernatural. A group of people who have no military strategy, no military, no political might, no political ally, and not only live but thrive can only be attributed to a supernatural force. It is on the same scale as Santana’s claim of a supernatural force bringing the musicians and music together. Today’s challenge is to drop our prejudices and not confine religious experience to “their place” where “they belong.

Supernatural occurrences are more common than we are led to believe, if we are willing to look within. Yesterday, we spoke about dropping the ego. With the ego dropped, looking within is even easier.

We take another break here today, only to continue tomorrow. Pray today for introspection. Lord, help me to look within. Allow me to inventory my life and see the true miracles, including my life, my family and the relationships that sustain me. Amen.

Appealing to the Supernatural

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Armodoxy for Today: Appealing to the Supernatural

A wildfire in Hawaii, one of the largest natural disasters in American history, has devastated the landscape and wreaked havoc on the lives of the inhabitants of Maui’s Lahaina district. The war in Ukraine continues almost a year and a half since it started with more and more weapons and armor being sent to the country. And in a small, remote part of the world, a land known as Artsakh, but unknown to most the world, a blockade of food and medicine threatens the population. Because the population is overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian, and because the ruling Azerbaijan government has sanctioned the blockade, this action is genocidal, that is, the government has decided to annihilate the population of Armenians there.

Over the weekend, the Armenian Church celebrated the Assumption of the Asdvadzadzin, the Holy Mother of God, and officiated at the traditional grapeblessing service. I shared with you my personal frustration with the Church that didn’t make the connection between the supernatural events in the Blessed Mother’s life and the supernatural response that we need to seek for the difficulties we face. This is a continuation of this theme of messages.

If we believe the stories of supernatural occurrences, such as the Virgin Birth, why do we hesitate to seek the supernatural assistance that we need to overcome our problems? As we discussed last week, Albert Einstein, among the most prominent within the scientific community speaks about the need mystery and awe, acknowledging reality beyond our five senses. And, we in the Christian community acknowledge life beyond the temporal. So why are we hesitant, at the very least, to include supernatural solutions?

One of the key reasons for grapeblessing is that opens the door for the possibility of something more than us. The grapeblessing service in the Armenian Church has to do with bringing the first-fruits of the community to be blessed. In so doing, the person (in this case the farmer) acknowledges that there is a source for the goodness s/he enjoys, that is the One who is thanked. The grapeblessing takes attention off of ourselves shifting it onto something greater. Whether you call that God, nature, the weather system, the seasonal rotation of the planets, it acknowledges that some of life’s occurrences are beyond our control and beyond our care. Also, the ego becomes deflated, because the grapes, the harvest or our product is dependent on much more than the self.

In fact, one of the most important reasons to be involved in a church community is because we understand that our life is dependent on so many others. Each of us is part of the network of life, and, like it or not, no one is indispensable.

We will stop here today, only to continue tomorrow. Our lives as people is defined in the relationships we have with others, even if the relationship are with the natural phenomena that sustain us.

We conclude with this passage from Ephesians (5:18-21). Listen attentively to these instructions, And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Connection to Tragedy

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Armodoxy for Today: Connection

We just celebrated the Assumption of the Holy Asdvadzadzin. In our last message, I spoke about the connection between the grapes and the Blessed Mother. Even more, we cited the passage from the Gospel of St. John about the Jesus being the vine, the Father the vinedresser and we, the branches, are called to bear fruit.

In traditional churches such as the Armenian Church, it is easy to lose the connection between these celebrations and the purpose of these celebrations. Every celebration, every feast, every event, in the Armenian Church has to point to Jesus Christ. Without Christ, these stories are only a part of a history which may be interesting but bear no connection to “the vine.”  In other words, they are irrelevant to the lives we lead.

This past week, the blockade in Artsakh continued. Here in Southern California hundreds of protesters took to the Los Angeles freeways, stopping traffic, demanding attention to the plight of the Armenians in the Artsakh, who are now facing another genocide. Meanwhile, the Armenian Churches celebrated the Assumption of St. Mary, with grape blessing ceremonies and people flocked to those churches to taste the fruit of the vine, without understanding the implications such as ceremony and story have on their lives.

