Miyagi, Dad and Pythagoras

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Armodoxy for Today: Miyagi, Dad, and Pythagoras

A recent social media challenge asked to mention a line from a movie that would identify the movie. A few come to mind, but one in particular hit me: “Wax on. Wax off.” Ah yes, the Karate Kid! Mr. Miyagi taught the Karate Kid how to defend himself by assigning him mundane tasks such as waxing the car. “Wax on” with a rotation of the arm. “Wax off” with the rotation in the opposite direction. The Karate Kid didn’t understand the value of this practice, in fact, he resented learning it, until he put it to use in defending himself.

My father was a pharmacist, which in those days meant he was a chemist and all-around scientist. And so it surprised me when he took a look at my high school schedule of classes and suggested that I take, not a science elective, but typing. In fact, I thought it was silly. This was during a time when young girls made up the majority of the class, which was not a bad thing for the guys who dared to get in the class. I should mention that high school typing in the 70s was taught on manual typewriters – imagine a computer keyboard, where every key had to be pressed hard enough to trigger a small hammer, with a letter on it, to hit the paper, through an ink ribbon and make an impression. Usually the letters “o”, “b”, “d”, and a few others would have the centers punched out by the heaviness of the hammer, giving a feel to the paper of a Braille hand-out. I was not happy, but I promised my dad I’d try the class for one semester, which I did. When a few years later, my first parish landed me in Silicon Valley, during the rise of the computer revolution, I found I had a distinct advantage over everyone else, in that I knew how to touch type on a QWERTY keyboard! I was able to pump out material in high volume. Later I was invited to teach computing at our son’s elementary school.

In High School I excelled in mathematics. I was able to follow through to college Calculus. Geometry, however, was a stumbling block for me. I remember the Pythagorean Theorem in particular, memorizing it and wondering when, if ever, I would need to figure out the third side of a triangle. What practical application could this have for me? We have rulers, and other measuring instruments if I needed to find the missing side of three-sided objects. But I learned it just the same. Many years later, after our kids were born and we moved into a house with a backyard, I set out to build a picnic table. The table top was easy; hammering the boards together was fun. But when I got to the legs, I needed to angle them in an “X” shape to support the top. I put the planks of wood together only to find I needed to calculate the third side of this triangular shape. The Pythagorean Theorem to the rescue! We enjoyed that table for many years. It became a congregating spot for our family.

Thanks Mr. Miyagi, Dad, and Pythagoras. Yesterday we spoke about wisdom. Today we speak about the foundation, knowledge. The lessons in life aren’t always revealed to us at the time of learning. What may seem foolish or unnecessary are merely matters left for time to reveal. Time is the fourth-dimension factor that often confounds our understanding.

Jesus tells this parable, asking us to listen attentively, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the weeds also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the weeds you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”  (Matthew 13:24-30)

Dreams of the Heart

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Armodoxy for Today: Dreams of the Heart

The song played over the car radio speakers, and I reminisced about the first time I heard this tune. It was a song about reminiscing from a time when I had no need for such sentimental thoughts. But today, I was right in the grove: “Those were the Days” performed by Mary Hopkin. The song deals with reminiscence of both youth and romantic idealism: “Oh, my friend, we’re older but no wiser, for in our hearts the dreams are still the same… Those were the Days…”she sings.

There is much to reminisce on this 11th day of September, especially when we remember our world, pre-9/11. Yes, those were the days: I recall a naïve world of sorts. But even more, I ponder why we continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Is it because we’ve grown older and yet no wiser? Is it really because our dreams have stayed the same?

Albert Einstein brought it down to a definition of insanity. He said doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results was insane. Yes, that is “getting older but no wiser” to the nth degree. It is insanity. But we continue to opt for the same-old-same-old. We believe politicians, put our trust on material wealth, feel secure with weapons of destruction and believe in superstitious notions of lucky charms and pre-planned destiny. Why? Why have we grown older but no wiser? Is it because our dreams have stayed the same?

Jesus says “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Luke 5:36-38)

The Christian message is a radical departure from anything else. Why else do we call the entrance into the Christian life, as a new birth? We are born anew from the womb of the Church – the Holy Font of Baptism – and thus enter a new life. Our new life cannot be put into the old holding tank. New life demands that we assess our dreams and evaluate them in the context of our new life. There will be cases where the dreams may be different and at times our dreams may remain the same. However, what does change when we encounter Christ, is a change of heart. Within that changed heart, the place of our dreams will guide us to seek solutions not without, but within. After all, we all know that the first step to actualize a dream is to wake up.

