PRIMATE’S MESSAGE

Meditation

Jesus Christ is In You

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves.
Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?

(Second Corinthians 13:5)

This is the surprising news of the Scriptures, delivered by St. Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians. And what wonderful news it is! “Examine yourselves; test yourselves,” the Apostle asks—as if to provoke his fellow Christians to perform some daring act: an act that might seem too great, or even impossible, for human powers to achieve.

But then, he delivers that bold assurance which makes the impossible seem possible—through which no act seems too great: “Don’t you realize that Jesus Christ is in you?”

How might one describe these words? They are like the urgings of a mother bird, coaxing her newly hatched chick to try out its wings for the first time. “Child,” she might say, “you are more than flesh and bone and feathers. You don’t know it yet, but you can fly!” And indeed, the chick would not know it—until she takes that leap of faith, spreads her wings…and feels the strength of the breeze beneath her, lifting her aloft in the limitless sky.

That is what St. Paul is telling us. “Don’t you realize what you are?” he asks. “Not just flesh and bone. Not just a nameless, powerless face in the crowd. You have Jesus Christ inside you! He knows your name. He loves you! And He wants to share His strength with you!”

Just think about that for a moment: about what it means for us, as individuals, as a church, as a nation. How many times have you looked at some project, some goal, some aspiration—looked at it, and really desired to accomplish it—but in the final analysis threw up your hands and said: “It’s just too much. I’m not up to this task.” This is a perfectly human response to the great “unknowns” in life.

But our religion tells us that we are not limited by the merely human. There is another factor in us: a divine force. Its name is Jesus Christ. Christ did the most impossible thing a mortal soul can do: He died, and returned from the dead. And now, He is with each of us. He is acting in our communities, walking beside our families, working within our very hearts—to bring about the impossible for us: eternal life, in the presence of our heavenly Father.

Think about that—and then ask yourself whether those other projects and goals still sound so hard to achieve. Perhaps they still do: St. Paul doesn’t tell us that everything will be easy once Christ is in us. Indeed, the example of Christ Himself should remind us that the road to victory can be hard, painful, demanding of sacrifice.

Nevertheless, “Jesus Christ is in you”—in each of us, and all of us. And no matter the obstacles, He has promised to take us to victory.

These thoughts have a special meaning for us—Armenians living far from our ancestral homeland, in this great country of America. Today, there are well over one hundred Armenian Church communities in the three dioceses of North America. What an achievement that is! And yet, only a little over a century ago, the birth of even a single Armenian parish was barely even a dream. What was it, do you think, that made the difference for our community? What was it that drove dedicated people in scattered cities, and turned them into vibrant communities of faith, and turned those communities into the Armenian Churches that now dot the landscape of this continent?

What was it that guided our forebears through the obstacles? Consoled them through the disappointments? Inspired them with a vision for the future?

More to the point: What is it, that will allow us—today—to fulfill the mission of the Armenian Church in America: to reach out to those around us; to pass the torch of faith to another generation?

The answer can be stated in five words: “Jesus Christ is in you.”

Truly, those words could be said to convey the very story of our heritage. Jesus Christ entered into Armenia with two of His apostles, Thaddeus and Bartholomew. He was beside St. Gregory during his confinement in the pit. He descended from the heavens to establish Holy Etchmiadzin. He guided the hand of St. Mesrob as the first Armenian letters were written. He called out from the hearts of Narekatsi, and Komitas, to remind His children that He would not forsake them.

He has suffered alongside us in our darkest nights, and been the shining sun of our brightest achievements.

And He is with us still. Our Lord knows that this is a time of challenge for us, as a people. It is an urgent moment for the world at large, and in our country of America, we have just passed through a time of decision. In our homeland of Armenia, it is a period of transition. Our church, too, faces challenges and opportunities and choices. And of course, for each of us, in our individual lives—we all have paths to walk down, and dreams to which we aspire.

In all of these things, we must never lose heart. As Christians, we are not permitted to lose heart. As St. Paul says, we must constantly examine our faith, test our confidence—by doing hard things, brave things, things that require the utmost from us. Because even when the obstacles seem insurmountable, even where human powers fail—there is another force we can rely on, for strength, and endurance, and the courage to prevail.

“Jesus Christ is in us.” He has been in our forebears for eighty-five generations, and He will remain in us, too, so long as we remain faithful. May we always be worthy of His presence.

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian