The Treasury V4N3 by The Treasury

I SSN 2 47 1-4704 Volume 4/ Number 3 2018

The

Գ ԱՆՁԱՐԱՆ

reasury

Confession and Mercy Lessons from Naregatsi John 3:16 Reflections on Marriage

Catholicos Karekin I Hovsepiants

Volume 4 Number 3

The Treasury

e Marvelous Messagge

Features Lessons of St. Gregory of 4 The Narek: Confession and Mercy Tenth century Armenian Saint and Doctor of the Church, Grigor Naregatsi, teaches us some lessons about authentic remorse and the unending abundance of God’s mercy. By Dr. Michael Papazian

A Prayer on the Lord’s Prayer Explore this prayer-within-a- prayer which elaborates upon the most significant prayer ever oﬀered to God. By V. Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan

Karekin I Hovsepiants: 12 Catholicos May the Holy Spirit Reign Scholar, war hero, builder and faithful hierarch were among the many distinctions of this remarkable Armenian priest from the last century. By Dr. Roberta Ervine

John 3:16 the Gospel 18 Is in a Nutshell? Does John 3:16, possibly the most popular verse in the Bible, encapsulate the entire Gospel? Or does it say even more than what people assume? By Dn. Eric Vozzy

Departments Letter 2 Editor’s Have We Missed The Point? By Dr. André Markarian

and THE WAY 9 Words /zham/hour ժամ

By Rev. Fr. Ghevond Ajamian

Perspective 16 Pastor’s Pastoral Reflections on Marriage By Rev. Fr. Nareg Terterian

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF ST. VOSKI

Vo l u m e 4 N u m b e r 3

Front Cover: St. Gregory of Narek www.mirrorspectator.com Front Inside Cover: Path to Tatev Monastery www.hayweb.ru Page 2: A Congregant- www.crosswalk.com Page 4: Old Books - www.uzdevumi.lv Page 5: Narekavank - plus.google.com www.gibrahayer.com Page 5: Akhtamar Island: The Church of Holy Cross - www.travelarmenia.org Page 6: St. Gregory of Narek www.sfinticatolici.ro Page 8: St. Gregory of Narek www.srbapatker.do.am Page 9: Sun Dial - Unidentified source Page 10 - 11: A fragment of an Armenian ornamental art: Toros Roslin www.wikimedia.org Page 12: Karekin I Hovsepiants www.thexart.club Page 13: Holy See of Cilicia: Photo by Hovig Garabet - www.armenianorthodoxchurch.org Page 14: Catholicos Karekin I - From the photoarchive of Dr. R. Ervine Page 15: Morning www.picture24gallery.blogspot.com Page 16: Sacrament of Crowning - Property of Fr. Ghevond Ajamian Page 18: The Rainbow Man - www.stmarkmwc.org Back Inside Cover: Crucifixion of Jesus. Gospel, 1609, The Bodleian Library www.wikiwand.com Back Cover: Lake Van www.amtproductions.com

Publisher: The Fellowship of St. Voski Editor-in-Chief Dr. André Markarian Editorial Board Rev. Fr. Ghevond Ajamian Dr. Roberta Ervine Dn. Eric Vozzy Text Editor Nicole Whittlesey Publication Designer Hasmik Ajamian Editorial Office: P.O. Box 377 Sutton, MA 01590 All Bible verses are from the 1805 Zohrab Bible (Armenian) or the Revised Standard Version (English, RSV) unless otherwise specified.

The Fellowship of St. Voski Nor Voskiank/Նոր Ոսկեանք is a fellowship of men and women working toward the revival and restoration of Armenian Orthodox theology and life within the Armenian Church at large. The fellowship is named after St. Voski and his companions (the Voskians) who were a group of Christian martyrs and monastics from the first century, many of whom who were students of St. Thaddeus. According to tradition, St. Thaddeus ordained as their leader a priest called Chrysos (Greek for “gold,” Armenian “voski”), and thereafter the group came to be known as the Voskians. In the spirit of the Voskians, Nor Voskiank seeks to support the cultivation of a thriving, united, worldwide Armenian Christian communit y through prayer, fellowship, and the publication of practical educational resources covering the entire breadth of Christian life as lived, interpreted and testified to by the Armenian Church since ancient times. The Treasury/Գանձարան is published quarterly and subscriptions are available by request. To contact us or donate, please visit us at

www.StVoski.org Nor Voskiank is a tax-exempt not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that depends entirely on your generous support for its ministry. For a one-year subscription to The Treasury, please send a tax-deductible gift of $30 payable to Fellowship of St. Voski, P.O. Box 377, Sutton MA 01590. Bulk subscriptions also available by request. Every issue of The Treasury is available to read free of charge on our website to all interested. You can also visit us on Facebook at Fellowship of St. Voski.

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Editor’s Letter

Have We Missed The Point?

ecently, I was enjoying fellowship hour after Sunday morning church services when I was confronted with a comment during a conversation with another parishioner who said, “I really didn’t get anything out of the service today, but the sermon was pretty good.” This was not the first time I had come across this sort of sentiment, but it made me think that maybe this attitude about Sunday morning church services is more common than I had previously believed, and so requires a response. Living in a culture in which we are conditioned to believe that everything is about us – our needs, our desires, our comforts – it is not surprising that this attitude toward life would eventually infiltrate our experience as Christians. The Christian life is anything but self-directed. In fact, Jesus taught emphatically that his followers would be known by the distinction of dedicated service to others rather than ourselves. “It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mark 10:44-45). Using agricultural imagery, Jesus further described the Christian life as a death to the self entirely: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24) Consequently, we must view Sunday morning worship in the Armenian Church as far less about satisfying our needs for comfort, entertainment, and psychotherapy than we are led to believe by our selfish egos. In fact, the Holy Badarak, with its continually changing body positions and hand 2 The Treasury / 2018

movements, repetition of solemn prayers and petitions, and frequent reminders of our puniness before the majesty of God is anything but comfortable or self-serving (not to mention the eﬀort required by many to follow along in a transliterated Armenian pew book). This is in large part why we find it so diﬃcult to “get anything” out of Sunday morning worship in the Armenian Church – it simply does not fit in with what we are conditioned to expect after a full week of constantly trying to satisfy our desires and comforts in all that we pursue. The other, greater part of this puzzle is a serious misunderstanding of why we congregate on Sunday mornings in church in the first place. Simply put, it is not to be dazzled by a charismatic preacher or to be entertained by a songbirdvoiced diva – there is no shortage of talented Bible expositors or Christian musicians accessible from the comfort of our living room sofas. Nor do we congregate to satisfy our Armenian obligation for cultural socialization, as important and enjoyable as it is to share joyful experiences with our Armenian sisters and brothers. We assemble weekly in church for one central purpose, and that is to worship God together as the unified body of Christ. The Soorp Badarak, the Daily Hours, the numerous special liturgical services, were all created by our sage ancestors to help us direct glory, blessing and thanksgiving to God, and him alone. If we come to church forgetting this one reality, no matter how sincere or innocent we may be in our attendance, we will most certainly run the risk of leaving without “getting anything” out of our visit to church.