9/11 was a terror attack on the United States. It wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last. Terror is the means by which humans are controlled in places such as Artsakh, as well as in the Congo, Sudan, Central America, and even on the streets of America.

Let us pray the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.

Youth Moving Forward

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Armodoxy for Today: Youth Moving Forward

This is the final installment of a four-part miniseries about the shoot-down over Sasnashen and what it means today.

On September 29, 2019, with the blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, we ventured off to the town of Talin for the opening of the Sasnashen Youth Center. This was the culmination of a year’s worth of planning and organization across the globe, with limited resources, difficult communications and the challenges of a cold winter that put our work on hold for several months. Nevertheless, the power of prayer, the joy of helping children and our commitment to the project made it a labor of love that was celebrated by a community in this remote part of Armenia.

The first three parts of this miniseries of daily messages have outlined the remarkable chain of events that brought about this project, from the Cold War, to Sasnashen, to Nebraska, and now full circle back to the village where this tragedy first unfolded in 1958.

The Prop Wash Gang, organizers of the event in Nebraska which first brought us together collected an amount of money. They gave it to me with the request, “Can you see to it that the kids in Sasnashen are helped in some way?” I have to admit, when they asked me I had no idea where in Armenia to find Sasnashen. In fact, so obscure is this village of 700+ inhabitants that I could not find anyone, especially taxi drivers in Yerevan, who knew where to locate it. Finally, thanks to Google maps and my deacon, Hrayr Nalbandian, we made it there.

I cold-called Fr. Tadé Takhmazian from a number given to me by one of my clergy brothers who had met him only months early. I don’t believe in coincidences or in chance. I believe in blessings, which I have defined as luck, without the element of chance. Fr. Tadé is a blessing. Fr. Tadé, serves the population of Sasnashen and nine-other villages, I began to learn about the needs of the community, people and especially the youth. We decided to work on creating a youth center – a safe place for young people to feel belonging, learn, grow and mature in faith as productive members of the community.

And now… September 29, we held the opening of the Sasnashen Youth Center in Talin. Along with a contingent from our Bible Study group in Glendale we made the journey, 12 time-zones away, to celebrate this new project. We joined the St. James pilgrimage organized by Fr. Haroutioun Tachejian, visiting many of the historic and spiritually significant sites in Armenia. Together, with the St. James group, about 25 of us from America attended this opening. I was honored to celebrate the Divine Liturgy that morning at the Holy Asdvadzadzin church in Talin. It was the feast day of the Cross of Varak and so I offered what is called an ookhdi badarak and so directed my sermon to the needs of the community and the crosses we all carry. The Cross of Christ is not a fixture of history, it is part of our daily life, pointing to the struggles and difficulties which we overcome by our Faith.

Following the service in church, Fr. Tadé led us to the newly renovated house and we officially dedicated and opened it as the Sasnashen Youth Center with a ribbon cutting ceremony. For this occasion the Prop Wash Gang sent a shadow box which contains a piece of the wreckage of the C-130 that was shot-down by the Soviet Union. As part of the dedication, the shadow box and a plaque listing the names of the 17 servicemen who were killed on September 2, 1958 now adorns the wall of the Center as a permanent reminder of the tragedy.

We were honored to have with us Maksena Haroutiunyan, widow of the late internationally renown sculptor Martin Kakosian. As an 18 year-old young man, Martin Kakosian was an eye-witness to the shoot down. He was instrumental in the dedication of the original khatchkar which stood as a marker for the tragedy until later, when he designed and constructed the current monument which stands on a hill near the crash site in Sasnashen. Mrs. Haroutiunyan shared a stirring account of what had transpired along with recollections from her late husband.

The one man who initially connected me with the shoot-down of the C-130 60528, the Prop Wash Gang and ultimately with Sasnashen is Larry Tart, author of “The Price of Vigilance” (2001) and “Freedom through Vigilance” (2010).  I’ve never met him in person yet feel a kindred spirit in him. He signs his emails to me “In Brotherhood” and on this day that fraternal bond became very real and concrete. During the opening ceremony I know he was with us. I took advantage of the attentiveness of the group and gave some background to the people on the importance of Mr. Tart’s personal vigilance in this story.

