A Lenten Journey with Fr. Vazken

Road to Healing – Lenten Journey 2014
Day 38:
Play Now:
Direct Link for Download (right click and save link as...)
Our first parish was in a town called Cupertino about 50 miles south of San Francisco, an area that was developing its identity as Silicon Valley as we were developing our identity as a family. All of our children were born here.
A pastor’s family is always blessed with having so many aunts and uncles. The kind people of the parish and our family engaged in what I call reciprocal-adoption. It was a special time in our life, and very rich with “family” especially considering that both my and my wife’s parents, brothers, sisters and their children all live well over 400 miles away in Southern California.
My brother found every opportunity he could to come and visit with us and his nephews. He’d take the 1 hour airplane trip up the coast and we’d be on the receiving end to pick him up at San Jose Airport. Many times we’d get there a bit early and park our car at the end of the runway and watch the planes take off and land. We’d do it for the boys but I think it was obvious who got the most excitement out of these excursions. And then, when that big Southwest airplane rumbled the air above us and landed down aways, I’d point to it and tell the kids, “There’s Uncle Haig! Let’s go pick him up.” We’d drive over to the terminal in time to watch him come off the plane.
After the weekend – or sometimes we’d be lucky and get him a bit longer – we’d take Uncle Haig to the airport. This time we’d walk him all the way to the gate (yes, this is a bit of pre-9/11 history), say our good-byes and watch the plane back out. San Jose Airport was perfect for plane watching. We’d get in the car and go to the end of the runway. As the plane took off from the tarmac to the sky we’d wave, “Bye Uncle Haig!”
Now when the kids were very small, when we’d get home they’d be playing in the yard and their sharp senses would spot a plane high up in the sky. They would get so happy and excited as they pointed to the small object in the sky, “Look dad. Look mom. There’s Uncle Haig.”
In response to their cuteness, we’d play along with an assuring, “There he goes... wave to him...”
At various times – perhaps days or even weeks later – between visits, our kids would spot a plane say with the same enthusiasm as moments after the flight took off, “There’s Uncle Haig.” And with their little hands they’d wave to the plane high up in the sky.
It was on one of his visits that my brother figured out that our children thought that he was in a perpetual state of flight! They would say goodbye to their uncle at the airport... He’d get on the plane... then the next time they’d see him he’d be coming off the plane. For all they knew, he was always in flight until the next time they’d see him, once again coming off the plane. Think of it in terms of a 3 or 4 year old. Without the knowledge that planes land elsewhere to deliver and pick up passengers, you would assume the flight has a circular route, beginning and ending with you. Why would you think otherwise? As we mature, our world view changes and our understanding of the world develops as we connect the dots between events, places, people and feelings. And soon we, as did my kids, have a new understanding. Uncle Haig got on a plane to come to see us... he lives somewhere else... he needs to return to that somewhere else... and we look forward to his next visit.*
As much as you don’t want your children to grow up with a skewed perception of reality, there is something to be said about the naiveté and innocence of their primal understandings of life.
Francis Bacon has said, “Knowledge is power.” Now it remains for us to understand what that power is. As we are moving forward on this Road to Healing, we have matured in many ways. Through our meditations and prayers, we have connected dots between our illnesses, their causes and our control (or lack of control) over the variety of factors in the healing process. But understanding doesn’t necessarily mean control over events. Rather, it means reconciliation and control over our self.
Understanding that the plane doesn’t stay up in the sky forever, doesn’t mean we control the flight nor do we have the power to alter its properties. The power is in our ability to reconcile and take control of our self.
Here is a prayer for this day of our journey. It is an ancient Armenian blessing, appealing to the Holy Cross along with a simple meditation: The Cross of Christ can be understood or misunderstood. Its understanding does not change reality, but brings reconciliation and control over our lives.
Keep us in peace, O Christ our God, u...

Road to Healing – Lenten Journey 2014
Day 36:
Play Now:
Twenty years ago today the Rwandan people woke up to the reality of Genocide. It lasted for 100 days
and claimed a million lives.
A few years back I had an opportunity to visit Rwanda. For me it was a chance to see what I had heard about only through stories. While I didn’t know much about Rwanda, I had grown up with stories of the Armenian Genocide. My grandparents were survivors. My parents were first generation survivors and well, in many ways I am a survivor, having to reconcile with the reality that such a heinous crime could have occurred.
Illness and disease reoccur. Sometimes they are passed along in genes. Sometimes they are passed along as viral infections – they are mimicked and copied from one person to the next. Illness needs to be addressed. Disease cannot be ignored.
Suicide is killing the self. Homicide is killing another person. Genocide, as the name suggests, is killing off the entire gene-pool. Killing is killing, but how can we comprehend killing at this magnitude and in such proportions?
During my stay in Rwanda I met with many survivors who shared their stories. It was surprisingly similar to the stories I had heard from my grandparents: Round-ups in the night, the men taken away, the women raped, the children left to die. In fact at one point the stories were too similar for comfort. One day we were driving on a bridge over the Nile River. Our guide pointed out that at one point during the course of the Genocide, there were so many dead bodies and blood flowing through the river that it was known as the “Red Nile.” Of course, I had heard the same stories, only in Armenia it was the “Red Euphrates” that they referenced.