To complicate matters, a big problem many of us have is that we misunderstand or simply have forgotten what real worship is. Worship is an intellectual and emotional response of praise, adoration and reverence from the very depth of our being for someone extraordinary. For some, the closest semblance of a worship experience is meeting a famous movie-star, ball player or musician back stage or at a fund raiser. Sadly, this is nothing more than the effect of the power of the media to transform mere humans into larger than life figures. Yet these mortal “gods” will always leave us wanting in the end, and our worship (of them) will eventually fall impotent. Worship only blossoms when the object of our worship is truly worthy of our praise and adoration. The only One who can meet this requirement is God himself – Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the One Creator and Sustainer of all things; the One who lived the perfect human life and then died a sacrificial death to wash away all our sins, conquer death, and restore the entire universe to its original perfect state; the One who lives within the heart of every believer, comforting, guiding and strengthening each of us to lead lives fitting of the title “Christian.” As you can imagine, one primary problem with being able to worship God properly is that we just don’t know him well enough. We know all the movies our beloved celebrities have made, all the songs our favorite musicians have sung, and all the home runs or touchdowns our sports heroes have scored, but how well do we know our God? His Word? His Saints? His activities throughout the centuries and specifically in our lives? Without a robust knowledge and understanding of God, which begins with baptism, grows with study of the scriptures and history, and deepens through earnest prayer, how can we expect to have meaningful, sincere worship? If we truly desire to make Sunday mornings in church satisfying, we need to commit to regular private study and devotion as part of a daily walk with the Lord, so that when we come together to meet God with the rest of our church family, we will truly know the One we are worshiping. Which brings us to the final piece of the puzzle. With every Soorp Badarak we participate in, we respond to an amazing invitation to sit at the banquet table of Christ, along with all the angels and Saints, to celebrate and offer thanksgiving to the Lord Almighty. Embedded within this outpouring of our adoration and glorification, at its very climax, we are offered the most sacred and solemn of gifts – Holy Communion – the divine life of Christ himself in tangible form. Just as the disciples were offered his Body and Blood in the upper room over 2000 years ago, we too are

given the same awesome privilege as a community of faith to share in his divine life through the mystically transformed bread and wine, consecrated especially for us. Having partaken of this most colossal blessing, we leave fully healed, restored and satisfied. Surely our feelings woefully betray us if we leave Badarak with the attitude, “I got nothing out of today’s service.” Don’t get the wrong idea here. There are many beautiful things taking place at church on Sunday mornings, none of which are insignificant. Most certainly our individual activities (private prayer, Scripture meditation, etc) during the Divine Liturgy are very meaningful and can be very rewarding. An edifying and uplifting sermon can add focus and passion to our daily Christian walk. And yes, properly executed liturgical activities by altar servers and musical notes sung correctly and joyfully by the choir will surely complement a morning of intense worship. And of course there is nothing at all wrong with having comfy pew seat cushions and air-conditioning when we worship. God does not desire our discomfort. But all these “perks” are secondary benefits, collateral bonuses to participation in communal worship at church. The emphasis of Sunday morning church participation cannot be on these secondary details though, albeit important ones. The focal point must be on one thing alone: worshipping God. This kind of worship entails submitting everything to Him – our conscience, our will, our love, our imagination, our all – which is exactly what our beautiful and ancient Armenian liturgy guides us to do! Once we restore this singleness of focus in our communal worship, so much of what plagues our experience in the Armenian Church will simply fade away. Only then are we worshiping our holy God “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-4), properly preparing ourselves as the united body of Christ to receive the sacred oﬀering of his love and divine life in Holy Communion. The beautiful irony here is that, as with all things selflessly given up to God, we become the recipients of all the rewards. And that’s just the kind of Lord we have, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

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The Lessons of St. Gregory of Narek Confession and mercy by Dr. Michael Papazian

ne of the many privileges of being a professor is the opportunity to read and write about whatever topics I consider important. Recently my college gave me a sabbatical to do just that. I decided to dedicate this free time to one of the greatest saints of the Armenian Church: St. Gregory of Narek (Սուրբ Գրիգոր Նարեկացի) [c. 945-1003]. I had been studying St. Gregory for many years, starting around the time of the commemoration of the millennium of his death in 2003. Back then I never imagined that just twelve years later, our Armenian saint would become the thirty-sixth doctor (or eminent teacher) of the Catholic Church. Today, more than ever, St. Gregory does not belong just to the Armenians but to the entire world. And although Gregory never sought titles or fame, I think that he is pleased with this extraordinary distinction. For he makes clear in several of his works that he wrote not only for the Armenians of his day but for all people. It is hard for me to conceal my joy at Gregory’s joining the ranks of the doctors. As a student and now a professor of philosophy, I have studied and taught the works of the great Latin doctors like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas and 4 The Treasury / 2018

the Greek doctors like St. John of Damascus and St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Now for the first time there is an Armenian doctor, and most remarkable of all, this newest doctor was a monk and priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church centuries after the church had severed communion with the sees of Rome and Constantinople. By the end of my sabbatical I had completed a book on Gregory’s theology. For me, theology is not just a collection of religious ideas and arguments from the past. My goal in reading the great theologians is always to apply their insights to our current problems and circumstances. That is how I approached my work on Gregory’s writings too. What can Gregory teach us about the Church and the sacraments, about morality and how we should live? Gregory is after all a vardapet: a teacher or doctor. What is he teaching us today? Here I will say a little about what I learned from reading his works, especially his great poem, one of the most sublime accomplishments of medieval literature and Christian spirituality: the Book of Lamentation (Գիրք Ողբերգութեան), sometimes also called Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart. (1)

Narekavank Monastery

Although tenth-century Armenia was a very diﬀerent world from twenty-first century America, there are still some interesting parallels between our eras. Gregory lived at a time when Armenians had begun to recover some degree of political autonomy. He was born in Vaspurakan, a kingdom surrounding Lake Van. The great cathedral of the Holy Cross on the island of Aghtamar had just been built a few decades prior to his birth and Gregory could see it from his monastery of Narek on the southern shore of Lake Van. The cathedral was sponsored by the king of Vaspurakan, Gagik I Artsruni (c. 980-943), who devoted himself to reviving the church as Armenia was emerging from oppressive Arab rule. Gagik and his family were also involved in the building of monasteries throughout the kingdom, one of which became Narekavank (Նարեկավանք), the monastery founded by Gregory’s cousin and teacher, Anania of Narek. These monasteries and churches were not built for the king’s glory but to instill in the Armenian people a closer connection to their church. Many Armenians had become alienated from the church. They did not understand the liturgy or the teachings of the church, and they participated in the rituals without any deep appreciation or emotional attachment. This, at least, is what Gregory’s father, Khosrov Andzevatsi (Խոսրով Անձեւացի), observed. After his wife’s death, Khosrov was ordained a bishop and installed as the primate of a diocese adjacent to the one in which Narekavank was located. In the course of getting to know his priests and lay faithful he became alarmed at the level of ignorance and disinterest in the church. Realizing that he could not personally instruct all the people in his diocese, he set out to compose a book that would explain all the services and the Divine Liturgy. But he also understood that monastic life needed to be strengthened in order to produce educated monks who could preach and connect with the people. He may have recruited Anania to help establish Narekavank. Khosrov not only advised Anania but he also dedicated two of his sons, John (Յովհաննէս) and

Gregory to the monastery’s care. They would remain there as monks for the rest of their lives. Inspired by his father’s and Anania’s mission to bring the church closer to the people, Gregory composed beautiful and inspiring hymns and poetry. One indication of his success is that the Book of Lamentation has become a second bible for Armenians. Today though the Book of Lamentation is also sometimes maligned for its supposedly pathological obsession with sin and depravity. Yet having read the book carefully I consider this judgment to be unfounded. It is true that the tone of the work is largely penitential. But this sorrowful mood is balanced with a profound confidence in God’s mercy and forgiveness. There is a good reason why Gregory focuses throughout his book on confessing of sins. In his time confession had become mostly formulaic and mechanical. Many penitents were simply uttering the words of confession without any genuine sense of contrition. One of the purposes of the Book of Lamentation is to teach us how to confess properly. To do this, Gregory turns to biblical models of sincere and insincere penance. Gregory’s examples of genuine contrition are the sinful woman of Luke 7:36-50 and the tax collector of Luke 18:9-14. When they ask for forgiveness, they are filled with remorse and sadness. Their pleas are heard and they are healed. On the other hand, insincere expressions of contrition are punished. Worst of all is the Pharisee who, instead of confessing his sins, admires his good works and expresses his satisfaction at not being like the tax collector (Luke 18:11-12). The truly contrite are those who admit the gravity of their own sins and do not attempt to justify themselves by pointing out that there are greater sinners. Yet as great as our sins may be in our own eyes when we confess them properly, they never are unforgivable. Gregory reminds us never to despair but to trust in God’s endless mercy. The most vicious of sinners are still capable of redemption.