With much excitement and joy we dedicated the house to the education and elucidation of the village children and youth. Fr. Tadé has a magnetic personality and has won the hearts of the children in the villages. Every week he visits the students in Sasnashen and nine other villages in the area. He shared his vision with us; the Center will be a place where children can learn, play, explore their options, and most importantly share and talk with other young people and mentors.

Following the opening ceremony, the group travelled the 10km ride to Sasnashen, where we visited the crash-site and the monument. There, we offered a requiem prayer to the 17 servicemen and also remembered Martin Kakosian and Deacon Hrayr Nalbandian in our prayers. May God rest their souls.

We celebrated the day and our work with a local families in Sasnashen with food, wine, song and dance. Today, from the midst of tragedy, a new chapter was being opened in the life of the village and in the life of young people wanting an opportunity for a better life. Many of the villagers suffer immense economic hardships. Education and building up self-worth are the cornerstones of this project.

In reference to our Christian faith, Resurrection, like Crucifixion, is not a historical anomaly. Rather, it is up to us to profess through our witness to Christ and the Armenian Church, that Resurrection is a reality of our daily existence.

We close off this series with the words inscribed on the monument at Sasnashen

We must never forget that freedom is never really free. It is the most costly thing in the world. Freedom is never paid in a lump sum. Installments come due in every generation. All any of us can do is offer the generations that follow a chance for freedom.

 

Discovering Sasnashen

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Armodoxy for Today: Discovering Sasnashen

This is part 3 of a four-part miniseries about the shoot-down over Sasnashen and what it means today.

In 1958 – during the height of the Cold War – a United States Air Force C-130 flying a reconnaissance mission on the Turkish/Armenian border was shot down by the Soviets. The plane crashed in the village of Sasnashen, Armenia and lost its entire crew of 17 servicemen. The Soviets did not admit to the severity of the tragedy until after the fall of the USSR and by 1992 – some 34 years after the incident – the remains of all 17 men were returned to the United States for proper recognition and committal. Since that time commemorations have been taken place, including the placing of a khatchkar (cross stone) and a monument at the crash site with visits by U.S. military and government officials.

Now… on the evening of September 2, 2018, exactly 60 years to the date of the crash I stood before the servicemen and their families at the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. I delivered the keynote address at a gathering commemorating the shoot-down of US Air Force C-130 #60528.

The group honored me by giving me a framed piece of the tail of the fallen plane. Then, spontaneously they took up a collection and asked that I use the money to benefit the children of Sasnashen. Accepting the responsibility, one month later, October 25, 2018, I visited the village of Sasnanshen – about 65 km out of Yerevan toward the Northwest border of Armenia. The closest town is Talin (about 10 kms away) with a population of about 4,000. Through our Armenian Church network, I connected with Fr. Tadé Takhmazyan, the priest of Talin. He served the 10 villages surrounding the town and one of the villages was Sasnashen (population 750). My deacon Hrayr Nalbandian drove me there and together with the priest we climbed a rocky road to the crash-site where a monument stands in this remote and obscure corner of the world. It is a tall standing memorial with a plaque written in both Armenian and English:

September 2, 1958 – We must never forget that freedom is never really free. It is the most costly thing in the world. Freedom is never paid in a lump sum. Installments come due in every generation. All any of us can do is offer the generations that follow a chance for freedom.

There, under the open skies and the silence of the village we offered a prayer for the 17 fallen servicemen as well as a prayer for peace.

In Sasnashen, beyond the economic challenges of village life, there are few, if any, opportunities for young people to advance in education, or even to explore and exploit their potential. There are government schools but after school-hours and on weekends the children end up on the rural roads without supervision and/or guidance. Father Tadé has access to the schools and offers weekly classes to children in the village schools and is known and recognized by youth. We decided to use the funds gathered in Nebraska to further opportunities for youth in the Sasnashen village by creating a Center for after school-hours, where young people can feel welcome, share and explore options to maximize their potential in life.

