Feast of St Gregory the Illuminator

In previous ages many countries in Europe and the Middle East based their growth and subsequent expansion from the religious division of time, before and after the conversion of their peoples to Christianity, or as in some Middle Eastern States the later change to Islam. The force and power of a religious movement and the key people involved in it are somehow part of the great narrative of meaning for our history. In the Christian tradition we hold the memory of those we name as ‘holy ones’ (the saints) as important for our understanding of Church and community; in other words, we honour and keep remembering in the Liturgy and on their feast days these friends of God, who are not only part of our cultural history, but also present, and with us, in the community of heaven; which means, in Christian belief, that they are alive in the Risen Christ. Their witness and example, which we still celebrate in our own faith communities, continue to inspire us.

For any church, the early founders, often called  ‘equal to the Apostles’ because they join us to that Apostolic Community of the original Church, are part of that beautiful theology of the living Temple built up by the Holy Spirit on Christ, who is the foundation or cornerstone, with our apostolic saints as the first layer of building blocks. This also ties in with the wonderful Pauline image of the Body of Christ of which we are all members, each having a different but important part in the ministry of building up the community of Christ in the world. For us this is also a reminder that although we categorise the different church structures of East and West  in different ways, under Christ our head we are one Church, though as yet imperfectly formed together.
 
When, as on this feast of Gregory, a community is called back to the sources of its  Christian tradition, we discover new insights, particularly in that light and gift of the Holy Spirit. Though we might understand the warning about historical interpretation in the famous words of L. P. Hartley in The Go-Between,  “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”, our own Christian theology, particularly that connected to the celebration of the Liturgy, helps us to understand that the past is also brought alive, especially when we remember before God all that has taken place in Christ. For in these moments we are part of the great cloud of witnesses in God’s good time, kairos, not in our chronological time.
 
In commemorating the founder of a church or the first missionary to evangelise a people, we not only acknowledge actual history, but in a real way we bring the memory of these saints and their goodness and deeds before us, and in intercession we are drawn close to them. So, for Armenia, it is Saint Gregory the Illuminator who, as first Catholicos, represents that link with the apostolic Church, the community of the disciples of `Christ which he built up, especially in his consecration of bishops to serve the nascent church, in his organisation of the Armenian Church, and the evangelisation of the Armenian peoples. His title ‘the Enlightener’ is a constant reminder that through individuals who give their life to the ministry of Christ, that light of Christ continues to shine as a light for all nations.