Akhtamar Island: The Church of Holy Cross

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It is diﬃcult to imagine a man with a more wicked past than Manasseh, the king of Judah. As Gregory recounts, the king profaned the Jerusalem temple: For in this very temple of the Lord, Enclosure of incense offered to the Creator… He established an altar of sacrifice to demons, Turning it into a desert of desolation, A place of abhorrent worship. (BL 51.4) And although the details of this episode are not recorded in the Bible, according to apocryphal traditions Manasseh brutally tortured and executed the prophet Isaiah:

And yet God granted him Forgiveness of his sins, Restoring him to his kingdom… So that you may keep The door of hope open For your exaltation’s glory And for my salvation,

I who am condemned. (BL 51.5) It is not the severity of the sin but the depth and sincerity of one’s sorrow that matters. Even the worst of sins can be easily wiped away by God’s boundless mercy: Should you weigh the heaviness of my sins, May it be according to your sweetness, And not according to your justice. For when weighed according to the former, They will seem most light, Yet when weighed according to the latter, They will be most unbearable. (BL 16.2) Many are my debts and beyond pity, Yet nothing surpasses The miracle of your mercy. Great are my sins Yet they become so small Before your forbearance. Frequent are my evils, But your compassion triumphs Over them all, O Powerful, Almighty One! (BL 74.4)

He who managed his ancestral home, Serving him as teacher and elder, Was sawed with a machine of death,

Cut into two pieces, afflicted by atrocious torture. (BL 51.4) This king who instituted pagan worship in the Jerusalem temple and killed one of God’s greatest prophets would seem beyond redemption. But God forgave him because of the profound sorrow he expressed in a beautiful prayer that was “heard by God” (2 Chron 33:13).(2) As a result of this profound expression of regret, Manasseh was reconciled with God and returned to his throne. If God forgave Manasseh, then we too, no matter our sins, by approaching God in humility will surely also be redeemed: 6 The Treasury / 2018

For Gregory the act of confession must be accompanied by tears and sighs. By this he does not mean only the shedding of physical tears, for these are external signs of an inner sadness. The material tears must be accompanied by tears of the soul that come from authentic remorse. The sinful woman of Luke 7:36-50 who washed Christ’s feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair is Gregory’s ideal. He wishes that his own sorrow would be like hers: And accept this dew of lamentation, The tearful weeping of my lustful eyes On the immaculate feet of your Incarnation, O Christ, My turning back to you and my confession of faith Prefigured by the symbol of the sinful woman’s hair. (BL 32.4)

Gregory believes that it takes eﬀort to acquire the ability to cry in both body and soul. His prayer books as well as his hymns are guides for achieving this goal of pious tears. Gregory does not want us to read his works simply on an intellectual level. He also wants us to feel God’s love and mercy and acknowledge our total dependence on Him. He appreciates the power of poetry and music to instill emotions. At the opening of his poem he states that he is writing: For the needs of all humanity, To bring about tears And motivate prayers, At the request and entreaties Of the monastic fathers And many hermits, A book of lamentation Composed by Gregory, A cenobite of the monastery of Narek. (BL Preface) At this point one may think that all one needs to be reconciled with God is a book. Why can’t we just ask for God’s forgiveness privately without the need for absolution by a priest? Gregory is aware of this question because in his lifetime there were many people in Armenia who believed that there was no need for the organized or institutional church. Many of these people were members of a movement known as the Tondrakeans (Թոնդրակեանք). They did not believe in the sacraments and did not worship in church buildings. Instead they met in their own houses or outdoors. Although this was still several centuries before the Protestant Reformation in the West, the Tondrakeans seem in some ways to anticipate the beliefs and practices of many modern Protestants. They did not have an ordained priesthood nor did they believe that in Holy Communion the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. They also rejected rituals and the veneration of material objects like the Cross. Many of Gregory’s writings make more sense once we place them in the context of this ongoing conflict between the defenders of Armenian orthodoxy and the dissidents. Throughout his works, Gregory places a great emphasis on the importance of material items as transmitters of God’s grace. In particular he alludes to examples in the Old Testament of objects through which God performs miracles. These are symbols that foreshadow the Church and the sacraments through which the Holy Spirit uses physical substances like water and bread as instruments of grace: As much as the victorious rod of the elect Moses, [The Church] is greater than any rational being; As much as the mysterious flowering staff of Aaron,

She is more sublime than the wise; As much as the wondrous mantle of Elijah and Elisha, Resplendent in the miracle that parted the river, She endows the consecrated hands with a double power to wipe away sins. (BL 75.8) God could easily have worked these miracles without using instruments like Aaron’s staﬀ and Elijah’s mantle. But human beings are composed of soul and body, and all our actions—including our sins—involve both parts of our nature. Complete healing of the person must involve all aspects of our nature. A purely spiritual faith separated from the embodied Church and the community of God’s people cannot restore humanity to glory because humans are more than spiritual beings. God’s healing must touch us physically too because we are in our essence material beings. This is why Gregory rejects the Tondrakeans’ criticism of the Armenian Church’s sacramental theology.

Material tears must be accompanied by tears of the soul that come from authentic remorse. It is possible that the Tondrakeans were also disaﬀected with the Church because of corruption among some of the clergy. The abuse by some priests of their privileges has always been a problem for the Church. Gregory is certainly aware of this problem. His monastery was founded with the mission of reforming the Church and strengthening the clerical ranks. Gregory eloquently defends the holiness of the Church although he knows that not all priests observe their vows. The Church has a solemn duty to be careful in deciding who is to be admitted to the priesthood. Even so, every institution made up of humans is vulnerable to temptation and corruption. Yet the Church remains pure and her sacraments continue to be eﬀective though she grieves over the presence of those who serve her unworthily: If after many tests of election, An errant man dares to enter her narthex, She is not soiled, but grieves over The errors of those unprepared. She is not cursed but receives even Those ignorant of the extent of grace; She does not despair of finding in herself guilt, But she is darkened by our deeds. (BL 75.9) www.StVoski.org

Despite all the failings of her servants and members, the Church never ceases to dispense God’s grace and mercy to us. For me the greatest lesson to be learned from reading the Book of Lamentation is the unending abundance of this mercy. As much as the book is about sin, its dominant theme is that God remains loving and compassionate regardless of how often we may turn away from Him, even willingly suﬀering and dying for our sake: O sweetness! Forbearing benefactor Of mercy, compassion, For the sake of your ungrateful Disobedient servant, O Lord of all, All this you accepted, Willingly and with gracious consent; You joined to yourself Your perfected flesh. Even when you entered The bed of your ark, the tomb, Still you lacked nothing Of the fullness of your Likeness, God beyond words. You suffered all this With inexpressible patience, You, the living sovereign; And you rose in exalted light, Undiminished in your flesh Yet perfect in your divinity. Blessed are you In your glory; Praised are you In your compassion; Your mercy be ever Lauded in song, Forever and ever. Amen. (BL 77.4)

Michael Papazian, PhD is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Berry College in Mt. Berry, Georgia. His areas of specialization include ancient philosophy, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, Greek philosophy and literature in medieval Armenia, and Eastern Christianity.

8 The Treasury / 2018

Footnotes: 1. All translations in this article from the Book of Lamentation (BL) are mine based on the Armenian text printed in volume 12 of the Մատենագիրք Հայոց [Armenian Classical Authors], Antelias, 2008. For a complete English translation, see Thomas Samuelian, Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart, Yerevan, 2001. 2. The Prayer of Manasseh is omitted from most English bibles but it is usually appended to 2Chronicles in Orthodox bibles. The prayer is familiar in the Armenian tradition because it is included in the book of hours (ժամագիրք) as part of the sunrise service (արեւագալ). See www.stnersess.edu/sunrise-hour.html.