With the encouragement and blessing of Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, the Primate of the Western Diocese we quickly began work on organizing this program called “Sasnashen Youth Center.”  The Catholicos of All Armenians, HH Kareken II gave a small flat directly across the street from the Talin church with the understanding that it would be used as a gathering place for youth. The collected funds were used to bring the center up to standards for a meeting place. We repaired the plumbing, installed a kitchenette, lavatory and new windows.

In July, the following year, I personally made a trip to the area to monitor progress and meet with Fr. Tadé and others to discuss the progress of renovation and the program. I also met with the head of the (Aragatsotn) Diocese, Bishop Mkrtich Proshyan to assure a proper working relationship between all of our parties. He officially pronounced the name of this project as Sasnashen Youth Center It is dedicated in the names of the servicemen who perished in the village in 1958.

This is a place where young people can first and foremost feel welcome, safe and loved. It is a gathering place to study, to learn, or merely congregate after school.  We furnished the room and provided computers with internet connections so that we can visit remotely.

An underlying intention on our part was that this could serve as a pilot project which could be replicated in villages for a low cost and can take advantage of local resources – personnel and physical spaces – which are often overlooked.

Opportunities to help others are God given. Our Church is the vehicle by which we do our work. From the grave tragedy of the 1958 shoot-down a new beginning and opportunity for education is extended to the children of that village.

 

Join me tomorrow, on Armodoxy for Today for the final installment on this short four part miniseries of daily messages regarding Sasnashen

Keynote in Nebraska

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Armodoxy for Today: Keynote

This is part 2 of a four-part miniseries about the shoot-down over Sasnashen and what it means today.

The day arrived. In the middle of Nebraska, this Armenian priest was to meet with service men from throughout the United States. They had all come to commemorate, remember, and reconnect with a story. They had come to reconnect with others who shared the same values and understanding of the sacrifice made by these 17 men, shot down over Sasnashen, Armenia on September 2, 1958.

The acting President of the Prop Wash Gang, Chief Lonnie Henderson, emceed the program. He had set up a “Missing Man Table” at the center of the banquet hall. The table was set on a white tablecloth, containing 17 red roses in vases and a place setting for one – one representing them all. A shaker of salt next to the setting was a bitter reminder of what had transpired. There, the names of the 17 men were written along with the poem “We See the Eagles Fly.”

Tom Giroir, offered the invocation and introduced me as an Armenian priest. In referencing to my background he pointed to our ministry of “In His Shoes,” that is, those who have suffered evil have a unique responsibility to take action against injustice to others. It was on this premise that I shared my thoughts for the evening with the group.

That day I spoke of the rich story of the Armenian people and the land. I spoke of the Armenian Genocide as an event but also as a springboard to addressing the despicable reality of Genocide that continues to take place in our world. Most especially, I shared with the group the need to stay ever vigilant in their resolve to remember the sacrifices of their fallen brothers. Vigilance and remembrance must have manifestations today in our actions to combat evil on all fronts.

After I offered the ancient requiem prayer of the Armenian Church and remembered all 17 of the fallen servicemen by name, Chief Lonnie honored me in a manner I will forever remember. On behalf of the Prop Wash Gang he presented a shadow box with an actual piece of the downed-plane. Here I would have a tangible reminder of the sacrifice made by these men and the ever-essential necessity to stay vigilant against injustice. He also gifted me Larry Tart’s book, “The Price of Vigilance” signed by the author.

I confessed that in all my travels to Armenia I had never been to Sasnashen. And now, I promised that I can’t think going back to Armenia without visiting Sasnashen. There, I promised the group, I will take the spirit and the energy that was brewing in this room on September 2, 2018. It was a powerful and moving spirit. Since that day, I have shared the story of Sasnashen with countless people through sermons, lectures and videos.

This evening we connected on a human level. We were there to honor sacrifice – the expression of love by these 17 men. We connected Bellevue, Nebraska mystically to Sasnashen, Armenia.  This evening we understood that the most fundamental of all human expressions – to extend ourselves to others, to love and share is essential. It is the legacy that has been left to us by the 17 men who were shot down giving themselves for something greater than themselves, for our country and ultimately for humanity. And we accept the challenge to perpetuate and share this legacy beyond this evening.

With the recitation of the poem, “We See the Eagles” the Commemoration on the 60th Anniversary of the Shoot Down came to an end.

