{"id":13877,"date":"2025-04-18T15:54:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T11:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsakhdiocese.am\/?p=13877"},"modified":"2025-04-18T16:00:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T12:00:27","slug":"khachelutyun-mer-azgayin-khachy-yev-harutyan-huysy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsakhdiocese.am\/en\/news\/khachelutyun-mer-azgayin-khachy-yev-harutyan-huysy","title":{"rendered":"The Crucifixion: Our National Cross and the Hope of Resurrection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?\"<\/p>\n

Dear brothers and sisters in faith,<\/p>\n

On this solemn evening of darkness, we stand before the Crucifixion of Christ. The Savior\u2019s agony and suffering were so real that He cried out, \u201cEli, Eli, lama sabakthani?\u201d \u2014 \u201cMy God, my God, why have You forsaken me?\u201d These words, drawn from the Psalms, fully express the anguish, sorrow, and terrifying sense of abandonment our Lord experienced during the final hours of His passion. Yes, He truly suffered and felt pain as any human would. And yet, He reached the pinnacle of human suffering \u2014 the sense of being forsaken by God.<\/p>\n

Our forefathers called the final week of Christ\u2019s earthly life Great Week, as it concentrates the entirety of Christ\u2019s redemptive mission and the divine purpose of His coming into the world. Indeed, this week is often referred to as the Gospel within the Gospel. As we follow, with faith and reverence, the unfolding of Scripture\u2019s narrative, we are transported in spirit to the events of this sacred week \u2014 beginning with the raising of Lazarus and Christ\u2019s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The crowds, filled with joy and great expectations, misunderstood the Lord\u2019s higher purpose \u2014 the salvation of humanity and liberation from the bondage of sin. And so, incited and manipulated by the religious leaders of the time, they soon turned to cry out for His crucifixion.<\/p>\n

A divine-human tragedy begins to unfold \u2014 foretold by divine providence \u2014 marked by betrayal from His own, abandonment by a disciple, false and baseless accusations, unjust trials, mockery and torture of the Righteous One, and finally, the unjust verdict: death by crucifixion.\nTragically, in our own times, falsehood and perjury, condemning the innocent through corruption, and denying our homeland and faith have become all too common. And each time we partake in such acts, we join again with the crowd that once cried, \u201cCrucify Him!\u201d These events unfolded so rapidly that the human mind could scarcely grasp what divine providence had foreseen.<\/p>\n

Today, as our Church relives the mystery of the Holy Cross, we carry in our hearts another cross \u2014 the pain of losing our beloved Artsakh. The children of our nation are treading a similar path of suffering, yet unlike our Lord, who was innocent, we, as sinners, have not fully repented. Just as the veil of the Temple was torn in two, so too has our ancestral land been torn from its wholeness. Like Christ\u2019s torment, our pain is profoundly real \u2014 it clings to us like skin. Some have lost their homes, others their fathers, sons, or brothers \u2014 and together, we have all lost a sacred homeland. Often, feeling forsaken by God, we repeat the words: \u201cMy God, my God, why have You forsaken me?\u201d And our prayers seem to echo against a wall of silence.<\/p>\n

But it is precisely in that silence, dear ones, that the Holy Cross begins to speak to us.\nThe Apostle Paul proclaims, \u201cChrist crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God\u201d (1 Corinthians 1:24). To the human eye, the Cross was a symbol of defeat. But in the eyes of God, it marked the beginning of victory. Artsakh is our national cross \u2014 our sacred inheritance, now lost. But is it lost forever? Christ\u2019s cross, too, seemed a loss to the disciples. Yet He rose again, and that Resurrection transformed all crosses into fountains of new light. Beloved, if we carry within us a thirst for justice, if we continue to pray with sincerity and live in Christian love as a nation, then be assured: Artsakh will not die. Did Christ remain in the tomb? And in this current silence, heavy with darkness, it is as if Christ gathers His final human strength and now speaks directly to us:\n \u201cDo not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

May the radiant light of our Lord\u2019s Cross strengthen us all \u2014 to overcome our sins and fears, and to welcome with hope the Glorious Resurrection.<\/p>\n

The Primate of the Artsakh Diocese, Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan<\/a><\/h2>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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