The leader of the Artsakh Diocese Vrtanes bishop sent a message.
"Dear faithful brothers and sisters,
Eclipse this evening we stand before Christ's crucifixion. The Savior's torment and pains were so real, that he even had to utter "Eli, again", Lama, my God, why did you leave me? These words from the bloody Savior, the psalm, pass the alarm, pain, and despair that our Lord felt in the last hours of his suffering. Yes, he was truly suffering, and he was in pain, and at the same time he reached the peak of human pain and suffering, to be forgotten from God.
Our Fathers called the last week of Christ's earthly life a week, because in those 1 week the salvation of Jesus Christ and the whole purpose of coming to the world, so the Gospel is called the Gospel. Following the Scriptures, we are moving in the Supreme Week for the Supreme Week, which begins with a prospective and victoriousness of Jerusalem. The people with joy, joy and great expectations, not understanding the Lord's maintenance, related to the stealing of the human race, by provoking hatred and sentenced to Jesus for a few days. A great human and divine tragedy, denial, and unfounded testimonies, unfair triggments, unfair trials, unfair trials and torments against the anointed, and finally a death sentence against the anointed trials.
Unfortunately, today has become an integral part of our lives, lying, giving false testimony, bringing innocent people to bribes, denying the homeland and faith. And every time we do these actions, we re-join the crowd again and again. "Take the cross." All this happened so fast that it seemed that the human mind did not manage to master what was meant to be divine.
Today, when our Church is experiencing the Board of the Holy Cross, we have another cross in our hearts, the pain of our beloved Artsakh loss. The children of our nation also cross the path of that cruel cross, but unlike us, our Lord is crucified with innocence, but we did not know and did not repent. As the cathedral curtain is torn into two halves, so our native land is torn from its whole. Like Christ's torment, our pain is very real, like we are skinned. Some have lost their house, others, Father, a son, and together we have all lost a sacred homeland. We often often consider us "my God, my God, why have you left me?" And our prayers often face the wall of silence. But right here, loved ones, that the Holy Cross begins to talk to us.
St. Paul's apostle says: "Crucified Christ is God's power and God's wisdom." - 1 Corinthians 1:24. In a human sense, the cross was a defeat, but with God's eyes, it was the beginning of the victory. Artsakh is our cross, as a people, our holiness we lost. But is it completely lost? The cross of Christ seemed "loss" to the disciples. But he was resurrected, and that resurrection makes all the crosses a new light. Beloved, if we live in our thirst, if we continue to pray heartily and live in Christian love as a nation, then be sure that Artsakh will not die. Did Christ stay in the grave? And in this eclipse silence, it seems that Christ gathers his last human forces and already turns to us. "Do not be afraid of them that the body kills, but the Spirit cannot kill."
Let the light that radiates from the cross of our Lord to strengthen everybody to overcome our sins and fears and hope to meet the miraculous resurrection. "