WE SEE THE EAGLES FLY

We see the eagles fly…

lookin’ north

toward the Caucasus Mountains

‘bout nine in the morning

Warm September day

Clear

No clouds

We see the eagles fly…

…effortlessly

riding the currents

Soaring above all

Majestic

Supreme

We see the eagles fly…

…and those eagles

look a lot like

The Prop Wash Gang

(September 2, 1997)

 

Nebraska & Sasnashen

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Armodoxy for Today: Nebraska & Sasnashen

“Kahanayk yev joghovort” are the first words of the requiem service of the Armenian Church.  The words translate to “the priests and people” referring to a gathering of those who remember the dead in prayer. There I was singing these words, in the middle of Nebraska, of all places, there we were, the priest and people, in solemn remembrance of 17 men who perished 60 years ago to the day. I was singing the hymn, but this gathering was not in any Armenian church. Far from one, we were standing in the middle of America in Bellevue, Nebraska, near the Offutt Air Force Base. The gathering? Sixty years ago, in the height of the Cold War, a United States Air Force C-130 was shot out of the sky by the Soviet Union.  The plane crashed in the village of Nerkin Sasnashen, Armenia (about 60km Northwest of Yerevan).

I sang the hymn in Armenian and no one in the audience understood the language, yet everyone knew very well what was happening. We were connecting as people. We were uniting the remote village of Sasnashen with Bellevue. Armenia was uniting with Nebraska and all of this to attest that a group of men were united with eternity.

I had never heard of this shoot-down incident until then. I grew up during the Cold War fearing the worst, with duck-and-take-cover drills executed in our school hallways on a regular basis. But who knew that the Cold War was being played out with a shoot-down in Armenia? We should have known for in fact, this major international incident was the most publicized confrontation between the Soviet Union and the U.S. military during the Cold War!

On September 2, 1958, four Soviet MiG-17 pilots attacked and shot down an unarmed US reconnaissance aircraft after its crew inadvertently flew into Soviet airspace over Armenia. Seventeen United States Air Force airmen were killed in the crash at Sasnashen. The incident was covered up until the breakup of the Soviet Union – and then some – when the remains of the C-130 60528 crew were excavated from the crash site and interred on the 40th anniversary of the shoot-down, with a headstone identifying the members of the crew at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Fortunately, the details of the incident, the cover-up, the years of denial, the reconciling with the facts up to the present day have been meticulously documented by Larry Tart and have been published in his book, “The Price of Vigilance: Attacks on American Surveillance Flights” (2001 with Robert Keefe).

Mr. Tart wrote to both the Eastern and Western Dioceses of the Armenian Church to for assistance in commemorating the 60th anniversary the shoot-down. Archbishop Hovnan Derderian assigned me to this event. As mentioned, the incident was news to me; however, not for long. After a few conversations with Mr. Tart, I was asked to offer the Keynote Address for the Commemoration at the Air Force base in Nebraska.

This invitation was a true honor for me on many levels. As a priest I was there to offer a prayer and a reflection. However, it was a personal experience that connected me directly to the story that was unfolding before me. My father was a veteran of the Korean War. I remember vividly to this day the overwhelming emotions that surged in me when at his funeral in 1991, military personnel presented the flag of the United States to my mother, and said, “On behalf of the President of the United States, the United States Army and a grateful Nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your husband’s honorable and faithful service.” I remember being moved to tears when realizing that great men are defined by the sacrifice they make. People in service to others truly define greatness. In the church we speak of martyrdom as an expression of sacrifice. As a priest I share the Gospel of Christ, and His words, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn 15:13) While Jesus refers to his own death in this passage, he also gives an opportunity for us to understand our service and sacrifice to others. It was the expression of that devotion and sacrifice that was moving the direction of the message I wanted to share that evening.

Even more, as an Armenian, I wanted to also emphasize the diverse set of circumstance which have contributed to Armenian history and to the events of the shoot down. As history will attest, Armenia and Armenians are often caught in the middle of battles not by our choosing. In 1958, leading to this incident, the US Air Force plane took off from a base in Eastern Turkey, that is, occupied Armenia. The plane was shot down over Armenia, occupied by the Soviets. (And yes, the plane was shot down by a Mig-17, named after Migoyan.) In every way Armenians are only the by-standers to this particular page in history; nevertheless, Armenian have a message to share that can lead to healing. And that was what I wanted to share with this group.

