PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
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Contact: Iris Papazian
APRIL 11, 2006
Prelate’s 2006 Easter Message – Listen, Break Bread, Proclaim
“The Lord has risen indeed.”
(Luke 24:34)
Can you imagine the joy of the apostles when they confirmed the
Resurrection of their Lord? Their joy became deeper and ingrained when they
heard the testimony of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who met a
“stranger,” heard the prophetic words from his lips, broke bread on the
modest table, and then suddenly the “stranger” was gone, leaving behind
amazement, regret and thankfulness for becoming the first witnesses, seeing
Christ with their own eyes, and as the first bearers of good news announcing
the Resurrection of the Son of God.
The two travelers to Emmaus are the models for the world’s inhabitants.
We too are travelers in this world and during our journey throughout our
lives, from our student days to our various positions of employment through
adulthood and old age; we are listeners to God’s word. The “stranger” always
speaks to us by and through the Bible. Therefore it is necessary to:
1. Listen to the Prophetic Words. Listening is not a passive activity. In
Biblical and Christian understanding listening to the Gospel and Christ
symbolizes not only understanding God’s word and commandments, but also
practicing them, bearing witness to those truths and demonstrating their
validity by the way we live. When God’s words resonate in our ears and do
not find fertile ground, when the words fall amidst thorns and rocks, they
dry up and wither (Mt 13:6-7), thus drying in us the breath of God,
corrupting the image of God in us, and turning us into beings without
foundation and persons without principles, scattered by the wind. In our
lives, listening represents the seed that falls into healthy soil and blooms
with God’s nurturing. With our Christian faith and life it becomes the flour
in the heavenly bread, which gives life to the world. Whether we are
students, employees, entrepreneurs, employers, or retirees, we are called to
open our souls to God’s word so that we can live the desirable life of a
true and faithful Christian, enriched with His words.
2. Breaking Bread with Christ. “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me
shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (John
6:35)
The bread of life is distributed to us during every Divine Liturgy. Are we,
therefore, participants with Christ, who as resurrected God sits at the
banquet with all those who want to share His joy with His living presence?
Thus, we are in communion with the resurrected Savior, creating the family
which belongs to Christ that we call Church. The Church becomes one with
Christ when the faithful worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) and
become communicants to each other and to God. The same unity that the
persons of the Trinity have to each other is created in the faithful during
the Divine Liturgy, and Christ with his bread and body lives and makes us
live. We are a part of Christ’s Church by our participation-our working
participation-when we are joined in prayer, when our love to God and to each
other become the consecrated bread and wine of our soul as sacrifice and
offering.
By sharing our bread with Christ we become a living Church (I Cor. 3:16)
where the Holy Spirit joins us to each other and guides us to an everlasting
true life, in order to enjoy God’s Kingdom.
3. Proclaim the Resurrection of Christ. It was with great trust that the
travelers on the road to Emmaus proclaimed they had seen the Lord. Was not
the encounter with Christ the strength that armed the apostles, who became
the evangelizers and witnesses of Christ’s Resurrection? God’s miraculous
influence was necessary to transform fishermen into fishers of men (Luke
5:11) so that we would all be invited to a resurrected and new life. On the
one hand our life on earth is God’s gift to us, and on the one hand the
resurrected and new life is a blessing, like God’s Holy Oil (Muron) that
descends on every faithful who believes in the salvation and resurrection of
Christ. The travelers on the road to Emmaus saw the Lord and believed.
Blessed are we who have not seen and yet have come to believe (John 20:29),
in the same way that our forefathers accepted Christ and sacrificed their
lives to bear witness.
During these days when we live with the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection,
let us all become travelers to Emmaus, meet Christ through our faith, listen
and follow His teachings, and together become communicants to His sacrifice
and be witnesses and preachers to his miraculous resurrection.
Then our Lord will come to us, just the way He came to the disciples right
after the proclamation of the travelers to Emmaus. He will strengthen us by
banishing our weaknesses, doubts, fears and troubles, saying to us:
“It is I, do not be afraid.” (Luke 24:36)
Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan
Prelate
Armenian Apostolic Church of America
Eastern United States of America
Easter 2006