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PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Karine Abalyan
Tel: (212) 686-0710; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.armenianchurch-ed.net
March 31, 2015
(Attached please find the Easter message in Armenian)
___________________
THE EASTER MESSAGE OF ARCHBISHOP KHAJAG BARSAMIAN
Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
YOU WILL BE MY WITNESSES
Jesus replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the
Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in
all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said
this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of
their sight. (Acts 1:7-9)
The Book of Acts begins with an ending: Jesus Christ's valedictory words to
his disciples, just before he is "lifted up" out of human sight, to sit at
the right hand of God. Before he does so, the risen Christ reminds his
followers that human beings are limited creatures: even after the miracle of
Christ's resurrection, the ways of God will always be mysterious to man, and
some things are simply beyond man's capacity to know.
But in the very next moment he reassures the disciples that they will
receive the power of the Holy Spirit, to make them "witnesses" in their home
city, the surrounding countryside, and indeed "to the ends of the earth."
We are given in these words a vision of the future: of distant lands, and
even distant times, where the followers of Jesus will be witnesses-or to use
the Greek term, martures, "martyrs"-for the truth of Christ.
It is an especially poignant thought for us this Easter, one hundred years
after the greatest episode of martyrdom our people have ever known. For it
was in the distant land of Asia Minor (the cradle of the Christian church),
some nineteen centuries after our Lord's ascension, that the Armenian people
became Christ's witnesses.
The Armenian Genocide was not the first time Armenian Christians had
suffered martyrdom. And sadly, neither would it be the last time martyrs
would be made in our world-as the very headlines of today cry out to us.
But the scale of the Genocide, the magnitude of the loss in human and
civilizational terms, sets it apart-and defies comprehension even a century
later.
And yet a century of reflection has also confirmed a feeling in our
hearts-opened our minds to the realization that the Genocide is something
larger, morally, than a national cataclysm. A realization has dawned that
the people we lost-our own mayrigs and hayrigs, and ancestors who never had
a chance to have progeny of their own-achieved, in their suffering and
sacrifice, a significance that speaks to all of humanity.
We will act on that realization on April 23 of this year, during an historic
ceremony at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. There, in the sight of our
entire undivided church, the martyrs who died for their faith in 1915 will
be acknowledged as saints of the Armenian Church. Forever afterwards we
will regard them as exemplars of victorious faith, and not as figures of
pity and injustice. We will no longer pray for the souls of our martyrs,
but instead we will ask them, as saints, to pray for us. We will come to
regard the items they left to us, even their photographs, as holy relics
touched by the saints.
The canonization of our Genocide martyrs should become a transformative
experience for us, in ways we cannot fully comprehend from our vantage point
today. This year is only the beginning of understanding for us as a people.
We can only imagine how the canonization might affect the perspective our
people bring to the Genocide in the future.
The disciples standing with the resurrected Jesus prior to his ascension
must have had a similar experience. They had lived through the horrors of
Christ's passion, crucifixion, and death; they had felt their own hearts
engulfed in desperation and regret. And yet having endured all that, here
they were, with their Lord palpably living before them, watching as he was
lifted up into glory.
It is the Easter story that gives us the proper perspective from which to
view the sainthood of our Genocide martyrs. For through the miracle of our
Lord's resurrection we can see that the scars we bear today, the losses we
have endured-whether inflicted one hundred years ago, or last night-Christ
has borne before us. He accepted them in anticipation of our own
afflictions, out of his love for us, to show he abides with us in triumph as
well as tragedy.
The resurrection, above all, promises those who bear witness to our Lord
that they will be remembered by him, lifted up, and made new in God's
eternal kingdom.
That is the hope that Easter eternally represents. We can enter upon it,
too, if we so choose. And Jesus Christ is our doorway. Let us carry that
prayer in our hearts this Easter, as we affirm:
Krisdos haryav ee merelotz! Orhnyal eh harootiunun Krisdosee!
Christ is risen from the dead! Blessed is the resurrection of Christ!
Easter 2015
###
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Karine Abalyan
Tel: (212) 686-0710; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.armenianchurch-ed.net
March 31, 2015
(Attached please find the Easter message in Armenian)
___________________
THE EASTER MESSAGE OF ARCHBISHOP KHAJAG BARSAMIAN
Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
YOU WILL BE MY WITNESSES
Jesus replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the
Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in
all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said
this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of
their sight. (Acts 1:7-9)
The Book of Acts begins with an ending: Jesus Christ's valedictory words to
his disciples, just before he is "lifted up" out of human sight, to sit at
the right hand of God. Before he does so, the risen Christ reminds his
followers that human beings are limited creatures: even after the miracle of
Christ's resurrection, the ways of God will always be mysterious to man, and
some things are simply beyond man's capacity to know.
But in the very next moment he reassures the disciples that they will
receive the power of the Holy Spirit, to make them "witnesses" in their home
city, the surrounding countryside, and indeed "to the ends of the earth."
We are given in these words a vision of the future: of distant lands, and
even distant times, where the followers of Jesus will be witnesses-or to use
the Greek term, martures, "martyrs"-for the truth of Christ.
It is an especially poignant thought for us this Easter, one hundred years
after the greatest episode of martyrdom our people have ever known. For it
was in the distant land of Asia Minor (the cradle of the Christian church),
some nineteen centuries after our Lord's ascension, that the Armenian people
became Christ's witnesses.
The Armenian Genocide was not the first time Armenian Christians had
suffered martyrdom. And sadly, neither would it be the last time martyrs
would be made in our world-as the very headlines of today cry out to us.
But the scale of the Genocide, the magnitude of the loss in human and
civilizational terms, sets it apart-and defies comprehension even a century
later.
And yet a century of reflection has also confirmed a feeling in our
hearts-opened our minds to the realization that the Genocide is something
larger, morally, than a national cataclysm. A realization has dawned that
the people we lost-our own mayrigs and hayrigs, and ancestors who never had
a chance to have progeny of their own-achieved, in their suffering and
sacrifice, a significance that speaks to all of humanity.
We will act on that realization on April 23 of this year, during an historic
ceremony at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. There, in the sight of our
entire undivided church, the martyrs who died for their faith in 1915 will
be acknowledged as saints of the Armenian Church. Forever afterwards we
will regard them as exemplars of victorious faith, and not as figures of
pity and injustice. We will no longer pray for the souls of our martyrs,
but instead we will ask them, as saints, to pray for us. We will come to
regard the items they left to us, even their photographs, as holy relics
touched by the saints.
The canonization of our Genocide martyrs should become a transformative
experience for us, in ways we cannot fully comprehend from our vantage point
today. This year is only the beginning of understanding for us as a people.
We can only imagine how the canonization might affect the perspective our
people bring to the Genocide in the future.
The disciples standing with the resurrected Jesus prior to his ascension
must have had a similar experience. They had lived through the horrors of
Christ's passion, crucifixion, and death; they had felt their own hearts
engulfed in desperation and regret. And yet having endured all that, here
they were, with their Lord palpably living before them, watching as he was
lifted up into glory.
It is the Easter story that gives us the proper perspective from which to
view the sainthood of our Genocide martyrs. For through the miracle of our
Lord's resurrection we can see that the scars we bear today, the losses we
have endured-whether inflicted one hundred years ago, or last night-Christ
has borne before us. He accepted them in anticipation of our own
afflictions, out of his love for us, to show he abides with us in triumph as
well as tragedy.
The resurrection, above all, promises those who bear witness to our Lord
that they will be remembered by him, lifted up, and made new in God's
eternal kingdom.
That is the hope that Easter eternally represents. We can enter upon it,
too, if we so choose. And Jesus Christ is our doorway. Let us carry that
prayer in our hearts this Easter, as we affirm:
Krisdos haryav ee merelotz! Orhnyal eh harootiunun Krisdosee!
Christ is risen from the dead! Blessed is the resurrection of Christ!
Easter 2015
###