Words and The Way

hour ժամ = zham by Rev. Fr. Ghevond Ajamian

ime is a very precious commodity in our world today, one we are not willing to spend on just anyone or anything. The motto “time is money” rings loud in our ears, is true in many professions and many more people shout it as a battle cry in their everyday lives. Time, as we all know, is divided into ages, millennia, centuries, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, nanoseconds and so on. Hours/ժամեր/zhamer, in particular, are very important in our lives. We are willing to give up a few seconds or minutes for someone or something, but an hour/ժամ or two is of great value. Our day planners are divided into hours/ժամեր so we can navigate eﬃciently through our daily lives. The real question we must ask ourselves is, “how many hours do we dedicate to serving God every day?” For many of us, only Sunday mornings are dedicated to God and maybe a couple of minutes each day. But the Psalmist implores us to bless God and to remember Him at every hour of the day. We hear this in the final hymn of the Divine Liturgy, which says: «Օրհնեցից զՏէր յամենայն ժամ, յամենայն ժամ, օրհնութիւն Նորա ի բերան իմ։»

“Orhnetseets uzDer hamenayn zham, hamenayn zham, orhnootyoon nora ee peran eem.”

“I will bless the Lord at every hour, at every hour, His blessing is in my mouth.” (Ps. 33:2) Our Church fathers, in their great wisdom, decided to place this hymn at the moment before we leave the sanctuary. It is a reminder that we must constantly praise the Lord and sing His blessings at every hour/ժամ and every moment of our lives. The blessings He sends upon us come by the hour and even by the moment; yet we don’t recognize them as such, but rather take them for granted, forgetting that they truly are blessings. A warm meal, a pillow to rest our head upon, hot water in our shower, or even gas in our car are all blessings that many others do not have. Even the most basic bodily functions like breathing, walking and thinking are all gifts from God that He has made to continually operate smoothly in our lives. No matter how unfortunate our situation may be, God’s blessings are still apparent, a lesson that so many of the Saints through the ages have taught us. So bless the Lord in everything you do, not only as an expression of love and gratitude for his hour/ժամ by hour/ժամ attention over our lives, but also as a recognition of how awesome He is, the One who created time Himself! Rev. Fr. Ghevond Ajamian is the pastor of St. Sarkis Armenian Orthodox Church in Dallas, Texas.

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A Prayer on the A Prayer on the Lord’s Prayer Lord’s Prayer translated by V. Rev. Fr. M. Daniel Findikyan

OUR FATHER, the all-holy Creator; Our Savior Jesus Christ; and our Consoler, the Holy Spirit — WHO ART IN HEAVEN, you enlighten the angels so that they may know you. For you are the eternal Light, who kindles in them the flame of love for you. You are Love and you reside in them. You are the supreme and eternal Good, without whom there is no good, for you are the source of goodness. HALLOWED BE THY NAME, O Lord, our heavenly Father. Let your face also shine upon us so that we may come to know the breadth of your good will, the highest reaches of your promises, your supreme glory that is higher than our minds can conceive, and the unfathomable depths of your judgment. THY KINGDOM COME so that you may be our only King by virtue of your grace, and so that you may lead us to your Kingdom, which means to see you plainly; and so that you may fill us with joy at the table of your heavenly blessings. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, so that we may love you with all our heart, contemplate you with undivided devotion, yearn for you with all our mind, and focus our mind and thoughts fully on you. And so that we may seek your honor in everything, dedicating all of our deeds and concerns— our body and our soul—to serving you. Moved by your love, let us love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us rejoice over others’ blessings as we rejoice over our own blessings, and share the pain of their wrongdoings and sorrows. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD. Heavenly Father, give us your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as food and drink. And gift us with the grace of the Holy Spirit as our teacher and helper. AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS in your mercy, heavenly 10 The Treasury / 2018

Father, and through the untold power of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit’s most generous source of goodness. Forgive us for our sins. For as humans we have sinned, so as mighty God show us your mercy. AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS. Lord, remove from our hearts callousness and selfcenteredness so that we may once again sincerely forgive those who have wronged us. As for our enemies, let us love them in deference to you. And let us never repay anyone’s evil with evil. AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, but free us from both visible and invisible tribulations. And DELIVER US FROM EVIL, whether in the past, or the present, or the future. And guide all our deeds, both spiritual and physical, day and night, toward what is good. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOREVER. AMEN.

The unknown author of this stirring prayer has expanded on Jesus’ own words in the Lord’s Prayer. It is found on the last page of an old Armenian prayer book printed in Constantinople in 1847 entitled, Բժշկարան հոգեւոր (Pzhushgaran hokevor), which is roughly translated, “Book of Spiritual Healing.” In typically Armenian fashion, the prayer explains the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer not in the form of a dry, theological treatise, but as a devotional prayer itself, a prayer-within-a-prayer.

Աղօթք ըստ Մտաց Տէրունական Աղօթից Ամէնասուրբ Հայր մեր եւ ստեղծող, փրկիչ մեր Յիսուս Քրիստոս, եւ մխիթարիչ մեր սուրբ Հոգի, որ ի յերկինս զհրեշտակս լուսաւորես առ ի ճանաչել զքեզ։ Քանզի դու ես լոյս յաւիտենական, որ բորբոքես զնոսա ի սէր քո. դու ես տէր, որ բնակիս ի նոսա. դու ես ծայրագոյն եւ յաւիտենական բարի, որ առանց քեզ ո՛չ գոյ բարի. զի դու ես աղբիւր բարութեան։ Սուրբ եղիցի անուն քո՝ ով տէր մեր եւ հայր երկնաւոր. պայծառասցի եւ ի մեզ յայտնութիւն քո. զի ճանաչեսցուք զլայնութիւն բարերարութեան քո, զբարձրութիւն խոստմանց քոց՝ ի վեր քան զմիտս զգերագոյն փառս քո, եւ զանքննին խորութիւն դատաստանաց քոց։ Եկեսցէ՛ արքայութիւն քո. զի թագաւորեսցես դու մեզ միայնակ ի ձեռն շնորհաց քոց. եւ տարցես զմեզ յարքայութիւն քո, որ է տեսութիւն քո յայտնապէս. եւ ուրախացուսցես զմեզ ի սեղան երկնաւոր բարեաց քոց։ Եղիցին կամք քո որպէս յերկինս եւ յերկրի. զի սիրեսցուք զքեզ ի բոլոր սրտէ. զքէն խորհեսցուք ի բոլոր անձնէ. եւ քեզ միշտ

Integrate the prayer into your own personal devotions, perhaps by reading it every morning or evening. Use the prayer in a group or family setting by having one person read the annotations with everyone joining in unison to read the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Teachers will find the prayer useful in helping students capture the deeper meaning of the prayer that our Lord taught us. In the end, this prayer-within-a-prayer amounts to a concise declaration of the Christian faith as Armenians have experienced and lived it for centuries.

