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"I
bring you good news of great joy for all the people:"
Baba Jude
updated
December 22, 2000
What do I as a priest, as a pastor,
write this Christmas season that would make some difference
in the lives of those who read this? How do I, with
all my human inadequacies, find the right words that
will bring an individual to understand and accept
the message of Christmas and have it change his life?
Although we as the Armenian Church celebrate the Birth,
Manifestation and Baptism of Our Lord on January 6,
on December 24, most of our churches will conduct
Christmas Eve services. There will be the singing
of carols, recitation of Psalms and prayers, readings
from Scripture.
The words of the songs have been very familiar since
childhood. The passages from scripture, even if we
know of no others, are indelible etched in our minds:
"For unto us a child is born . . . "
"Glory to God in the highest . . . "
" Do not be afraid, . . . "
But there needs to be impressed upon us something
more than a warm and fuzzy feeling we experience for
a short time. And short to the fact that few if any
wishes to listen to another version of Silent Night
after December 25.
God our Father sent us his Son Jesus Christ as a boy-
child. He offered mankind the greatest gift ever received.
In one simple, natural gesture of birth, God shows
himself to our time. That Son will love unconditionally,
offering up his precious human life on a hill in Palestine
to bring the love of the Father to us all. The world
is now different, changed, for God is with us - Emmanuel!
Christmas is a passing day, and seldom are purchased
Christmas gifts long lasting. But God gives us the
gift of life, for as the birth of a child into a family
is a beginning with the promise of growth, so the
real gift of Christmas is receiving the gift of life
through Our Lord on a permanent basis.
Christ comes as a child to convince us that he will
not hide behind his divinity, immune from the human
want, worry and pain. He will walk with us, experiencing
the problems of life we face and show a way for us
to travel.
Christmas
for us is people - family and friends sharing and
enjoying. But more. Christmas is a person - Jesus
Christ, who comes to show us how to live by loving,
how to grow by suffering, how to mature by accepting
and doing his will.
In greeting others with "Merry Christmas" we
become envoys of Christ, spreading his love for all
mankind.
Hang on to Christmas my friends. Get a good grip on
to the great, unfailing promise of God that the Christmas
story proclaims. "I am here with you". God
is saying in the breathing slumber of a little child
wrapped warmly in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.
"I am here with you" whatever may be happening
in your life, good or bad.
"I am here with you" no matter where you are in
your life's journey, at the beginning or at the end,
in a safe place or on a dark and dreary road.
"I am here . . . " whether things are better than
ever before of whether they could not be any worse
"I am here with you".
I AM
Christmas
means that or it means nothing. Celebrate that Christmas
promise in you lives. It is the only thing that will
never change.
Peace and love in His name
For more info: e-mail office@stsahmes.org
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Farewell
Dear Hayr Soorp
Baba Jude
A good and faithful priest died this week. His name was Fr.
Mesrob Semerjian. Fr. Mesrob was an oddity.
Born in Aleppo Syria in1915, he came to this country at the
age of four to Lowell, Massachusetts. Vahan - his baptismal
name - went to school like other kids and graduated High School
in 1933. Then in 1935, Vahan decided to travel to Jerusalem
where he would begin his studies to becoming a priest in the
Armenian Church. Why would any young man want to leave the security
of the United States to travel to Jerusalem and study for the
priesthood. Like I said, he was an oddity.
He was ordained a Deacon in 1936, graduated from the seminary,
returned to the United States and received ordination as a celibate
priest by the then Primate, Archbishop Karekin Hovsepian. He
was given the new mane of Mesrob. And so began his journey of
60 years.
And for those 60 years, Fr. Mesrob was a man who never wavered
in his faith, never wavered in his calling never wavered in
his vows of ordination. He would receive ridicule, even from
other priests because of his firm stand on the orthodoxy of
our Armenian Church. Parish Councils could not understand this
man. But in his gentile, simple way, he would persevere.
He was not very firm of stature. Some may even say he was frail.