One of the most disturbing moments during my trip came at the Genocide Museum in Kigali. I was following the exhibits and stories of the Genocide that were mounted on the walls and in cases. In that museum I was immediately made color blind, because the only difference between the children and people in the photos and my own ancestry was the color of our skin. But it was unnoticeable. I was looking back in time at the events of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 here in the museum which documented the Genocide of 1994.
I was moved to tears from these eye-witness accounts. I must have been a terrible mess because the sight of me crying brought one of the museum staff to my aid. She introduced herself to me. “Is everything OK? May I be of assistance?”
I introduced myself and apologized for my outburst. I explained that the stories of the survivors, the children and the widows were stories that I had heard growing up. I explained to her that my grandparents were survivors of genocide. And then it happened. She asked me a question which has haunted me ever since that day. She asked, “Which Genocide?”
Can you imagine? This is the 21st Century and we’re still asking “Which Genocide?” You would think that a civilization that can explore space and develop vaccines for polio and smallpox, could certainly find a way of resolving conflicts without wars, let alone genocide. But here we were, in a museum, attesting to the fact that we are unable to cure the most dreaded of all diseases: hatred.
Illness and disease reoccur. Sometimes they are passed along in genes. Sometimes they are passed along as viral infections – they are mimicked and copied from one person to the next. Illness needs to be addressed. Disease cannot be ignored. Today you are on the Road to Healing because you have identified the disease; you are traveling because you are not ignoring it. Once out of your system, you cannot allow it to come back to take over again. Today, you know that there is no other answer but to eradicate the illness forever.
When we appeal to love as the answer, we have to understand that it is the ultimate weapon against our troubles, whether on a global level or on a personal level. You see, hatred breeds hatred. The ill cells in your body breed more cancers. Personalities and patterns of living infect others through our interactions and ultimately continue to live and wreak havoc another day. We are looking for a healing and understand that it must be complete.
Let us pray, the prayer of Healing,
Healer of infirmity, Physician of the physicians, Light and Love of the world, dispel the pain and heal the sickness of your people by be...

Road to Healing – Lenten Journey 2014
Day 31:
Play Now:
Direct Link for Download (right click and save link as...)
Dr. K is a physician and an artist, that is, he approaches his medical practice as an art. He explained this distinction to a group of high school students he was mentoring.

When I first opened the Youth Ministries Center in Glendale, Dr. K approached me with an offer: If I brought him students, he would mentor them, help them as they selected their career paths as well as assist them if they applied to med school. I went with the first group of kids and listened in as Dr. K’s passion for medicine and healing was transferred to this group of student. He spoke as an artist practicing the medical arts, treating and caring for the entire body as well as the human condition.
My relationship with Dr. K continued for several years. I was intrigued by his approach to the healing arts. One day he invited me to join him on the rounds at a Free Clinic he had set up in Ventura County. Many migrant farm workers are attracted to California’s Central Coast. Dr. K attracted a few health care professionals and volunteers to tend to the needs of the needy at a make-shift clinic operating out of the social hall at a local church in Thousand Oaks, California. We drove there together giving me a chance to hear his understanding of the human condition, caring, compassion and healing. It is one thing to hear and another to experience. So that night he allowed me to tail him, as he went from patient to patient, checking blood pressure, temperature and doing what he does best: listening, caring and offering a path to healing.
From the unique vantage point I was offered, I witness an artist in action. But in particular I remember vividly this artist’s brush strokes – as he painted a picture of warmth and design in the life of Mrs. Martinez, the next patient we would visit. Mrs. Martinez was waiting for Dr. K and when we walked in you could tell she was relieved. Dr. K addressed her by name and in her gesture I could tell he was a familiar face to her. Dr. K asked her how she was doing and began rubbing her back as she responded. She spoke and told her story. He rubbed her back and put her at ease. It was a gentle rub, in a circular motion, offered as a therapeutic massage without the deep kneading action. She spoke and spoke. He rubbed and rubbed. The “exam” lasted 20 minutes. At the end, she thanked the doctor. He told her that everything would be fine.
As we left the room, it occurred to me that there was no specific medical trauma that was diagnosed and no medical service – pills, shots, therapy – that took place or offered. At least to this untrained eye, I couldn’t diagnosis the diagnosis. I asked Dr. K, “What was that all about? What was she in for?”
“She’s lonely. Her life is absent of touch.” He said this in a most gentle voice. “She comes in once a month. She talks. This 20 minutes is her human contact, the touch and the feel that she needs to feel good.”
We talked and shared even more that night about Mrs. Martinez as well as some of the other patients I observed. But the image of a lonely woman, warming up and coming to life because of a simple touch has never faded from my memory. Touching and feeling is essential and necessary to human life. We say, life is to be celebrated! How can we celebrate alone? Are we not called to interact, engage and touch one another – spiritually, emotionally and physically?
Today’s mediation is a simple one of reaching out and touching. Take an extra moment to feel the touches in your day today – the handshakes, the embraces, the kisses, as well as the emotional and spiritual touches. When a poem or prayer moves you to tears or goose bumps, what are those physical manifestation of our inner soul all about? How are they connected and how can they touch us to find complete healing?
I look forward to continuing on this journey with you again tomorrow.
(Note: From that original group of students I took to meet Dr. K, the first student graduated med school last year. She promises to be another artist of the healing arts.)
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for epostle.net
Get A Lenten Journey with Fr. Vazken delivered by email
View in iTunes
Now Playing on BluBrry