ցանկասցուք ի բոլոր մտաց. եւ զամենայն միտս եւ զխորհուրդս մեր ի քեզ ուղղեսցուք. եւ զմեզ ի սեղան

երկնաւոր բարեաց քոց։ Եղիցին կամք քո որպէս յերկինս եւ յերկրի. զի սիրեսցուք զքեզ ի բոլոր սրտէ. զքէն խորհեսցուք ի բոլոր անձնէ. եւ քեզ միշտ ցանկասցուք ի բոլոր մտաց. եւ զամենայն միտս եւ զխորհուրդս մեր ի քեզ ուղղեսցուք. եւ զամենայն գործս եւ զհոգս մեր՝ զմարմին եւ զհոգի մեր ի ծառայութիւն քո նուիրեսցուք. եւ զընկերս մեր իբրեւ զմեզ սիրեսցուք վասն սիրոյ քոյ. եւ ի վերայ բարեացն այլոց՝ իբրեւ ի վերայ մեր բարեացն խնդասցուք, եւ չարեաց եւ վշտաց նոցա ցաւակից լիցուք։ Զհաց մեր հանապազորդ տո՛ւր մեզ այսօր. զսիրելի որդին քո հայր երկնաւոր՝ զտէր մեր յիսուս քրիստոս տո՛ւր մեզ ի կերակուր եւ յըմպելի. եւ զշնորհս հոգւոյդ սրբոյ մեզ դաստիարակ եւ ձեռնտու պարգեւեա՛։ Եւ թո՛ղ մեզ զպարտիս մեր. ի ձեռն ողորմութեան քո հայր երկնաւոր, եւ անճառելի զօրութեամբ սիրելի որդւոյ քոյ տեառն մերոյ յիսուսի քրիստոսի, եւ ամենառատ աղբերն բարութեան հոգւոյդ սրբոյ, թո՛ղ մեզ զմեղս մեր. զի մեք որպէս մարդ մեղաք, եւ դու որպէս կարող աստուած ողորմեա՛։ Որպէս եւ մեք թողումք մերոց պարտապանաց. բա՛րձ տէր ի սրտից մերոց զանգթութիւն եւ զնախանձ. զի թերեւս լիապէս եւ մեք թողութիւն շնորհեսցուք յանցաւորացն մերոց. եւ զթշնամիս մեր՝ վասն քոյ սիրեսցուք, եւ ոչ ումեք չարի զչար փոխարէն հատուսցուք։ Եւ մի՛ տանիր զմեզ ի փորձութիւն. այլ ի յայտնի եւ յաներեւոյթ փորձութեանց ազատեա՛. եւ փրկեա՛ զմեզ ի չարէ, յանցելոցն եւ յայժմէն եւ որ գալոցն է. եւ զամենայն գործս մեր հոգեւորս եւ մարմ նաւորս ի գիշերի եւ ի տունջեան՝ ի բարին յաջողեա՛։ Զի քո է արքայութիւն եւ զօրութիւն եւ փառք յաւիտեանս, ամէն։ www.StVoski.org

May the Holy Spirit Reign! Karekin I Hovsepiants (1867-1952)

Catholicos of Cilicia’s Great House

ne of the most fascinating things about trying times is the way random people, chosen by God or fate or history, rise up to do whatever needs doing, simply because it must be done. These are the people who are called to dream dreams whose realization cannot be guaranteed, to begin projects whose outcome they cannot foresee. They are not worried about success, but only about service. Liberated from concern over their eventual legacy, they are free to catalyze reactions as yet untried in the chemistry of culture and history. Karekin I Hovsepiants was one of those people. Over the course of his life he became many things: scholar, writer, editor, art historian, war hero, administrator, builder, hierarch. But before and beyond all of that, he was a priest of the Armenian Church. His dedication to Christian faith as it is expressed in Armenian experience and tradition was absolute. It shaped his life, framed his responses to tumultuous events on three continents, and gave him the strength to persevere in the face of daunting obstacles. Both revered and reviled in his own lifetime, Karekin Hovsepiants became one of the Armenian Church’s most inspired and inspiring figures. His life and spirit challenge today’s Armenians to embrace to the fullest the demands of their faith and the circumstances of their time. Because his reputation has become so great, it is hard for us to avoid putting Karekin Hovsepiants in the category of 12 The Treasury / 2018

people we admire but can never be like. This is not at all true. Yes, when we look at his photographs from later in his career, we see an urbane and well-groomed, mature figure, genial, measured and deliberate, intelligent, draped in medals and the insignia of his status. But before all that, Karekin Hovsepiants was a true December-born child of Artsakh, Armenia’s land of impossible terrain and deep, unshakeable roots. He was a village boy from a Persian-Armenian family of impoverished, gentle musicians. Because of his humble beginnings, Karekin Hovsepiants knew the value of little things. Not just his childhood but most of his earthly existence was shaped by the kindness of strangers and the generosity or whim of people in power. That’s a hard way to live. We all want to be the masters of our own destiny, not pawns in the plans of others; we all want to be fully empowered agents, able to do all the good we want to accomplish in life. Karekin Hovsepiants did not have that luxury. Never the master of his own destiny, never a free agent, let alone a fully empowered one, he had precious little to show at the end of his life that was not arguably due to the benefits he received from others, whether those benefits were

freely conferred or whether he had to take veghar in hand and beg to get them. His letters and other documents show clearly the frustrations he experienced. It took him several years to make it through second grade. The schools his parents and his kindly great-uncle could aﬀord kept closing for lack of funds. He described living at one monastic school, eating one meal a week plus whatever he and the other students could forage in the nearby forest. When that school closed too, he walked the twenty miles home to teach other even less fortunate children what little he had learned. After his uncle joined the brotherhood of Etchmiadzin, Karekin’s parents received an invitation for him to take the Kevorkian Seminary entrance test. There was money for only one ticket, so at twelve he set out alone on the eight day journey to Etchmiadzin. He recalled spending his first night in Yerevan on a bench beside a garbage heap; the mosquitoes were indelibly imprinted on his memory. Taunted for his small size, threadbare clothing and obvious poverty, he wept alone over his Armenian grammar lessons, but he persevered because Armenian was what he most wanted to know. Later, as a deacon, he begged the money to study in Europe. He wanted to enrich his understanding of what Armenians had contributed to world civilization in the past because he was convinced that they could contribute at least as much in the future. When he got to Germany’s universities of Berlin and Halle, he had three months to learn German before his money ran out. He learned enough to enroll as a regular student.

When he finished his studies he asked for a year’s funding to devote himself to his dissertation, which later became a classic. His funder gave him money for just under three months. Karekin lost his health, but he wrote his dissertation. One can’t help wondering what he would have produced if he’d had the whole year! Despite constant interference from catholicoses who needed his gentle and learned presence in multiple places at once, despite a student insurrection that began the day after he became head of the Kevorkian Seminary, despite recurrent illness, despite the difficulties of overseeing the resettlement of Genocide refugees, despite serving unarmed in battle on the Armenian border more than once, he continued to write, study and teach, producing several thousand pages of as yet unsurpassed scholarship. He served as assistant primate of Tiflis and bishop of Nor Nakhichevan, ran the department of Armenian Studies at Yerevan University, and served on committees without number. He was the catholicosal legate in America for five years and was elected primate here — a job more difficult than any battlefront had been. Elected catholicos of Cilicia’s Great House in the middle of World War II, he travelled via munitions ship through torpedo infested waters to reach his post, serving the war-torn Armenian communities of the Middle East until his heart finally gave out seven years later. Karekin Hovsepiants prayed for the faithful of his new flock as he had prayed for those in Etchmiadzin, in Tiflis and in America: may the Spirit of the Lord reign in this Great House for the building-up and increased resplendence of the Holy See, which is the pride of our people and of the Armenian Church as a whole. We might argue that Hovsepiants was destined from the outset to be who he became, whereas we do not share such a destiny. In hindsight that may be true. But his obvious destiny was to grow up in Artsakh, become a village school teacher, and participate in his local church’s services on Sundays and holidays. There would have been nothing wrong with that; nothing at all. And yet, he didn’t. More needed to be done. Perhaps we should ask to be animated by the same spirit that impelled Karekin Hovsepiants even as a twelve year old child to do unimaginably more than his age required. Perhaps we should pray for difficult times like his to bring out the best in us. Or perhaps we should simply look again at what appears to lie just beyond our capability and do what we can to accomplish it, whether or not we think it will succeed, simply because it needs to be done and we are there to do it. www.StVoski.org