Join me tomorrow, on the Armodoxy for Today as we continue the story of the Shoot Down in Sasnashen on this short four part miniseries of daily messages.

Cover photo: Nebraska gathering on September 2, 2018 – 60th anniversary of Shoot Down for C-130 60528 at Sasnashen.

Labor & Work

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Armodoxy for Today: Labor and Work

Here in America, we pause from our busy schedules every September to give a nod to our work. In other countries, they have worker’s days honoring the laborer, but here we honor the work itself and refer to this holiday as Labor Day.

For most people, I would say work is something we do because we have to. We like to eat, have a roof over our head and enjoy time with family and friends. Those things take money to acquire and so, to raise that money, we work. From early on, we make calculations and pass those calculations on to our children. If you want to live this particular lifestyle, you will need $xxx. Job xyz can provide you with enough capital to sustain that lifestyle.

A small number of people will select their life’s work based on their passion, even if the monetary rewards are insufficient to live on. And the truly blessed people are those who enjoy their work, and the monetary reward from the work is enough to sustain them without needing supplemental assistance – whether a second or third job, or a hand-out.

This may sound a bit like economics and philosophy mixed together and one may wonder what this has to do with our Christian faith. Well it has everything to do with it. Work provides certain rewards. When the rewards outweigh the purpose of the work, then desire for those rewards become the motivating force for work, for labor, for doing what we do.

Think of this: some say that gambling is wrong. Why? Every time we leave our homes, every time we sit in a car, we are gambling with our lives. Life if full of uncertainty and we gamble with our lives and much more. But the reason why gambling for money winds up high on the negativity scale is because it distorts our perception and understanding of what is valuable. Money is no longer a means by which we acquire the things we want, rather it becomes the object of what we want, our desires. It gives value to something that has no intrinsic value. A million dollars in a bank account only exists on paper. It is the number one with six zeros behind it. But when $1,000,000 is used, to buy shelter, an education, health services, act of charity, then it has a value! Money is not the object of our labor, it is the means by which we accomplish those things we need to accomplish.

Catholic and Protestant work ethics have evolved through the century. Here in the West, the Protestant work ethic, developed from the time of Martin Luther and John Calvin, is the struggle between discipline, frugality and taming the wants and the desires of a person. In the Armenian Church (and traditional Churches) we label these as seven deadly sins – anger, lust, gluttony, laziness, covetousness, pride and envy – all connected to the struggle we engage in daily.

Labor Day is a holiday and like most other holidays, the meaning is lost in vacations, excursions and sales. But for us, we will take this moment for introspection, asking ourselves the hard questions – the what and why of our work. Purpose and meaning come from this introspection.

We leave with this mediation from our Lord Jesus Christ, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

…Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty… Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever… (John 6)

Love Conquers

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Armodoxy for Today: Love Conquers

St. Mary, who’s assumption is remembered in the month of August, is referred to with many titles that are also descriptors. Blessed Mother, Asadvadzadzin, the Bearer of God, Our Lady and Queen of Heaven, are among some of the more conventional names. They all point to the unique place she occupies in human history.

She said “Yes” to God and thereby Christ was made incarnate. She bore and delivered Pure Love to the world.

A few years ago, while serving as a parish priest in Glendale, I became aware of the problem of domestic violence within the local community. Like many other places, denial was widespread. Some even shunned me for daring to voice a concern about domestic violence.

As priests we often become the first point of contact for people in need. One night, after a violent scene between a husband and wife, and after hours of counseling and finding a safe haven for a young mother and her children, I asked her if we could pray together before I turned her over to the shelter. Of course, she wanted that bit of solace in her upside-down world. Instinctively, she reached out her hand so I would hold it during prayer, and instinctively I did. She screamed! I let go only to find her hands were crushed and disfigured by the act of her husband.

The domestic violence problem grew with very little mention of it by community leaders. The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back came one night when a lady who had been on the receiving end of domestic violence for 20 years finally had the nerve and the strength to escape from her husband’s tortures and left the house, knocking on the doors of neighbors, asking – begging – for help. She was told by neighbors that “amot eh!” as in, “Don’t bring shame to the family… Go back home before you bring disgrace to your family… This is not something we Armenians do…”  From home to home this continued for 15 minutes until she finally reached a house that did not close the door on her and took her in. She was an African American woman who recognized the seriousness of the situation and immediately called the police. That night we met with her in a sanctuary area.

