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LRAPER - PASCHAL MESSAGE OF HIS BEATITUDE MESROB II ARMENIAN PATRIARCH OF ISTANBUL AND ALL TURKEY
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"O Christ, Thou art the life and resurrection of mankind;
the hope of our resurrection, the fountain of life and salvation."
(Armenian Hymnal)
Our Beloved Faithful People,
Today, on the first Holy Pascha of the Third Millennium, the bells of
all Christian churches throughout the world proclaim the good news
of our Lord's Holy Resurrection on the very same day. Though uttered
in many languages and set in different tunes, they nevertheless sing
in glorious concert, with the same ancient words: "Christ is Risen
from the dead; He trampled down death by death and by His
resurrection granted life to us. Glory to Him forever! Amen."
Our Lord Jesus Christ, during His ministry on this earth had declared
on quite a few occasions that He would rise from the dead. After
turning the tables of the merchants who were desecrating the Temple
in Jerusalem, the administrators asked Him upon whose authority He
was acting. The Lord Jesus answered: "Destroy this temple and I will
raise it up in three days." Saint John the Evangelist explains
that "The temple Jesus referred to was His body. And when He rose
from the dead, the disciples remembered that He had said this and
they believed what was written in the Scriptures and the word which
Jesus had spoken." (Jn 2:13-22).
Some scribes had also expressed a wish to witness a miraculous sign
from the Lord Jesus. Our Lord answered to them: "No sign shall be
given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the
Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
(Mat. 12:38-40).
After Christ's crucifixion, His followers buried Him in a sepulchre,
whose entrance was secured with a large stone. But His opponents --
recalling especially the words of the Lord Jesus that on the third
day He should rise -- amongst other steps of precaution, deployed a
group of soldiers to guard the entrance of the tomb. (Mat. 27:62-66).
On the third day, however, at sunrise, the myrophores went to the
sepulchre to anoint the body of the Lord with sweet-scenting oils.
When they arrived, they saw with astonishment that the large stone
covering the sepulchre had been rolled away. An angel proclaimed that
Christ had risen from the dead and told the women to proclaim the
good news to the Disciples (Luke 24:1-13). Having received the news,
Peter and John immediately went to the sepulchre to see it for
themselves; and they found the tomb empty.
Despite the fact that He had revealed it in advance, the Disciples
and the followers of the Lord Jesus did not expect His resurrection,
and at first they refused to believe in the miracle. Mary Magdalene,
after seeing the empty tomb, immediately thought that the body of the
Lord was stolen. When Jesus appeared to her, Mary thought it was the
gardener who was speaking to her (Jn. 20:1-18). In the afternoon,
Jesus appeared to two of his disciples on a road outside Jerusalem.
They, too, had not believed in the news of His resurrection and did
not recognize the Lord until He sat down at the table with them and
broke bread (Lk 24:13-35). Towards the evening, the Risen Lord
appeared in the Upper Room where almost all of the Disciples had
gathered. Instead of rushing and embracing Him, they behaved
peevishly, stuck in their seats, thinking that what they experienced
was a ghostly phenomenon. Christ ate bread to convince them that He
was not dead, that He was alive (36-43). Thomas, one of the
Disciples, who had been absent from the Upper Room, did not believe
in the resurrection of the Lord and announced that he would not be
convinced until he saw the physical signs of the crucifixion on the
Lord's body. A little later, Jesus appeared to his Disciples for the
third time and said to Thomas: "Put your finger here and see my
hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be
faithless, but believing." Thomas exclaimed: "My Lord and my God".
The Risen Lord answered: "Are you saying this because you saw me and
believed? Blessed are those who believe without seeing me" (Jn 20:24-
29).
Indeed, the Disciples had seen the Risen Lord with their own eyes,
and, after the Pentecost, preached the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
for the rest of their lives. Other well-known champions of the Faith
did not encounter the Risen Saviour with their own physical eyes, but
they became fervent souls selflessly devoted to the love of Christ,
and certainly not in an inferior way to the Disciples.
*
Some 250 years had passed since Christ's glorious Resurrection and
Ascension. St. Gregory the Parthian, the only surviving member of the
errant House of Anak, enjoyed the care of Christian believers in
Caesarea, in Cappadocia, where he was nourished and cleansed with the
Word of God, and as a fine conduit he was filled with the Holy
Spirit, which would work in him incessantly for the rest of his life,
calling him to ministry, to preach to the Armenian People about the
Crucified and Risen Saviour.