Purity of Heart Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God Matt. 5:8

he heart is the foremost organ of the human body. It is the first to form in our mother’s womb, and of all our physical organs it lives the longest. If the heart dies, the whole person dies, the entire body dies. The Lord’s statement is not about this essential piece of flesh, however; it is rather about the spiritual organ. The spiritual heart has the same significance for our moral life as the physical heart has for our corporeal life. When He referred to the heart, Christ was speaking of our internal world, our self, our personhood in its totality, our three spiritual capacities — mind, emotion and will — as their relationship colors and shapes our personality. Now as in antiquity, the concept heart is a kind of synonym for emotion. It is not at all an accident that our Lord assigned such significance to its holiness, making its purity a condition for blessedness and for seeing God! Not one of our spiritual capacities plays a greater role in spiritual and ethical matters than the heart or emotion. Rationality gives us principles, distinguishes good from bad, but that is not enough to make us turn those dictates into life and action. A disciplined will is likewise a support to us, but it is strong and productive only when it takes on substance and impetus from our innermost feelings and inspirations. It is emotion that impels a person in the direction of selfsacrifice and moral heroism, not cold reason. In war, it is the soldier motivated by feelings of love who becomes a hero and dedicates his life to his homeland’s salvation, heedless of the rational judgments of his mind. All the courageous acts that we honor in history and life can be seen as motivated by feelings of pure love. No matter what kind of virtue we may 14 The Treasury / 2018

set out to analyze — be it bravery, patriotism, parental love, fraternality — the source is one and the same: a pure heart, or pure emotions. And yet, emotions likewise push humanity into the abyss if their source is muddied by egoism. Self-interest, jealousy, hatred, love of glory and all kinds of vile errors are born from the same spring as are the virtues. It is characteristic of the human spirit that evil and good, noble and ignoble, despicable passions and crude self-love exist in our heart side by side with devotion and high aspirations. Sometimes the one reigns in our soul; sometimes, the other. And so Jesus, as a true and compassionate physician, wanting to cut oﬀ evil at its root, pointed us toward the true cause of all moral disease. Our entire way of behaving — our sitting and standing, our words, our aspirations and actions, are nothing but the expression of our internal motivations; they are its tools. Are our internal motions and emotions pure? Their corresponding actions will be pure as well, inevitably. Is the spring pure? The water that pours forth from it must inevitably be pure as well.

Ordinarily, humans judge by outward appearances, but outward appearance in and of itself is not suﬃcient for determining the moral quality of an action. A deed that appears outwardly noble and good may come from an egotistical and vile internal motivation. Benefaction can all too often be carried out as a show to other people, for greater gain, for vanity, or for other hidden, ego-driven purposes. Every action should be evaluated morally from the point of view of its internal motivation. If it were not so, the Pharisees and hypocrites, people adept at deception, would be the ornaments of the human race! Jesus, who came to preach to the nations a new life and a new way of salvation in place of the ancient religions crammed with ritual observances and external legalisms, always emphasized internal purity. In his eyes the prayer of the tax collector, whom the Jews despised and considered a sinner, was more commendable than the prayer of the externally just and law-abiding Pharisee; the mite that the widow gave from her heart was greater than the generous gifts given by the wealthy. His Gospel preaches neither religious observance, ritual washing, nor fasting — which are superfluous if the corresponding internal feelings are missing — but rather a pure heart, spotless feelings and a life turned towards true worship. And it goes without saying that it is the ultimate pharisaic hypocrisy to do away with ritual and sacrament in the name of inner sanctity, when that sanctity does not exist in the heart! The religion brought by Christ is a life that is in harmony with one’s internal feelings. If the spark of divinity has fallen upon one’s heart, such a life is a supreme work of sacred art, expressed not in a piece of marble or a canvas, but in a living, rational, thinking and feeling creature. Life’s finest manifestation is a clergyman who bears no marks of pretense,

A pure heart is truth’s sovereignty over our conscience and our soul.

like a pure white garment that cannot abide black spots. Thus hypocrisy in the name of religion is more abhorrent than any other. A pure heart is truth’s sovereignty over our conscience and our soul; this ennobles our feelings and makes our soul ardent for the ideals of good, beauty and truth. It is this condition of soul that Jesus considered blessed, as a prerequisite for the vision of God. In Christianity, God is invisible and intangible Being. It is thus clear that one is not speaking of physical, material vision. God’s existence is felt and seen only by pure souls. Just as the image of the sun is reflected in a tiny, crystalline drop of dew, so too is the image of God reflected in a spotless and pure heart, giving that heart unending bliss.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Karekin Vartabed Hovsepiants Ararat, Feb. 1907

This was written during the brief period when the young Karekin vardapet was serving as editor of Ararat and abbot of the Monastery of St. Hripsime in Etchmiadzin. Introduction and translation by Roberta Ervine, PhD, Professor of Armenian Christian Studies at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary.

www.StVoski.org

Pastor’s Perspective

Pastoral Reflections on Marriage by Rev. Fr. Nareg Terterian

he Armenian Apostolic Church invites her children to reflect upon the mystery of the joining of husband and wife in marriage (referred to in the Armenian Church as the Sacrament of Crowning or Սուիբ Պսակի/Soorp Bsagee) by reading Jesus’ teachings on marriage in the Sunday Gospel passages at least twice in the span of the yearly liturgical calendar. Marriage is a state where two different people come together and form something new, something beautiful. Sometimes people have this idea that marriage is a state where couples lose there independence. But we can think of marriage as two different elements coming together to form something new. I am not a chemist, but I know that when hydrogen and oxygen come together they form H2O — water — and we all know that we can not live without water. Marriage is like two musicians playing different instruments, yet together creating an enchanting melody that everyone can enjoy. What brings two different people together? In my marriage prep work, I ask this question to couples who seek to get married in our church, and I get answers such as: he makes me feel good, or she makes me feel special, or even he makes me laugh... these statements make me wonder if the couple's relationship is based only on feelings. Feelings, as wonderful as they are, cannot serve as a strong foundation for a healthy marriage. Feelings do change. Most of us can recall having strong feelings towards something or someone at a certain point in our lives, and discover that those feelings have lost their original intensity. A silly example is my love for music. As a teenager I loved listening to music. I woke up to music, studied, exercised and drove with music, and even went to bed listening to music. As an adult now, I can drive or read for hours listening only to the voice of silence. When I contemplate the question of what brings two different 16 The Treasury / 2018

people together, I remember the following thoughts from a great book that I read almost 2 decades ago. In Tuesdays With Morrie, a dying professor reflects on marriage saying, “In this culture, it’s so important to find a loving relationship with someone… But poor kids today, either they’re too selfish to take part in a real loving relationship, or they rush into marriage and then six months later, they get divorced. They don’t know what they want in a partner. They don’t know who they are themselves– so how can they know who they’re marrying?” Then he suggests the following as rules for healthy love and marriage: “If you don’t respect the other person, if you don’t know how to compromise, if you can’t talk openly about what goes on between you, if you don’t have a common set of values in life, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble… and the biggest of those values is your belief in the importance of your marriage.” (Albom, Mitch. Doubleday, 1997;148-149). It turns out that self knowledge is the first important step in building a healthy relationship. Self knowledge is far beyond knowing what makes you feel good. It is about defining your values and finding your own identity. The seven Christian virtues (as named by the Roman Catholic Church) of chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility can serve as a set of values for anyone who is just beginning to name their own set of values. Pastoral theologians and psychologists have identified a comprehensive set of virtues for a healthy Christian marriage that includes acceptance, caring, commitment, flexibility, joyfulness, self-discipline, and trust. Knowing your own values and identifying a common set of values with your partner is the most important foundation for a healthy marriage. The common set of values works as a binder which brings couples together and strengthens their relationship. And when feelings do change, the common

