Khajak Barsamian
Archbishop of New York, Armenian Orthodox Church
  

Thank you for inviting me to address this distinguished international gathering, and to participate in the discussion of such an uplifting and ennobling subject: �Religion and Cultures: The Courage of the New Humanism.� I especially want to express my deep respect and gratitude to His Eminence Dionigi Cardinal Tettamanzi, the Archbishop of Milan, for graciously presiding over this event.

My pleasure at being here among you is magnified by my great admiration for the St. Egidio Community, the work it performs, and the vital mission it represents. I warmly recall two previous occasions when I had the pleasure of meeting with the St. Egidio Community. The first was in 1996, when I accompanied the late Catholicos of All Armenian, His Holiness Karekin I, of blessed memory. I recall how, on that occasion, the Catholicos spoke with such passion about our shared Christian faith, about the vital, beautiful Catholic and Armenian traditions, and about the special ministry that needs to be taken up by our younger generation.

On the second occasion, in the year 2000, I accompanied the present Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Karekin II. Earlier in the day, His Holiness Pope John Paul the Second had presented to our Catholicos the �Relic of St. Gregory the Illuminator,� the patron saint of the Armenians, which had been in the keeping of the Monastery of St. Gregory the Armenian, in Naples. Speaking to the St. Egidio community, Catholicos Karekin the Second remarked how moved he was by that act of brotherly generosity�made all the more touching, because it was made on the eve of a great milestone in Armenian Church history: the observance of the 1700th anniversary of Armenia�s conversion to Christianity.

Today, four years later, I want to convey the warm greetings of our Catholicos, and the good wishes of all the faithful of the Armenian Church. As the title of my presentation suggests, we are indeed �sister churches and brother peoples.� One might say that it could hardly be otherwise. For all of us here�members of distinct nations scattered across the globe�what we believe as Christians is the single most important factor in our respective identities. It is what connects us, draws us into the same family, under the same divine Father. And what�s more, it is what propels us to common action, and a common destiny.

This marriage of Belief and Action is especially important for the Christian way of life. In fact, one might say that it is expressed in our supreme article of faith: That the Word became Flesh. Our Creed teaches that God became man; that abstract Love became manifest in loving works�and ultimately in Christ�s sacrifice for His beloved mankind. In our theology, we call this the Incarnation. But this word �Incarnation� must not be limited to a mere theological doctrine. It has consequences for the way we lead our lives.

For the Christian, it cannot be enough simply to believe, as a matter of theory, that God became a man. Such a momentous event requires a complete re-evaluation of man�s place in the universe. It forces us to reconsider how we must treat our fellow human beings. And so it demands a re-orientation of our actions. The Christian impulse towards charity, ministry to the sick, outreach to the poor and outcast�these are all examples of the revolution in human actions brought about by Christian beliefs.

Indeed, by way of example, the mission of St. Egidio is a powerful expression of this incarnational faith. Every day, through good works, through ministry to others, through the life of prayer, you testify to the Christian marriage of belief and action. You remind the surrounding society that God did not offer humanity merely a set of rules, or a vision of the future, or even a moral teaching. God offered us a life. His life. And it is that life�in all its complexity and detail�which stands as the template for all other human lives.

That, of course, is the ideal for every community of Christians. One would expect, then, that Christians, despite differing backgrounds, would demonstrate a very high degree of unity in their activities. And indeed, as this very gathering testifies, there have been great advances in our interactions with one another in recent decades. But at the same time, we cannot deny that the Christian world remains fragmented, sometimes in very consequential ways, despite all our good intentions and efforts at outreach.

How might we overcome this fragmentation? There are many answers to this question. But for my presentation today, I would like to go back to a moment before those various divisions arose in the Christian movement. I would like to go back to that first generation of Christians, and understand the way they viewed the sources of division, and the prospects for re-integration.

It�s hard for us to imagine today, but there was indeed a time when Christianity itself was new and untried: in its infancy, so to speak. The Apostolic epistles, in the latter part of the Bible, open a window onto the church�s infancy period�and I would like to concentrate on one of these: St. Paul�s First Letter to Timothy, which gives an interesting insight into the early days of the Christian movement. Paul wrote to Timothy much as a teacher might write to a beloved former student: offering advice and the wisdom of experience. Here�s what he had to say:

I urge you [to] tell certain people not to teach any different doctrine, nor to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies, which only promote speculation instead of the divine training in faith. Because the aim of our teaching is love, which issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. (1 Tm 1:3-5)

Obviously, among the Christians of Paul�s time�the generation following Christ�s resurrection�there was some confusion about what the Christian message meant. Some people had become absorbed in the minutia of doctrines, or devoted themselves to myths, or tried to find some secret meaning in the sequence of generations. St. Paul tells Timothy that this kind of thing is little more than guess-work; and at worst, it�s a distraction from the central teaching of Christ, and the central obligation of every Christian.