That was the marking moment when as a community we could no longer stay quiet. We established a grass-roots organization called, “Datev Outreach.” Datev is the name of a celebrated saint in the Armenian Church, it also was a play on words, da-tev, that is, to “give wings.”

During the short-lived life of Datev Outreach we heightened awareness tremendously within the Glendale area. We organized walks through the streets of Glendale where we received the support of many families who came out to voice their oneness with us and the scorn of others who heckled us as we walked by: “There’s no such thing! You’re making it up!” Datev Outreach organized classes for women, gave women opportunities to educate and self-determine their lives. It was a powerful program in the community.

Like many good things, politics got into the way and we closed up our offices after two years, but not before establishing firm ties with the YWCA and ensuring that victims would have a place to find sanctuary.

One of the remaining treasures of Datev Outreach is the beautiful icon of the Blessed Mother. Artist Gregory Beylerian created this icon which cried out to the world the double message that Violence Hurts – there’s no denying it – and Love Conquers – providing the solution! The icon, with the Asdvadzadzin and the Baby Jesus, is a new icon for the contemporary world. It is an icon of Armodoxy because it has a double message boldly proclaiming the horror of violence and articulating the solution in reference to St. Mary, the bearer of Love.

Saints are living today. They are active in our lives today. While many descriptors are ascribed to the Blessed Mother, we must never forget that she takes away pain (cf. Gyumri’s Yot Verk Church) and answers with solace in her capacity to bring Love to the world.

Let us pray, the prayer of intercession of the Armenian Church, Christ, our God, who chose and embraced those who witnessed You and partakers in Your passion. We ask for the intercession of all saints in order that through their fervent prayers and mediation You may grant us peace and protect us from enemies both visible and invisible. Grant us, O Lord, the vision to follow in their path. Amen.

Conditioning with a Laugh Track

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Armodoxy for Today: Conditioning with a Laugh Track

At what point did we stop believing in the power of love? When did we lose faith in love’s power to melt or crush a heart of stone? Those were the questions with which we left yesterday. When did we give up on love?

Perhaps some may point to an event, or to a person who pushed things a bit too far, and through betrayal and hurt, the power of love was diminished, or in the worst case, was rendered absurd. For the most part, however, it is a matter of conditioning. We have lost faith in Love because we’ve been conditioned by life experiences to not believe in its power.

Sitcoms, or situation comedies, have had a life even before television, with radio broadcasts of plays and book readings. Early radio had live audiences where you could hear the reaction to actors and their dialogue. People laughed at humor, wowed at amazement, sighed at surprises and whimpered at sadness. Early television took place in front of studio audiences and, likewise, the gamut of expression in between a smile and a tear could be heard.

As the boundaries of the sitcom expanded, studio sets were used to stage houses, schools, hospitals, banks and stores. Canned laughter became a means of bringing the audience into show without the need for large auditoriums.

For the last 70 years, at least, sitcoms have brought entertainment into our homes and along a synthetic audience that was manipulated by the producers of the show. The reaction and laughter of an audience was and is strategically placed in the dialogue at points deemed funny. In other words, someone decides what subject is funny, and the degree to which it’s funny.

The father says he left his keys in the car and the child says, “Dad you’re getting old and forgetful.” And the audience laughs. The student opts to sneak out on a date and doesn’t study for her exam, so at school, she yells out “Puerto Rico” in answer to “What is the Capital of the United States?”  And the audience laughs. Perhaps hysterically. The laughter, placed strategically in these spots, tells us that mocking senior forgetfulness or idiotic answers during tests are funny, rather than sad or pathetic.

Try this experiment, watch a sitcom and when you hear the canned laughter and ask yourself, was that really funny? Probably not. But multiply half-an-hour, over the period of a season, over the life of the show, and times all the shows that you’ve watched with canned laughter, and… you get the idea. You start, if not believing, at least accepting that mocking senior forgetfulness or idiotic answers are funny! It’s called conditioning. Intentionally planned or not, we are conditioned by so many different influences. By the way, you’ll find that the shows that are truly funny are filmed before a “live studio audience” although even there, much of the laughter is stimulated with signs or augmented with add canned expressions.