values not only sustain the relationship but they become the source of constant renewal for the relationship. Identifying a common set of values leads us to the second important question: what is the purpose of my life? A lot of people are scared to answer this question. Sometimes people confuse their purpose with their profession. These are two different things. There will be a day when a person will retire, or no longer be able to do the job that they have always done. How will they define their purpose of life at that time? They can no longer rely on their jobs to get a sense of purpose or identity. The question of purpose must be addressed in marriage as well. What is the purpose of our marriage is a question that married people should ask themselves. The church reminds us that in marriage we are called to live the love of God in our families. When married people fail to live in their marriage the love that Jesus brought to this world, they fail to live the ultimate purpose of their marriage. As orthodox theologian Dr. Vigen Guroian notes in his book Incarnate Love: Essays in Orthodox Ethics, “many Christians lack a clear sense of why they are married and raising families as church members... They have lost sight of the significance of Christian marriage and family as a form of human community in service of the Church and God.” (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002; p104) Why do we fail? Is it because we lack theological formation in our lives or because maybe we are human beings with many shortcomings and imperfections? Maybe a little bit of both. Sometimes there are differences between two spouses. On one hand these differences bring couples together (opposites attract) and on the other hand, these differences can be a source of contention. Couples argue because they want to make their partner to think, perceive and act just like them. Often, couples lack the basic understanding of healthy adult attachment –the most advanced concept in relationship science in existence today– which helps couples to sustain love. Most of the time, people behave in ways and with problem solving skills that were learned in childhood (referred to as implicit memories), which can often be maladaptive and sometimes quote toxic. A helpful example of operating on implicit memory is our bicycle riding skills. We learn it once and it stays with us for the rest of our lives. We do not think what to do next when we ride a bicycle. Our implicit memory is in charge. Similarly, our adult problem solving skills sometimes operate from childhood implicit memories. Some people have learned at a young age that in order for them to have their needs met, they need to act out, show excessive emotions, get angry and be resentful. Others have learned (falsely) that no one can take care of their needs, and therefore they become distant, withdrawn and eventually become emotionally unavailable. These two distinct behaviors are called anxious attachment style and avoidant attachment style. The anxious is attracted to the avoidant and vice versa; together

they form a strong connection, but they also find themselves arguing about the same issues over and over. The anxious partner gets activated, and the avoidant partner gets deactivated and harmony vanishes. This continued pattern of bickering and fighting creates hopelessness and despair and leads couples to believe that their relationship cannot be saved. In the marriage vows of the Armenian Apostolic Church, couples promise to love, cherish and respect each other through health and sickness. Sometimes the couples’ emotional wellbeing –or the lack of it– could be the sickness that the couples are dealing with. The good news is that help is available through marriage counseling and individual psychotherapy to resolve issues, restore relationships, and find happiness as long as couples are willing to look inside themselves and not always blame their partner for destabilizing the relationship. Often a great place to start looking for help to heal a strained marriage is your own local parish priest, who can provide initial guidance and support within a familiar cultural and faith context. This, coupled with participation in a local marriage seminar or enrichment course, and of course regular prayer seeking God’s wisdom and healing, are excellent initial strategies for mending and rekindling loving marital relationships. The beginning of the process of change is to ask: What can I change in my behavior to save my marriage? What can I do to live the purpose that God has designed for my marriage? In the introduction to this reflection, I stated that marriage cannot be based solely on feelings. To finish that thought, I want to say that love is a choice. We choose to love our partners and we choose to stay with them just like “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Therefore, let us carefully examine our relationships today, and if we need help let us not be afraid to reach out and ask for help to more purposefully and gracefully live out the marital Sacrament of Crowning to the fullest.

Rev Fr. Nareg Terterian, M.A., M.S.Ed. is the pastor of St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church in Douglaston,NY and is a licensed mental health counselor whose concentration is in marital counseling.

For further reading: 1. http://www.beliefnet.com/love-family/relationships/marriage/30-virtuesof-a-christian-marriage.aspx?p=2#MJuywGSCC4zkewV1.99 2. Attached: the New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find - and Keep - Love. Levine, Amir & Heller, Rachel. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011. 3. Attachments: Why You love, Feel and Act the Way You Do. Clinton, Tim & Sibcy, Gary. Thomas Nelson, 2002.

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Is John 3:16 the Gospel in a Nutshell? by Dn. Eric Vozzy

ohn 3:16 is one of, if not the most widely quoted verses from the entire Bible. For years, particularly in recent decades, many Christians have quoted and preached John 3:16 as the best summary of why Jesus Christ came to earth and what it means for the world. It reads, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Although the Protestant reformer Martin Luther referred to John 3:16 as “the heart of the Bible, the Gospel in miniature,” interestingly, there are relatively few citations of John 3:16 from early Church Fathers, evidence that it gained popularity perhaps only in modern times when sermons from prominent Protestant ministers focusing on the verse emerged in the late nineteenth century. Fast forward to 1979, when Rollen Stewart, also known as “Rainbow Man” (pictured above), started a trend that has lasted until today: whether watching a televised sporting event or attending one live, you may have witnessed fans occasionally hold up a “JOHN 3:16” banner as an evangelism tool, inviting onlookers to look up the verse and discover what, again, is believed to be the main message of Christianity, concise and to the point. Widely respected and popular Evangelical author Max Lucado, dubbed “America’s Pastor” by Christianity Today magazine in 2004, released a book in 2007 entitled, 3:16: The Numbers of Hope. Lucado said in an interview, “John 3:16 has always been that one verse that I thought summarizes, encapsulates, [and] carries the heart of the Gospel like no other verse.” Lucado has similarly remarked that “John 3:16 is the most important verse in the Bible...it is, indeed, the table of contents to the Christian hope.” Perhaps the popularity of John 3:16 is also due to, or at least bolstered by good marketing. There is no shortage of John 3:16 merchandise, including bumper and window stickers, t-shirts, hats, and keychains. At the time of this 18 The Treasury / 2018

article, for less than $25, one can purchase a car license plate frame with “John 3:16” written across the top and “.....says it all!” across the bottom. This short verse is even popular among some retail companies such as In-N-Out Burger and Forever 21 who obscurely, but proudly print the John 3:16 reference on the bottom of their cups and bags, respectively. A simple image search on the internet will reveal a substantial amount of various tattoos creatively displaying John 3:16. You get the point. But is John 3:16 the Twitter version of the Gospel? That is, does John 3:16, as wonderful and profound as it is, summarize or encapsulate the fullness of the Gospel? Does John 3:16 really say it all?

What John 3:16 Leaves Out While John 3:16 is true, it is not the Gospel in a nutshell, it is not the Gospel in its fullness, nor is it the heart of the Scriptures, at least not for the Armenian Church. Why share such an important verse that admittedly mentions so much, but leaves out the importance of Jesus’ transfiguration, the procession and role of the Holy Spirit, and especially leaves out any mention of Mary the Mother of God and her vital role in the Incarnation? We can say more. John 3:16 does not mention sin, repentance, the resurrection of Christ, the return of Christ, the Kingdom of God, or the Church and her sacramental life, such as Holy Communion or baptism. How can we even preach a version of the Gospel without mentioning baptism when Jesus includes it in the very conversation with Nicodemus in which John 3:16 is embedded? During their encounter, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” which the Church, prior to the Reformation, has always interpreted as a reference to Holy Baptism. After having made mention of baptism, Jesus then points to its foundation, the Cross, when he explains in