What�s interesting to me is how fresh and timely Paul�s words are, despite the passage of two thousand years. His message is clear: �Forget about arguing over minor points of doctrine. Our goal as Christians is simpler and deeper than this: it is to love each other. And the source of that love is a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.�

Elsewhere St. Paul makes the same point a bit differently. �So what if one has prophetic powers?� he asks; �or if I understand all mysteries; or even have enough faith to move mountains? If I don�t have love�then I am nothing� (1 Cor 13:2).

This message of love is the beginning and ending of the Christian story. I mean that in the literal sense. Because of His love for mankind, God became incarnate as Jesus Christ. Because of His love, God lived among His creations, cared for their needs, healed their afflictions, taught them the word of Truth. Because of His love, God sacrificed Himself on the cross, as a ransom for our salvation. Because of His love, He rose from the dead, and promises to share that victory with all who honor Him, on the day of His judgment.

All of us, as Christians, lay claim to this message of love, and it provides the common ground on which our unity is built. As an Armenian Christian, I feel humble gratitude that our tradition has largely upheld this teaching. It was one of our greatest saints, St. Nersess Shnorhali who expressed the formula: �Unity in essential things; diversity in secondary things; love above all.� This has been the standard for our church: a standard expressed in the teachings of St. Paul; a standard exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ. As an Armenian, I am conscious that our nation is one of the inheritors of this standard, and it is both our church�s glory and its undying obligation to be true to that standard. We must uphold it as a lamp to illuminate the world.

What is true for one small nation is also true for all its sister churches, and all its brother peoples. Above all, as members of the �Christian family,� we must strive to live up to the example we received in the Living Christ. We have been told from the outset that a perfect imitation would be impossible. But this is hardly a reason for despair. To the contrary, it should be an eternal impulse to arouse us from complacency; to keep us moving forward in our Christian calling.

That impulse to move forward, towards the perfection embodied in Jesus Christ, is all the more powerful as we embark on the Third Christian Millennium. Over the past decade, we have witnessed astonishing changes in the world: the breaking down of barriers, the fall of tyrannical regimes, the spread of freedom to millions of people. Hand-in-hand with these have come challenges and hardships in many parts of the world: the threat of terrorism, not just in the United States, but throughout the civilized world, being just one of many.

But just as faith in God sustained the human heart through the terrors of the past, so too will that faith strengthen us in present times, and lead us to a better, brighter future. And it is up to us, as people called to ministry within the church, to nurture that faith among our people, wherever they may be.

This puts a great burden on the church, but we must face it squarely and gladly. And we must face it together. Of all the opportunities presented by the new Millennium, few compares with the great possibility before us for greater solidarity within the Church of Jesus Christ. We are painfully conscious that the past centuries have seen Christendom split and divide against itself. His Holiness Pope John Paul the Second has called this period �The Millennium of Fragmentation.� But the Holy Father has also asked all Christians to set their sights forward, to a new period, which may become �The Millennium of Convergence.�

I can only say, as a servant of the Armenian Church, that we must do�we are ready to do�all we can to make this vision of the future a reality. Naturally, the breaking-down of barriers within the church will not happen overnight. But it can happen�indeed, it must happen, if we are to remain true to the spiritual unity we already share under the divine lordship of Christ.

Seventeen centuries ago, Christianity opened the doors to a new possibility for the Armenian people. More importantly, it has kept those doors open�even in the face of great tribulation. It is my prayer that this amazing period in our world�a time of unprecedented opportunity for dialogue and communication�will open the doors to a new era of cooperation and solidarity within the Christian Church as a whole. By nurturing an atmosphere of reconciliation and brotherhood, we can begin to re-discover not just the set of beliefs that defines us as followers of Christ, but also that way of living, that ethic of life, which will guide our path in this Third Christian Millennium�and truly make it a �Millennium of Convergence� under the Light of Christ. Thank you.