St. Mary, who is revered as the Queen of Saints, and whose icon adorns the altars of Armenian Churches from Armenia to Los Angeles, to New Zealand and India, is an example of humanity elevating to godliness. St. Mary’s greatest action in life was that she said, “Yes” to God. “I am the servant of the Lord.” With that yes, she took on bearing Christ in this world.

The sad reality was too unnerving this past weekend and church after church offered commemorations of the Assumption and performed grape blessings without a connection to the reality that is unspeakable – a reality, Armenians have promised, “never again” and today find themselves begging others to the resolve for them.

The “Yes” that St. Mary said to the Lord is the example she lays for each of us. We read in the Luke chapter 1 that she is asked to bear Jesus. The consequences for pregnancy without marriage in those days was death by stoning. She asks, “How can this be, she has never known a man.” And the reply is, “Nothing is impossible for God.” She said Yes to God in the face of the death.

Today, the struggle in Artsakh requires extra ordinary, supernatural resolution. We know this, and yet we continue to appeal to governments that could care less about a group called Armenians. The only people who will care about this group is the Armenians and we have the power to do something. God has asked us to bear Christ, just as He asked St. Mary. We have not tried this option, if we had we would not be blocking freeways and protesting in foreign lands. The protest would take place in Azerbaijan.

In Yerevan, Zinvori Tun (the Soldiers’ Home), stands as a testament to the ugliness of war. Soldiers in the 2020 war were young children. They were killed and those who lived are in immense need of physical and psychological recovery. Our In His Shoes ministry has been supportive of these recovery efforts. Earlier this summer we visited the Home and saw first-hand the recovery effort. At the entrance of Zinvori Tun is a room which houses a khatchkar (Armenian Cross Stone). The president of the home, Haykuhi Minasyan, explained that the work they are doing for these “soldiers” is beyond human powers, and the khatchkar is placed as a reminder that their work is possible only with a prayer and God’s assistance.

This is the connection that we must receive from the Church, and if we don’t, then all of our efforts are futile and in vain. History shows us that we have to rely on our own resources and those resources accented by God are a powerhouse. Our smallest efforts are magnified with God.

This week, in the shadow of the Assumption, I’ll be sharing the connection of St. Mary’s Yes, and the grapeblessing to our real world problems. Join me, on these Armodoxy for Today sessions.

The reading today is from Luke chapter 1, the annunciation, “Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest.

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. For with God nothing will be impossible.

Then Mary said, “Behold the servant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Cover Photo: khatchkar at Zivori Tun

St. Mary and the Grape Connection

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Armodoxy for Today: St. Mary and the Grape Connection

My grandmother was one of four sisters. She was the oldest. Her name was Marie, a derivative of Mary. Her sister’s names were Lousaper (the Light-bearer), Srpuhi (the Holy One) and Diruhi (The Lady, as in the feminine of Lord). These names were names attributed to St. Mary. No other saint is revered as much as St. Mary by Armenians, and the fact that in one family, four daughters are named after the blessed Mother is a testament to the respect and devotion she has had among the people.

St. Mary is referred to as the Asdvadzadzin which means the bearer of God, referring to her unique position of giving birth to Jesus, the Son of God. While the traditional churches celebrate the Assumption of St. Mary, only the Armenian Church has the unique tradition of the blessings grapes on that day.

My grandmother would recall how the first-fruits, the best fruits, were taken to the church on that day for a special blessing. The offering of the fruits was a gesture of thanksgiving, thanking God for the blessings He has bestowed upon the people, the temperance of weather, the fertility of the soil and the abundance of sunshine which yield the grapes. In fact, she would add that the townspeople would not eat the fruit of the vine until they were blessed on this day.

One of the reasons given for the connection between St. Mary and the grapes is that grapes can be propagated without seed, alluding to the virgin birth. But the best reason comes from Christ himself who sets up this analogy, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:1-4)

As always, Christ’s metaphors are simple and to the point. In this case the metaphor points to productivity. It is impossible to bear fruit without being connected to the vine. The life of a Christian is completely dependent on an unfaltering connection to Christ himself. Jesus presents the picture of the vine, the branches, and the fruit. And the operative is God the Father who prunes the branches. Just as the soil, weather and sunlight are necessary for delicious and juicy grapes, so too, our connection to Jesus the Vine is necessary for our lives to be flavorful and beautiful.