On one decisive occasion, St. Gregory refused to obey the order of
the Arsacid King Trdat III "to offer trophies made of branches to the
idol of goddess Anahit," considering such a thing an illusion and
disrespect to human dignity. (Agathangelos, 40). "Instead of God,
from whom we enjoy blessings," said our Illuminator, "You worship
objects made of wood, stone, gold and silver, which are given by God
for the service of mankind, and for his needs and edification" (ibid,
59). Our Father of the Faith, having explained that the worship of
material objects is a clear evidence of lack of misery and
hopelessness, continued with the following words: "But our lives are
not hopeless, for we worship He who is alive; for when He wishes, he
gives us life, and we know that even when we die we shall live [Jn
11:26]. And the Son of God died and became alive again, and with His
resurrection gave us the proof of life, so that when the Kingdom of
the Creator is revealed, those of us who have died for Him shall live
again" [1 Thes. 5:9] (Agathangelos, 60).
Immediately before being subjected to unimaginable sufferings at the
hands of King Trdat, St. Gregory continued his exhortation without
hesitation: "Christ is the Son of God, the judge of the living and
of the dead [2 Tim. 4:1], the bestower of blessings to those who do
good deeds and punishment to those who commit evil deeds [Matt.
16:27, Rom. 2:6, II Tim. 4:8], through whom God created and formed
the world [Jn 1:3]. He died by His will, and was buried and through
His resurrection revealed and witnessed to the resurrection of the
dead. He is resurrection and life, the resurrector and renewer of all
bodies, who gives life to the souls of men. He is life itself, who,
wearing the same body, renews the souls of men and shall reveal each
one's reward according to one's deeds, and breaking the chains of
ungodliness, He shall release those captured by paganism. This is the
never-ending bliss: He will give everlasting life through His
Divinity to His beloved ones, those who are called by Him, those
invited and those who keep His commandments. This is, surely, what
our hope expects and awaits" (Agathangelos, 64-66).
And, indeed, it was this hope which kept alive the Father of our
Church, St. Gregory the Illuminator, in the confines of the dark pit
for some fifteen long years, until the day when, finally, he was to
be brought out from Khor Virap, to lead the Armenian royalty and the
Armenian people from darkness to the light of Truth, from ignorance
to the knowledge of God, from loss to eternal salvation. Although St.
Gregory had not seen the resurrection of our Saviour with his
physical eyes, nevertheless, he deeply believed, even to the point of
risking his life. God's encouragement was not delayed, however, as
with Paul on the road to Damascus, or Apostle John on the island of
Patmos, likewise the Great Illuminator of the Armenians received
God's grace to see the Risen Saviour in his vision of Etchmiadzin.
This is how the Father of our Church led the Armenian monarchy and
the people to officially embrace Christian faith 1700 years ago. And
as a result of his unyielding dedication, God "shone in our hearts,
so that we are enlightened and recognise God's glory in the person of
Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).
The lives of nations, just as for individuals, are continuous
pilgrimages on the long paths of history. The conditions of that path
of pilgrimage, however, are not the same for all nations. We must
admit that, after officially becoming Christian, the path of our
people in the last 1700 years has been an extremely difficult one
often resulting in self-sacrificing martyria. The pages of the
history of this Small Flock are indeed decorated with periods of
glory: the salvific mission of the Illuminator, the Golden Age of
Saints Sahak and Mesrob, the Vardanank movement for freedom of
conscience and religion, the Silver Age of Cilicia, all achieved in
contingency and under harshest conditions. Do the words of Apostle
Paul not sound familiar?: "We are afflicted in every way, but not
crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not
forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed… Our inner nature is being
renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing
us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (ibid, 7-18).
Indeed, we prevailed the trials and were patient with hardships with
the conviction of our forefathers that "God who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus" (v.14). Armored and strengthened with
this faith, the Armenian people resurrected from the ashes of history
many times.
Our Beloved Faithful People,
Once again, we started the Third Millennium under disadvantageous
circumstances. Considering political issues, per se, outside of our
scope, we would like, nevertheless, to note simply that today the
overwhelming majority of the Armenian people is faced with serious
spiritual, educational, cultural and economic crises. On one hand,
the seemingly positive globalisation process and
materialistic "spirit" of our contemporary times, coupled with the
concern of providing the necessities of daily living -- which have
been leading to mass exodus and a self-destructive craze of
emigration from the Fatherland and historic communities in the Middle
East -- on the other hand, socio-religious consequences of exogamous
bonds are but some of the more significant problems seriously
threatening the spiritual-cultural viability of our people. Our
people are in dire and immediate need of courage and faith, security
and a clear sense of direction, determination to live and create,
strength, zeal and enthusiasm -- just as the barren and parched land
needs blissful rains.
