HOW DEEP IS OUR LOVE?
Posted on August. 23. 2024
BY STEPAN PILIGIAN
THE ARMENIAN WEEKLY
The title of this week’s column is a slight revision to the renowned tune by the BeeGees, “How Deep Is Your Love.” Of course, they were referring to love in human relationships, while this offering will focus on the depth of our spiritual relationship. Our faith, the Armenian church and its future in the diaspora are constantly on my mind. This year is particularly significant with the blessing of the Holy Muron at Holy Etchmiadzin in September. It is one of the few structured pilgrimages in our church during which the faithful can witness a historic event. I remember in my youth when my paternal grandmother attended the Muron blessing at Antelias in the 1960s. After the Genocide, she married and came to this country with several of her family members. Two of her sisters settled in Beirut, and she decided to visit them and time the trip around the Muron ceremony. Upon her return, she explained that the Holy Muron is a living symbol of unity, as a small portion of the current Muron is added to the herbs and flowers of the new Muron. It is amazing that within the Holy Muron that we use for blessed water and baptism is a physical connection to our early church.
Our Armenian Christian faith is remarkable in that it has an individual and a communal component. As individuals, believers seek a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, who as our savior guides our lives. We find solace and joy in prayer. This is, at times, a difficult undertaking in our busy lives. Finding the time and peace for prayer requires us to make it a priority in our oversubscribed existence. Many of us limit our prayer to meal blessings and before sleep, but as we learn in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.” In other words, if the goal of a Christian is to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and prayer is the primary method of communication, then we should aspire to increase the spiritual discipline of prayer in our daily lives. It can be simple and private but always with love in our hearts.
Since God’s love is unconditional in our relationship with Him, I prefer to ask myself, “How deep is my love?” Am I capable of reciprocating the unconditional, enduring love God offers us by surrendering to His will? Last week in church, our priest spoke of the ups and downs in the relationship between God and the ancient Israelites. When times were plentiful, they were thankful for His blessings. Eventually, they would drift from God into difficult times, until they asked God to return to their lives. God’s love is unconditional and not subject to human frailty. This cycle continued in their earthly existence. In our secular world today, it is analogous. We push God out of our lives with overt materialism or distractions, only to seek His presence in times of need. In those circumstances, we may cry out, “Where are you God?” His response is always, “Right where you wanted me…outside.” God will always be there for us, but if it is a relationship we seek, then we must commit ourselves to the fullness of His love.
In our earthly behavior, we always seem to feel that there is a tomorrow. We make choices that separate us from God and believe that there will be time to recover. We are inundated with secular behavior and sometimes choose to conform. Sunday for Christians is a time of worship and family, but our appetite for more has transformed Sundays into a day of children’s sports and scheduling conflicts. We should all ask ourselves as parents regarding the overall development of our children, is caving to the peer pressure for Sunday sports more important than establishing a foundation for the most important relationship your child will experience? God gave us free will, and these choices are in our hands. True believers understand that our time on earth is preparation for our salvation and eternity. Our salvation is based on our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our savior and the substance of our relationship with Him. Jesus told us that “whoever believes in me” will have eternity. As Christians, we must internalize this message and teach our children the meaning of “believes.” It requires a level of trust to depend on, or as we often hear “surrender to,” our savior. For some it is an instantaneous transformation, and for others it is an evolution over a lifetime. Jesus knows that what counts is what is in our hearts. Struggling with faith with a pure heart is noble, and Jesus loves us for it. It is never too early or too late to build that relationship. Remember the thief next to our Lord during the crucifixion. By all accounts, he had done little good on this earth and was near the end of his earthly life. He repented, accepted Jesus and moments before his death was promised paradise by the crucified Lord. There is no greater love than unconditional love. We must ask ourselves, “How deep is our love?”
The other dimension of our Armenian Christian faith is communal. We often hear people say that they don’t have to go to church to be a Christian, particularly an Armenian Christian. This is where we need to understand the commands of our Lord. The church was created to build a communal fellowship of Christians. Just as we communicate with God in prayer, He told us, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there” (Matthew 18:20). This is the difference between individual prayer and communal worship. We can pray as individuals, but we can only worship as a community. Our Lord Jesus Christ created His church as a fellowship of believers to give thanks and experience the Last Supper through His body and blood.
One of my biggest misconceptions growing up that I regret was the idea that we don’t have to take communion every week. Until I truly understood our theology, I didn’t see that we are unfulfilled unless we take communion. I remember years ago, whenever the priest offered the Eucharist, just a few people would come forward. Our priest today has done a superb job in teaching our faith, and as a result most attendees take communion every week. I remember asking myself when I learned of our faith through Bible study, “Do I believe that I am a perpetual sinner, and is seeking forgiveness important to my spiritual health?” Our Lord created His church for us to experience the joy of worshiping with other believers and to be in communion with Him. There are moments during the badarak, particularly the kiss of peace and confession, when the celebrant says that Christ is “truly with us here now.” Once that relationship is on the growth curve, there is no greater joy than experiencing His presence.
Last week, we attended the karasoonk, 40 day requiem, for the tragic loss of a mother and son in Indian Orchard. During the sermon, the priest offered comfort to those in attendance by focusing on two themes. The first was that those who have lost their earthly lives are now without pain in the comfort of God’s kingdom. The second theme concerned those still on earth. He spoke about experiencing “heaven on earth” through our relationship with Jesus Christ. The message was that all should prepare for eternity, and part of that preparation is to experience the joy of His kingdom here on earth through the depth of our personal relationship with Him. This is an example of how our time on earth is a preparatory stage. Again, we should ask ourselves, “How deep is our love?”
The depth of our love for God brings us closer together to this unconditional state. I love the example of our pet dogs relative to unconditional love. They don’t judge and put limits on their love. The absence of human distractions makes the relationship produce such delight. Faith is a wonderful existence. With a blossoming faith, we are less burdened by the normal human constraints of evidence and debates. There are no debates with belief. My prayer is that we all grow our faith into more than asking for something, but to give thanks every day and open the channels for eternal spiritual bonds with our creator and savior. Almost every Armenian church adorns the top of the altar ceiling with the words, “Love one another as I have loved you.” The bar is certainly set high, and we all struggle to reach it given our world today, but our Lord’s command is personal. He is speaking to us individually, and therefore we start by looking in the mirror. Is God in our lives? Are we moving towards an unconditional relationship? Have we internalized living heaven on earth with eventual eternity? How deep is our love?