E. How to revitalize the spiritual life of the church and reflect it in the daily lives of ordinary people. In other words, the issue of being the guiding light and spiritual compass of the people.
According to St. Sahag’s Canons, the Church is not a structure made of stone or wood, but rather, it is the people. Historically speaking, “the priest” has always played a dual role in Armenian society: one, as educator of the faith, and the other, as the guiding beacon to the faithful to walk the righteous path in their daily lives.
We would be taking a huge step forward in the reformation of the Armenian Church if only the clergy today would assume that same responsibility for educating their flock, in addressing the modern socioeconomic exigencies and pressures of a 21st century world.
First, the Church offers the perfect pulpit for religious education, provided, of course, our priests possess the highest form of religious and pastoral learning.
In order for priests to be able to educate the public fully, they need to constantly spread the Word–that “flowing fountain of spiritual light” that the Bible teaches.
Second, It is very important to have Sunday Schools adjacent to our churches. They are as important as the church altar. This way, our youth could be directly guided to the righteous path, where they would bear the torch of our identity and manifest our existence as a Christian nation.
Third, bearing in mind the modern needs of our people, it is imperative for priests to perform pastoral visits to the faithful. This manner of continuing to educate the public is as necessary as Sunday services. In addition, it offers a wonderful opportunity to address the flock’s socioeconomic concerns and needs.
It is for good reason that such heavy emphasis is placed on pastoral visits in the theological training of priests within the Armenian Church. A properly educated priest, with supreme dedication to his charge, can attract the faithful in droves, and in return, they would revitalize the church.
Fourth, besides the ordinary church services, it is important to have weekly Bible studies. Moreover, the Bible being the best sources of religious education, we should make its study vastly universally available to the faithful, and further encourage them to read it individually at home or at the office as a source of spiritual enlightenment.
Last but not least, it is important to enrich the lives of the faithful with religious literature. Availed with such readings, the faithful would get closer to the real light, to Jesus Christ. It is often rued that we lack such publications in our lives. The Church, as a living institution, should be firmly entrenched in peoples’ lives. Hence, it can ill afford to stand idly by when the world is in such a turbulent state.
The Church must be alive and vibrant from within. And it must be resolute in its commitment to the faithful. Only then can it lead the people and provide comfort and guidance to their mundane and spiritual needs.
To encounter all the challenges of the 21st century, the Armenian Apostolic Church should have ideal priests, who could revitalize and energize the faithful in their spiritual endeavors and instill in them the spirit of responsibility. The ideal priest would seek the poor, the needy, and the neglected. He would revive in them the hope of future freedom and bring to the sick–as the Apostles once did–the solace and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Unfortunately, the priests today, with their unorthodox, lavish life styles, are not role models for our new generation, and have tarnished their own image of holiness and patriotism.
Will the Church be able to revive its spiritual mission? It is difficult to answer in the affirmative precisely because we lack such new apostles and preachers who would perform this miracle.
Today, the Armenian Apostolic Church needs model priests: representatives of love and peace, of heroes and martyrs who could revive our spiritual and moral values.
Without faith, without hope and love, life is like a chain of pain and misery around the neck of mankind, and be it even made of gold, it is hardly bearable. Currently, the Armenian Nation faces a great, impending spiritual collapse. This is due primarily because the entire world has digressed into a materialistic morass, where even our priests prefer the comfort of worldly trappings over their avowed commitment to spreading the word of God and serving the needs of the flock.
It is high time for the Church, with its opulence-minded clergy, to awaken from its gilded stupor and revitalize the spiritual life of its people. If the Armenian Church intends to restore its historical position as the sacred force of a nation, it must undergo a fundamental transformation in direction and purpose–here and now!
VOSGAN MEKHITARIAN to be continued
December 17, 2013