Indeed, the 17th Centennial Jubilee should not lead us to self-
deception. The spiritual crisis that our people is going through is
not possible to resolve simply by incessant ordination of multitudes
of new and young clergymen or by constructing new houses of worship.
What is essential for us is a sound ecole, based on the spirituality
of our Church Fathers. We need clergymen who enter into a life of
spiritual service through penitence, calling and thankfulness -- not
simply ordained to earn a living; clergymen who are led by the lucid
vision of the Risen Saviour; clergymen who are ready to serve our
people with love, and through them, God.
While the celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the final
conversion of the Armenian people, through elaborate ceremonies,
building projects, academic conferences, multitudes of pilgrimages
seem to be, and are indeed, important, nevertheless none of these
programmes could be a substitute for a return to the roots of our
religio-cultural heritage, or for penitence, prayer and communion.
The1700th anniversary is, first and foremost, a God-granted
opportunity given to us all, individually and collectively, to renew
our baptismal oath. We should pray to God with our forefathers from
the depth of our hearts: "Increase in us, O Lord Almighty, faith,
hope, love and all virtuous deeds, so that we are worthy of salvation
of our lives and to beseech You for our spiritual life, O Lord, and
to find blessings and mercy from You." (Jamagirk, Horologion).
Here it is worth to reflect on the words of St. Paul the Apostle
addressed to fellow Christians: "Do you not know that all of us who
have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? We
were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in
a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a
resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with
Him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no
longer be enslaved to sin. For we have died with Christ, we believe
that WE SHALL ALSO LIVE WITH HIM (Romans 6:3-9).
Dear Armenian people,
Although you have not personally seen the miraculous Resurrection of
the Saviour, re-confess and strengthen your faith in the witness of
the first Illuminators, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew, and the
other Apostles.
Anchor unshakably your spiritual life in the preaching, character and
exemplary life of our Patron Saint, Gregory the Illuminator, and the
multitudes of other Christ-loving holy fathers.
Consider this major Feast of the Holy Resurrection -- in this
Blessed year of the Jubilee in the historical path of our people --
the dawning of a new era of spiritual blessing in your life, and
encouraged by the intercessions of the multitudes of saints and holy
martyrs, and re-strengthened by the Paschal Mystery, acclaim your
victory against evil that dares to challenge your very existence: "O
death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" (Hos. 13:
14; 1 Cor. 15:55).
CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!
HE IS RISEN INDEED, ALLELUIA!
On the occasion of the Feast of the Holy Resurrection in this Jubilee
year of the Great and Final Conversion of the Armenians to
Christianity, we congratulate, with love and blessings, all the
children of the Armenian Apostolic Mother Church without exceptions.
We greet with Christ-taught warm love the graceful Bishops, the pious
confreres of our Brotherhood, the reverend priests; the Mother
Superior of the Kalfayan Order; the deacons, the clerics and the
choirs; the Board of Trustees of our Holy Saviour Hospital, its
doctors and medical staff; the Boards of community organizations; the
Parish Councils; the Ladies Committees, the Principals, Boards and
Teachers of our parish schools; charitable, alumni, cultural,
humanitarian and sports associations; the editors and staff of
Armenian newspapers and all our faithful and beloved people. We wish
them all a joyous Paschal celebration, as well as full success in
their church-edifying, educational and charitable endeavours.
On this grand feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Christ, we send
our fraternal greetings and congratulations to the heads, pastors and
the faithful of our sister Christian Churches, especially, the
Armenian Catholic and the Armenian Evangelical communities with whom
we have the joy of celebrating the Mystery of Lord's Resurrection on
the same date this year. We pray and wish that the day will not be
too far when, with the Lord's will and through the work of the Holy
Spirit, we shall commune from the same chalice.
We send our warm and paternal love to the larger Istanbul Armenian
community in the Diaspora: the Istanbul Armenian associations, the
Surp Khach Tbrevank, Getronakan, Essayan and Mkhitarian associations
and to our pious and faithful people living abroad, who, despite the
difficult conditions of dispersion, keep our traditions alive
faithfully, while preserving spiritual and cultural links with their
birthplace.
On the occasion of the Feast of Holy Resurrection we continue to pray
for the well-being of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Holy
Sees of the Great House of Cilicia and Jerusalem. With the joy of
Easter, we fraternally greet His Holiness Catholicos Karekin II of
All Armenians, His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of
Cilicia, His Beatitude Patriarch Torkom II of Jerusalem and their
Brotherhoods, and all the primates and pastors of our Church, and
proclaim the festive good news:
CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD.
BLESSED IS THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST!
With fatherly greetings of love
and with prayers in Christ,
+ MESROB
Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul
Armenian Patriarchate
Kumkapi, Istanbul
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