The grape blessing service is a call to productivity. God gives us a world and we are the stewards of this beautiful life. Armodoxy attests that Christianity is not an escape from this world to another, but the importance being the agents that make Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Let us pray. This is from the grape blessing prayer that is offered on the feast of Assumption,  Bless, O Lord, the grapes. May we enjoy that which You have created in this world and grant that we may be worthy to eat and drink with You from the bounty of Your most fruitful vine at the table of Your Father’s Kingdom, according to the just promise which You made, to the honor and glory of Your coexisting Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the most Holy Spirit to whom is due glory, power, and honor, now and forever. Amen.

And it doesn’t end here…

Mystery Behind the Curtain: Archbishop Tiran, 3

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Armodoxy for Today: Mystery behind the Curtain

So there I was at the altar of the Holy Cross Armenian Church in New York with the most knowledgeable man in the Armenian Church. With the Lenten curtain draped behind us, we stood in this narrow space looking up at the altar. Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan, now in his twilight years, had invited me out to New York, to offer a position as editor of the St. Nersess Journal. We spent three days together, having coffee, talking, more coffee and every so often breaking for meals.

At this moment we were at the altar, and I was talking to him about “mystery,” a word that seems to be at the center of religiosity. Things we cannot answer or describe we designation into the category of mystery. Years earlier, when I was writing my thesis in collage, I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Archbishop Tiran about the Armenian Genocide, and how in the face of such a horrendous and monumental atrocity such as genocide, we, Armenians, can maintain a belief in a good and all-powerful God? That is, if He is good and all powerful, why would he allow genocide to take place. His answer, to this day, I have not forgotten. He replied with a snicker, as if to say, how can you be so naïve. “If you live in the jungle, and you are attacked by a tiger, why would you blame God?”

How simple is that? If we live in a jungle we have to comply with and accept the rules of the jungle. Throughout my years as a parish priest I have stood with families dealing with the worst of the worst news and prognoses. It is there, at those moments, that theology has to come alive – it has to make sense in life. Archbishop Tiran was giving a practical response to the problem of evil. Why is there cancer? Because we’ve polluted our environment and our bodies. Why are there accidents? Because people are careless and imperfect. Why is there theft? Why violence? Why evil? We live with wants, jealousies, desires, and the freedom to act on our feelings of pride, envy, anger, sloth, covetousness, gluttony and lust. Yes, the fabulous seven and all their forms!

There we were, in front of the altar. He had asked me about the 12 candles and I got that one wrong. How could it have been the 12 signs of the zodiac? It didn’t figure, but then, I was there to discover “mystery” and that it was.

“God gives us a mind. He gives us reason,” said the archbishop. “We cannot put reason to one side when we can’t answer a question and call it mystery.” Saying that, he tried me again. “Why does the church have four walls?”

I wasn’t going to get this wrong. There couldn’t be another zodiac-type answer. “The four evangelists!,” I exclaimed boldly. “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, these are the four walls that encase the church.” I had this; I knew it. But the old archbishop laughed one more time.

“The church has four walls to keep the roof up,” he said with a smile that let us both know that the master still the upper hand over the students.

Mystery is important to acknowledge. But life has real parameters. Just as it is necessary to keep a roof atop a building with four walls, we need to answer many of the dilemmas we create and or encounter. Those three days in New York, with Archbishop Tiran were precious and gave me clarity and focus. As for the St. Nersess Journal, it didn’t happen. Archbishop Tiran died a few months later before he had finalized his wishes. It was, in a sense, a blessing that it didn’t happen. As a result, the year after, we established and published, “Window, View of the Armenian Church,” a journal of contemporary Armenian Church thought. From 1990 to 1995 we brought a light through that window which will be the story of another day.

We end with the words of a layman, and a scientist of the genius type, no less, Albert Einstein, regarding mystery. The most beautiful thing that we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.

This is the third and final installment of Mystery: My three days with Archbishop Tiran  

Listen to previous days:

#1 – Christian Courage – Archbishop Tiran – epostle

#2 – Mystery Too Deep – Apb. Tiran, more – epostle

 

Mystery Too Deep – Apb. Tiran, more

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Armodoxy for Today: Mystery too Deep

The first hymn which is sung at the Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Church is  Khorhourt khorin. It sets the tone of entire Liturgy. I remember the first time I read the translation of those words, “Mystery, deep, inscrutable, without beginning…”

The words to the hymn as well as the entire Divine Liturgy were translated by Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan, of blessed memory. He was one of the brilliant minds of the Armenian Church in the 20th century. His accolades are many, but among the top was his vision for having an Armenian seminary in the United States. He founded the St. Nersess Armenian Seminary. He was elected Patriarch of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and served as Primate of the Eastern Diocese.