Road to Healing – Lenten Journey 2014 Day 17
Play Now:
Direct Link for Download (right click and save link as...)
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, says that there is no future without forgiveness. You merely have to think about the phrase briefly to understand how profoundly true it is. Forgiveness is about the past and unless the past is resolved, that is, unless it is at peace, there can be no harmony and healing in the future.
Back in 2006, I was walking down a street in the city of Kigali, the capital of Rwanda when I had a very special awakening and revelation. The streets were full of people. A little over a decade earlier, the streets and beautiful countryside were lined with corpses, the remains of the victims of genocide. I come from a background of genocide. My grandparents escaped the Genocide nearly a hundred years ago. Unlike my grandparents and hundreds of thousands of other Armenians who escaped their homeland to seek safe haven, the survivors of the Rwandan Genocide had to live in the same neighborhoods and in close proximity to perpetrators the mass killing. In other words they have found a means of healing even after such a barbaric and unimaginable crime as genocide.* The power of forgiveness in the case of Rwanda is huge and undeniable when witnessed directly amidst the people. And I witnessed the power of that healing on that street.
I speak on the large scale but the same truth and power of forgiveness is applicable to us on an individual scale as well. If we’re looking for healing – physical, emotional, psychological – there is a vital step in the process that means reconciling with our condition. This does not mean we give in, give up or accept any of the language of victimization. Quite the opposite, it means finding the courage to rise and forgive. “There is no future without forgiveness.”
Last Sunday our Journey took us past a father and son who offered us a lesson in forgiveness. In fact, the lesson was so intense that I called for a day of rest and a day of preparation for the road ahead. Forgiveness is not for the weak and faint at heart. Forgiveness, we find, is another building block on which our healing is dependent upon.
Forgiveness is an action that you need to give and receive. We all need to be forgiven and at the same time we need to forgive. In both instances we have issues because of our egos. We need to be forgiven but we’re cautious and ask who gave that person the right to forgive me? We want to forgive, but we remember the pain and get stuck in the past. Who’s past? Well, it’s a past that only we have control over.
To make the process understandable Archbishop Tutu suggests** that there are four important steps toward healing, namely, admitting to the wrong, articulating it, asking and granting forgiveness and finally renewing the relationship. We received a practical example of Tutu’s four steps in the parable of the “Prodigal Son.” If you remember (from Last Sunday) for the young man to be healed, that is, reconciled with his father, and healed, first he admitted to the wrong. He came to the point of awakening and realized his situation. Next he articulated it by setting out his plan for return. Third, he made the journey home, asking and granting forgiveness, and finally, the relationship was renewed as he entered into his father’s home.
Forgiveness may seem difficult to give and/or to receive, but just as we are doing on the Road to Healing, we’re not going to tackle this topic overnight. We’re taking our time. This is why we have spread out the Journey over 40 days. Forgiveness can be managed by breaking it up into parts and components. Forgiveness is essential to our overall health. Forgiveness is about us and others, others and us. Tomorrow we delve further into forgiveness.
The topic for today’s meditation a simple one: What future do you have without forgiveness? Contemplate this question today and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow when we continue on the Road to Healing.
* Victims and perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide living together is akin to the small but significant community of Armenians who live in Istanbul today. The similarity between the Armenian and Rwandan Genocides are striking. The difference between the two is a simple one – in the case of the Rwandans, the perpetrators have accepted their crime, in the case of the Armenians the Turkish government has not. My reflections on Rwanda, as an Armenian Priest can be found at http://dervaz.blogspot.com/
** Archbishop Desm...