verses 14-15 that “the Son of Man must be lifted up,” which then proceeds to verse 16 where the love of God demands from us a response of faith: “whoever believes in him…” As Jesus tells Nicodemus, he tells us: be baptized, look to the Cross, and have faith in God’s love and the sacrifice of his only Son. The fullness of the Gospel cannot be summarized in any one verse, and to simply quote John 3:16 and ignore the connection that faith, salvation, and the Cross have with baptism is a severe omission. Sure, brevity is popular these days, as people read on the go (if they read at all), gleaning all kinds of advice and opinions from memes, gifs, and short videos; and although we live in a culture that values the skill of getting a message across with a minimal amount of words or characters, the fullness of the Gospel is not reducible to a bare minimum. The Church chose four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - to share who is the person of Jesus Christ. Additionally, it takes an entire church year to cover his life and ministry, as well as other celebrations of the Church, of course, each Sunday being one piece to a greater whole, a greater fullness of the Gospel. Besides, the Gospel is simply too cosmic. Literally, the Armenian Bible reads, “Զի այնպէս սիրեաց Աստուած զաշխարհ,” (For God so loved the world) in which the word for “world” – աշխարհ – carries the connotation of heaven and earth (երկինք եւ երկիր), the universe (տիեզերք), or in Greek, the cosmos (κόσμος). Jesus has come to set the world right, the Cross standing at the center joining together heaven and earth as the sign of healing, salvation, and eternal life. We cannot reduce the Son of God, his entry into the world and into our very lives, his redemption of the universe, and how we are to respond to him with holy living in one verse or several words. None of this commentary is meant to criticize John 3:16 or to minimize its power and meaning, but to hopefully elevate and broaden its significance, to make it more than an evangelism tool for unbelievers only, and to keep it

from becoming cliché. Can an entire book be written unpacking this short verse? Of course. Should John 3:16 be memorized, meditated upon, and shared with others? Yes, absolutely! But it should also be read in the greater context of Scripture and the Church, where it becomes much more profound than what many people suppose it to be on its own.

A Matter of Approach Of course, one may say that all or most of what John 3:16 does not explicitly mention can be derived and taught from that one verse. Such is the beauty, complexity, and depth of the Gospel and the interconnectivity of the Scriptures. And surely, not one verse is going to include all of what the Church and Scripture teaches, right? At this point, it might be helpful to bring up that there is no single “table of contents to the Christian hope,” as Lucado put it, but diﬀerent, sometimes opposing lists of essentials that Church traditions, denominations, or individuals apply when it comes to Scripture, the Church, and even the Christian faith overall. After all, depending on the approach, John 3:16 feasibly could be the Gospel in a nutshell. But which version of the Gospel are we talking about? Isn’t there only one? Ideally, yes, but as St. Paul says in the first chapter of his letter to the Galatians, people want to pervert the Gospel. There is obviously disagreement. What is necessary to one Church tradition might not be necessary to another, not to mention the many personal creeds that are debated throughout Christendom. For example, as mentioned earlier, John 3:16 may be suﬃcient for a Christian who rejects the sacraments of the Church or embraces a version of the Gospel in which baptism is not necessary for salvation, but it is incomplete for any apostolic traditions that trace back to the early Church. Furthermore, does every Christian tradition or individual

Jesus has come to set the world right, the Cross standing at the center joining together heaven and earth as the sign of healing, salvation, and eternal life.

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proof texts. What we cannot further aﬀord to do is reduce the Gospel to a few lines from Scripture, as holy as they may be, especially if we read the Bible through a lens that causes us to miss the bigger picture. Otherwise, we have become out of touch with the fullness of the Gospel, with who the Gospel is and what the Good News teaches. Furthermore, some modern denominations of Christianity tend to be drawn to reducibility, often asking questions such as what is necessary for salvation, what is the minimum one needs to believe in order “to be saved,” or if there was only one verse you could share with the world, what would it be? Resources such as One-Verse Evangelism® (created by an Evangelical ministry from the 1930s called The Navigators™) and situational exercises that teach how to quickly and succinctly deliver the Gospel in an elevator or at a bus stop are used to hone evangelism skills. But why such a reductionist or minimalist approach? Given the fullness of the Gospel that Jesus gifted to the world, are these wise or worthy challenges? Shouldn’t we rather be spending our time with someone showing them the love of Christ, inviting them into a parish community to get baptized and partake of the divine life of Christ through the Mysteries (Sacraments) of the Church? Is quickly sharing the Gospel only as a message bound in a single verse, just before the bus shows up, a true encounter with the Gospel and the love that Jesus Christ demonstrated to the world? It’s easy to quote one verse as the Gospel, but preferable to altogether avoid reducing the Gospel to quips, summaries, or single verses, because in doing so we shortcut the Gospel and undermine the awesomeness and transcendence of Jesus Christ. Thankfully, given its ancient and Eastern origins, words such as minimum, sufficient, miniature, and nutshell are unnatural, and almost repulsive to Orthodox Christianity, a tradition known for eschewing shortcuts, for

What was on the mind of early Christians was how to live now in response to the Gospel: how to have fellowship, communion, and share in the divine life of Jesus Christ before he returns. agree with what Jesus means by “eternal life” or “believe”? Is there full agreement regarding what the Church and the Bible teach about salvation, evangelism, or the topic at hand, the Gospel? Perhaps when one approaches the Scriptures with the question as to how one “gets to Heaven,” John 3:16 seems like a good place to start, if not a perfect answer to that question; but that question is not what the authors of the Scriptures or the early Church had in mind when they spoke of going to Heaven. What was on the mind of early Christians was how to live now in response to the Gospel: how to have fellowship, communion, and share in the divine life of Jesus Christ before he returns. Reading the Scriptures and living out our faith through the lens of the early Church may reshape how we read and apply not only John 3:16, but the Scriptures in their entire breadth. In too many cases are Christians guilty of reducing Scripture reading to quotable 20 The Treasury / 2018

not appealing to the consumer in all of us, but finding necessary and essential all of what the Apostolic Church has passed down. As St. Paul tells us in his second letter to the Thessalonian Church, “Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.”

The Gospel is Not a Message Perhaps most importantly, the Gospel is not a message, an idea, or something reducible to a set of principles or propositions that can be thought about or discussed. In other words, we are not saved by the message of Jesus Christ, nor are we healed by an idea, nor are we baptized into a story. The Gospel is a person to be encountered, i.e. the person of Jesus Christ. He is “The way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6); He is the “Good News” of God coming to earth to share his divine life with us, to redeem all of creation, the entire world (աշխարհ), the cosmos. Citing John 3:16 again, God gave his only Son – not a formula, a quip, a list of rules or words on a page – but the very Word of God in the person of Jesus Christ. The eighth-century Armenian theologian and Church Father Stepanos Siunetsi aﬃrmed that the Gospel is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ when he wrote, For it is not a minister who pronounces the Gospel, or even an angel, but the Lord of heaven and earth himself, saying, ‘I came from the Father and have come into the world.’ The Armenian Church certainly does not ignore John 3:16, as the Gospel reading John 3:13-21 shows up twice in the lectionar y, once on the fourth Sunday following Transfiguration, and again on the Feast of Exaltation of the Cross. But neither has the Armenian Church quoted it alone as the Gospel in a nutshell. Rather, for almost 2,000 years, the Armenian Church has sheltered and nurtured her faithful in the mystery of the Gospel as Jesus Christ, the Son of God in flesh and blood. As a result of this time-tested experience, her faithful have been indelibly marked by the “Good News,” not as a message, but as a person who can be known, loved, and celebrated.

Live the Gospel If the Gospel is not a message, an idea, a philosophy, but rather flesh and blood, and if Scripture tells us to preach the Gospel, then we should evangelize by embodying his teachings, living like Jesus Christ. Everything we say and do as individuals, as parish communities, as the global Armenian Church joined by our one baptism, should reflect the fullness of the Gospel truth as a divine union with God, inviting others to encounter the Gospel as well. And when we truly encounter the Gospel in its fullness, by uniting with the person of Jesus Christ, there is no nutshell that can contain the spread and reach of the Good News, the love, peace, and hope that is Jesus Christ. Deacon Eric Vozzy holds Masters Degrees in Philosophy from Southern Evangelical Seminary and Diaconal Ministry from St. Nersess Armenian Seminary. He works in the Creative Ministries Department of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America.

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