1978 was a special time in my life. I had just returned from the Seminary of Holy Etchmiadzin and entered the Seminary at Claremont. As an Armenian student in this Methodist Seminary, I relied heavily on Archbishop’s Divine Liturgy translation for research comparisons and thesis development. 1978 also happened to be the centennial celebration of Albert Einstein’s birth. Not far from Claremont was Cal Poly Pomona, and I was able to enroll in a class simultaneously about Einstein, tailored for the non-scientist. It was there that I found this most meaningful quote by Einstein. “The most beautiful thing that we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” He pointed to mystery and the awe awakened by that mystery. In essence, Einstein was uncovering a truth expressed by the Armenian Church for centuries.

In 1989 I received a letter from Archbishop Tiran, while I was pastoring at the St. Andrew Armenian Church in Cupertino, California. We had met only casually, but to receive a letter by the revered archbishop, the “Encyclopedia of the Armenian Church,” for me, was like being called out at a concert by the superstar on the stage because he recognized me! Me? Yes, you!

Yesterday I gave you the background of that letter. Today, as promised, I continue the story of our exchange. The letter was an invitation to edit a theological journal for the St. Nersess Seminary. His generous letter was flattering, and his offer to edit the journal was more than I could have imagined at that point in my ministry. He invited me to come to New York to meet with him to discuss the detail. I went there and spent three of the most memorable days in my life, just being around and living around this giant of the Armenian Church.

I visited the archbishop in his New York City apartment, in the Washington Heights area. It was next to the Holy Cross Armenian Church on 187th Street, a church which was infamously the site of the 1933 Assassination of the Archbishop Levon Tourian.

During my stay with the Archbishop Tiran, I want to say we discussed many topics, but it was more like he talked, and I listened. I was in awe of his intellect, and how he organized his thoughts. Indeed, what we knew from a distance, was even more pronounced in person, he was the Enclopedia of Christianity and a specialized volume of that encyclopedia focused on the Armenian Church.

On the second day of my visit Archbishop Tiran took me into the Holy Cross Armenian Church. It was the Lenten season and the curtain was closed. We came up the center isle and he pointed to the spot where Archbishop Ghevont was assassinated on Christmas day 1933. With his killings began the ugly divisions among the Armenian people and the Armenian Church in America. (Journalist Terry Phillips writes about the assassination in his book, Murder at the Altar.) He had the vestments of the murdered archbishop, with blood stains still uncleaned, pointing to where he was brutally stabbed during the service that day. Against this reality, the esoteric and spiritual discussion of mystery was going to be hard-find.

Archbishop Tiran took me up to the altar. With the curtain closed behind us, we stood in this narrow space in front of the main altar of Holy Cross. I began the conversation, citing the beautiful words with which he translated, Khorhourt Khorin…. Each of his words were selected perfectly for his translations. The word, “inscrutable” intrigued me. So with that admission, we began a conversation on mystery.

In Armenian Orthodoxy, you understand that God is beyond explanation. If you can describe God, then He isn’t God. Mystery – khorhourt – is the catch-all term for the Divine realm. With the groundwork laid, Archbishop Tiran asked me if I knew why there were 12 candles on the altar? “The 12 disciples,” I answered, “the twelve points of light.” He laughed. He had a very kind laugh that let you know he was amused. “No, the candles are in reference to the twelve signs of the zodiac.” I thought he was putting me on. The Zodiac? Isn’t that what Nancy Regan was being ridiculed for? Then, I looked in the Armenian Church calendar (Oratzuyts) published annually in Holy Etchmiadzin and there they were – the twelve signs, printed on the pages of the calendar. Mystery was fairly deep, in fact maybe too deep, until he asked me one more question, one which sent me over the top in its simplicity and explained Mystery in what we now refer to as in Armodox manner.

Until then, the prayer, Khorhourt khorin as translated by Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan, O mystery deep, inscrutable, without beginning. Thou that hast decked thy supernal realm as a chamber unto the light unapproachable and hast adorned with splendid glory the ranks of the fiery spirits…