But Fr. Mesrob had the vitality of conviction that made him
a giant amongst the clergy from the early 1950s. His example
provided courage and encouragement and prepared the way for
many of our clergy who were born in the United States to follow
and go to Jerusalem or to Antilias to study for the priesthood.
He was a teacher at St, Nersess Seminary for many years. Students
would challenge him over his thoughts and directions. Fr. Mesrob
would meet those challenges by making the student understand
the depth of the lesson while never making them feel inadequate.
He would be called by some Grandpa Hayr Soorp.
During his later years, rather than simply retiring, Fr. Mesrob
served the Diocese wherever needed if for only one Sunday or
as a temporary Pastor for a parish until one was found. He was
always available in assisting young priests by being a source
of reference especially on liturgical matters.
During the last months of his life, Fr. Mesrob suffered physically
but was at peace within his soul. And why shouldn't he be. He
was a man of God. Mankind was created in the image and likeness
of God. Fr. Mesrob probably was close to that image
There is no doubt in the hearts and minds of anyone who knew
Fr. Mesrob that the words of St. Paul to his trusted fried Timothy
would have been the words also of his lips:
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have
kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will
give me on that day, . . . " (II Timothy 4:7-8)
Rest
in peace dear Hayr Soorp. Be with God.
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Our
Task Our Place
by Baba Jude
There is a story about a house, which
was badly in need of paint.
"I am going to paint the house," said a can of paint, waiting,
already mixed in a shed. "No, I am going to paint it," the brush
asserted, bristling with impatience. "You are, are you?" sneered
the ladder, lying against the wall. "How far would either of you
go without me?"
"Or without me to pay the bill," arrogantly added the checkbook
belonging to the owner of the house, in a voiced muffled by the
pocket of the coat hanging on a nail.
Just then the painter, who had over heard the proud remarks, ventured
to put in a word. "Perhaps I'd better take a holiday," he said
quietly. "I wonder if the house would be painted by the time I
got back?"
Within the Church of Jesus Christ, each one has his task, each
his place. No one man is made to do everything; all have limitations.
The brain surgeon still needs to call upon the plumber when the
faucet leaks and the plumber the surgeon when in need of an operation.
The work at hand has always been done, and was intended to be
done, by a division of work among workers, each of whom has a
limitation of ability.
The most efficient among us are only tools in the hands of God,
being given the opportunity to build and to bring forth the fruits
of our labor. Many and many-fashioned tools and materials are
needed to do the work and each worker is made to be a specialist
in some particular aspect of the building. Every kind of material,
every type of mind and heart, is somebody's specialty. The worker
and the work are both sought, for only when they find each other,
is all well. However, wages to the laborer are paid only for good,
durable work. The man whose work will not endure the searching
test of judgement will suffer a loss.
The foundation of the Christian Church is Jesus Christ. The Holy
Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew laid the foundation of the good
news of the resurrection in a land of pagan worship, practices
and beliefs, undaunted by the penalties of death for preaching
such. Three hundred years later, the Illuminator Gregory strengthened
and expanded those foundations to build the Holy Church of Armenia.
God calls each of us to become laborers in his vineyard. Each
has his task; each has his place. There may be times when we plant
and other times when we water. But whatever our place may be,
we are to labor for God with a unity of purpose. Only then will
God give us the increase.
As our people approach the 1700th Anniversary of the Christianization
of the Armenian Nation, the firmness of her foundations need be
tested to see whether the labors of our forefathers, as well as
ours, will endure the approaching test of judgement by God. The
strength of faith, charity, truth are but a sampling of the building
materials that the laborer is to use in preventing the decay of
jealousy, bitterness and hatred to rot the structure.
However, as long as our Church remains a divided Church with zealous
clerics and laity making overtures of maintaining the status-quo
of division, or worse, dividing further and contributing to the
bitterness and hatred by their jealousies, the structure will
indeed rot. God give us the ability to see the need for the other
to paint the house properly.
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