Below we provide an abridged version of His Holiness Catholicos Aram I’s Christmas message.
The Evangelist instructs us: “Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6:12)
We live in a world in which life, either in nature or in society, is morally corrupted and physically endangered. We are surrounded by visible and invisible wrongs and evils that steer men away from the God-given life and God and turn it into an anthropocentric life, with the man as a goal in himself. Parallel to the damage caused by men to nature, we also live the terrible consequences of the evils caused to human life in every sphere of individual and collective life.
Indeed, regardless of how hard science tries to enrich and protect life with its different discoveries and new achievements, without the vital presence of Christ that granted eternal life to man, life becomes an aimless existence. Wherever Christ is present with the blood he spilled giving eternal life to man, sin, wrongs, and evil stay away.
Bethlehem is the revelation of eternal life. Bethlehem is the heavenly invitation addressed to man to entwine his life with the renewing presence of Christ as the source of eternal life.
Let us therefore turn to Bethlehem and let us live its meaning.
CATHOLICOS ARAM I
GREAT HOUSE OF CILICIA