Questions by the Faithful
Here are some questions from the faithful who are reading the book A Spiritual Journey Through The Holy Badarak. We appreciate their enlightening questions.
Dér Stépanos, we are glad that we have a book about the Badarak and our theology that can be easily read and understood. But now that we can understand what we are reading, we have questions to ask and we hope you don’t mind answering them. On page 27 you say that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, but is it not true that Christ raised himself? He said: "Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days." [St. John 2:19] Can you help clarify?
Leon Martin, Glendora, California
Dear Leon, thank you for a very insightful question. Yes, Christ had the authority to raise himself. However, in order to open the path for eternal life for us as humans, he put himself in our shoes. Just as we cannot raise ourselves from the dead, he too ‘emptied himself’ of this authority, and trusted God the Father to raise him. This ‘emptying of himself’ by Christ, known in Greek as kenosis, is described in St. Paul’s letter to the Phillipians 2:5-1. This is also mentioned in other locations. St. Peter states that "God raised him (Jesus) from the dead." [Book of Acts 2:24] He also states the same in Acts 10:40. St. Paul speaks of this in Acts 13:37 and in Romans 4:24: "For us who believe in Him who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead." [In addition see Romans 6:4 and 10:9; First Corinthians 6:14, etc.] Theologically this is important because it implies that though we as humans cannot raise ourselves, but we will be raised from the dead if we believe and follow the example of Christ, and trust God just as he did.
Dear Dr. Dingilian,
I started reading your book (set in the pews) at St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church in Costa Mesa not too long ago. You did a wonderful job of making a lot of sense of the krapar that most of us do not understand! The only question I have, however, is where I read on page 11 "The Holy Myooron represents the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ sent out his Disciples anointing with Holy Oil." Would you please let me know where in the Bible there was such anointing of oil? I know in our Armenian Church we use the Holy Myooron during the Christening of a child. Again I’m confused as to where in the Bible does it record that John the Baptist anointed Jesus with oil after baptizing Him or is this merely an Armenian tradition taking the anointing of oil from the Old Testament.
God Bless, Seta Dembekjian, Irvine, California
Dear Seta, thank you for writing about one of the most asked questions. First, when Christ initially sent out his Disciples to preach before his Crucifixion, we read: "They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them." [St. Mark 6:12-13] Here the oil is recognized as representing the power of the Holy Spirit in healing. You are correct, St. John the Baptist did not anoint Christ, but Jesus made the reference to this in preparation for his death. [See St. Luke 7:36-50.] Anointing with Holy Myooron is a means of affirming that we as Christians have "died" to the pursuit of this world’s values. So we may say regarding the three Sacraments: In Baptism we are cleansed of our sins, in Chrismation we put on Christ, and in Communion we receive his Body and Blood. Anointing with oil is not unique to the Armenian Church, however, the Holy Myooron is. For centuries this Myooron has been prepared by adding some of the older Myooron to the new, thereby affirming another sign of God’s continuing presence, authority and work in the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Dear Dér Stepanos,
This holiday season my 8 year old received many gifts. All he wants to do is play. For the past three years, they keep telling me that he’ll grow out of this ‘playing mode’ and will get interested in doing ‘something.’ Is there any thing I can I do to help him move quicker to the next stage? I’ve been waiting for so many years!
TE, New York, NY
Thank you for your question. We too struggled with this question. We tried this and that and became rather frustrated. Finally, thanks be to God, it dawned on us: THE LITTLE ONE IS ALREADY DISPLAYING HER TALENTS, WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE TO RECOGNIZE IT.
So, we started exposing her to various activities -- sports, ballet, model building, sculpting, drawing, painting, etc. Sure enough, drawing and painting is the one that not only she does well, but she actually enjoys doing. She was happy doing it – singing, etc.
Next, came the issue: encouraging her without pressuring. Wherever we went, we had her paper and coloring pencils. We took her to exhibitions, etc. We exposed her to artists with whom she could talk, look at how they work, etc. The suggestions of other parents were also helpful. For example, TV remained off, Church or classical music filled the home, etc. I will add this though: Because she enjoyed her drawing and painting, she was the one who did not want the TV! So, to be honest, we didn't even have to push; we just had to be there and help her along her path.
Of course, one of the toughest issues when it comes to talents is the ATTENTION SPAN. As I'm sure you've heard: Genius is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. Helping the young one develop longer attention span has been a challenge because there is no such thing as 'right' or 'wrong' in this process. We have learned to enjoy seeing the little one blossom and gradually develop a knack for more detail, accuracy and work completion.
Finally, 'The fruit does not fall too far away from the tree.' In other words, the talents that your youngsters have are probably very close to yours or that of your spouse. So, you may want to look at your talents first (even if they seem incidental), and see if you recognize any of those in your youngster. At least in our older one, we noticed that her talent is actually a combination of both, some of my talents and that of my spouse. So in
fact, helping our little one develop her talents has been a way for us as soul mates to understand each other, and share fond stories of childhood that we never thought were important. So in this process, just like us, so too will you grow.