Back to our question: When did we stop trusting love? When did we stop believing that love is a better answer to evil than evil? The answer is easy. Look at the centuries of conditioning we’ve been subjected to, not by laugh tracks but by political realities, by talkers who have never looked beyond themselves and thought of the necessity for peace. From the Trojan War to the Peloponnesian War, to World War II to Ukraine, we have been conditioned to fight fire with fire, even though we all, without exception all, know that you fight fire with water. The conditioning has been so intense that we have not given love a chance and we’ve shelved Jesus’ command to love, even our enemies, in the category of impractical idealism.

We have never tried love as a solution to evil. It is just as ridiculous as Puerto Rico being the capital of the United States and we assign it an obligatory laugh track.

We end today with a meditation by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The words flow from the lips of our Lord and Master: “Ye have heard it said of old that thou shall love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.”

These are great words, words lifted to cosmic proportions. And over the centuries men have argued that the actual practice of this command just isn’t possible. …Far from being the impractical idealist, Jesus is the practical realist, and the words of this text stand before us with new urgency. And far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, this command is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. Yes, love is the key to the solution of the problems of our world, love even for enemies.*

*Excerpt from a sermon delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Detroit Council of Churches’ Lenten Service, March 7, 1961

Cover photo: Envato Elements

Melting Love

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Armodoxy for Today: Melting Love

When we were kids, one of our favorite fairy tales was “The Frog Prince,” rendered by the Brothers Grimm. My sister and I would listen to an old phonograph record which told the story of a spoiled princess who reluctantly befriended a frog. The friendship was the frog’s request as his reward for retrieving her golden ball. She was irritated that she, a beautiful princess, would have to hold, or just be in close proximity, of this old repulsive waddler. But the frog kept pushing his friendship on the princess. Little did she know that he was a prince who had a spell cast upon him and was trapped in the body of the frog.

Our phonograph record would play with the pops and hisses that we were accustomed to hear when playing the black vinyl, and we’d listen to the old froggy voice beg for the princess’ love. In his reptilian voice, he spelled it out, “Love could melt the heart of stone!”

As children those words were very powerful. A stone heart melting through the power of love! It was many years later that as a seminarian I heard similar words, not from the raspy mouth of a frog but from the golden hymn of Nersess Shnorhali, “Jesus, by name love, may your love crush my heart of stone.” Ser anoun Hisus, sirov kov jmlya sir dim kareghen. Yes, indeed, the power of love is so great that it can crush the heart of stone.

There are many images that are exaggerated as a matter of romantic reflection, whether in a fairy tale, or in a hymn. Heaven knows how many poems and songs have been penned with images touting the magical powers of love.

And certainly, the entire Gospel message, is one of Jesus instructing us to repay evil with love and he even demonstrates this on the Cross. The Resurrection itself is the victory of Love over the ultimate evil.

So today we ask, at what point did we stop believing in the power of love? When did we lose the faith in love’s power to melt or crush a heart of stone? When did we give up on love? When did we stop answering evil with the power of love?

As children we tend to take things literally. When the coach says, “Keep your eye on the ball, we may awkwardly walk up to the ball and place it under our eye until we realize that it is merely an expression to pay attention. There is a naivete that is characteristic of childhood and as we grow older we come to understand expressions in place of the literal meanings.

In the case of Jesus and his expression of love, he took it to the end exactly as he expressed it throughout his ministry. The Creed of the Armenian Church saw, “Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the same for eternity.” Armodoxy attests that Jesus is Love incarnate, and therefore love, is the same yesterday, today and for eternity.

So we must conclude that Love has always been powerful. Love can indeed melt or crush the heart of stone. It is us that need to retrain and revert to our initial understanding of Love, literally as the means by which we overcome evil. It is on us, then, to seek and find, Love and as it was given to us through the Babe in a manger, to bring peace on earth and good will toward one another.

We pray today, “Lord Jesus Christ. God is love. Your name is love. Love exists in the eternal present. Rekindle in me the flames of love that were present in my childhood, when I believed the power of love could overcome the worst of the worst. Direct my path in the direction of my childhood dreams, where goodness and love are my strengths and my protection. Amen.”