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All
the wonderful events that God has brought about to bring man back to
Paradise after the fall and to make him once again a member of his
household is called the Divine Economy or Divine Dispensation. This
salvation in Christ is what we live and experience in the Divine Liturgy
and give thanks to God: The fearful Mysteries that we serve at every
gathering of the faithful and of which salvation is offered bountifully is
called “Thanksgiving” because they consist of remembrances of many
benevolences and reveal to us the crowning point of the Divine Providence.
The Mystery of the Divine Economy was revealed with the disobedience and
fall of man. The philanthropic Lord immediately saw the fall and the
immensity of the injury and made haste to cure it so that the injury would
not become infested and transformed into an incurable wound. God at no
time stopped providing for mankind. With works of wonder and prophetic
sayings, He prepared man for communion in the fulness of life and love.
Many events and prophecies of the Old Testament are indirectly mentioned
in the Divine Liturgy. The first of these is the offering of bread and
wine by Melchizedek.
(Gen. 14:18)
Melchizedek is a image and type of Christ the true High-priest and his
offering was a resemblance of the offering of Christ. The sacrifice of
Isaac is also a pre-figuration of Christ’s sacrifice and the Eucharistic
offering. Many other Old Testament offerings prefigure the Sacrifice of
Christ, but one event above all clearly prefigures this offering and that
is the Judaic Pascha (Passover). The Feast of the Passover was a continual
remembrance of the Jewish peoples’ salvation from the hands of the
Egyptians and also a continual thanksgiving to God for His benevolences.
All these events prepared the coming of the fulfilment of time, by which
was revealed the truth which is Christ. At the same time is revealed the
true dimensions of the Mystery of the Divine Economy: because Christ is
the summit of the Mystery of Divine Economy and every event in His life is
for mankind a divine blessing: and all the events of Christ’s life, from
his birth, his teaching, his saving Passion, Crucifixion, Death, Burial
and Resurrection are re-lived in the Divine Liturgy. Before we begin our
interpretation of the Divine Liturgy we should also look at the
architecture of our Christian Churches because they were not built
randomly just to accommodate the gathering of Christians, every nook and
cranny has its symbolic meaning, which when understood, help us to make
sense of the Priest’s and Deacon’s movements during the Divine Liturgy. At
the basis of these symbolisms lies the teaching of the church on the
redeeming sacrifice of Christ and its ultimate aim which constitutes the
very essence of Christianity- the future transfiguration of man and the
whole world. In its entirety the Church is the image of the future renewed
world where God filleth all in all.
The
Old Testament law was a shadow of the image of the good things to come, in
other words, a shadow of the service we now have, and the service we now
have is a shadow of the things to come, that is, a shadow of the heavenly
Jerusalem made not of matter nor with men’s hands, but by God himself. On
the basis of this interpretation, each part of the Church draws its
meaning from its general position and function in the course of the Divine
service. The Church is the image of both the immaterial and the sensory
worlds.
It is generally divided into three parts.
1) The Holy
Sanctuary which is found behind the Iconostasis (Icon screen) and is the
place where the Priests serve the Divine Liturgy.
2)
The Nave which is the main part of the church
and where the congregation stand and
3) the Narthex
which is found at the western entrance of the Church. In older times this
was where people who were not yet baptized would stand and also those who
were not allowed to receive Holy Communion. Today most churches don’t have
a Narthex and instead have a pre-chamber for lighting candles.
According to
St. Symeon of Thessalonica, the Church represents what is on earth, what
is in heaven, and what is above the heavens. He explains more precisely
that: “The narthex corresponds to earth, the nave corresponds to heaven,
and the holy Sanctuary corresponds to what is above heaven. In connection
with these interpretations, the Iconostasis (Icon Screen) also has a
symbolic meaning: The holy Fathers liken it to the boundary between two
worlds: the Divine and the human, the permanent and the transitory.
Although it is a screen dividing the Divine world from the human world,
the Iconostasis at the same time unites the two worlds into one whole in
an image that reflects a state of the universe where all separation is
overcome, where there is achieved a reconciliation between God and the
creature. Standing on the boundary line between the Divine and the human
are the Icons of Christ, the Mother of God, and the Saints who show us the
way to this reconciliation.
In front of
the Iconostasis we usually see two large brass candle holders one on
either side of the Royal doors. In the Book of Exodus,
(13:21)
we read that the Lord went before the Children of Israel by day in
a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of
fire, to give them light. God guided his people by means of a this pillar
and when the pillar moved, they followed it until eventually it led them
to the Promised Land. These two brass candle holders or pillars of light,
remind us of the pillar of light God used to guide his Chosen people to
the Promised Land and also remind us that even today, God leads us to our
Promised Land which is heaven, through the Gospels and the Sacraments.
The
Amvon (Pulpit) usually found directly opposite the Bishop’s throne is a
raised platform from where the Deacon reads the Gospel and has a wonderful
symbolism. In St. Matthew’s account of the Resurrection, we are told that
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came as it began to dawn to the
sepulchre, “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of
the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from
the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his
raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and
became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear
not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not
here: for he is Risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
(St Matthew 28:1-6)
The Amvon represents the Stone which was rolled away from the tomb and the
Deacon represents the angel preaching the Good news. The word Gospel as
also the Greek counterpart Evangelio means Good Message or Good
Announcement.
Another
symbolism found in the nave is the great dome with the Icon of Christ
Pantocrator (Almighty). The dome represents heaven which means that where
we stand is earth. Christ looking down upon us has three representations:
firstly it reminds us that he is the Creator of the universe, secondly
that he is our Saviour and only through him can we find salvation and our
place in heaven. This is corroborated by the columns that support the dome
which form a cross and it is through his death on the Cross and His
Resurrection that the door of Paradise was re-opened to man. And thirdly
that Christ is the Judge, who with his second coming, shall judge every
man according to his own deeds. This interpretation is in unison with the
meaning of the Divine Liturgy because as we shall see later, the Divine
Liturgy transcends our earthly time and becomes the banquet that the
faithful shall enjoy at the Second Coming of Christ.
In the
Sanctuary we have many more symbolisms.
In the centre we see the Holy Altar and represents the slab or the spot in
the tomb where Christ was laid. On it lies the true and heavenly Bread,
the Mystical and Bloodless sacrifice. The Altar is also the throne of God
which is borne by the Cherubim. It is the holiest and greatest of all the
places in the Church. There are many more symbolisms for the Holy Altar as
well as for the vestment coverings but we can leave these for some other
time when we can have a general talk about these and all the vestments
used by the Priest and Deacon.
To
the left of the Altar we find the Holy Prothesis. It is a small apse in
the wall which corresponds to the cave in Bethlehem where Christ was born
and laid in a manger. St. Symeon of Thessalonica writes that as Bethlehem
is not far from Jerusalem where the Lord’s tomb is, here also, the
Prothesis is near to the Holy Altar which represents the Lord’s tomb. The
preparation for the Divine Liturgy begins with the Priest preparing the
bread and wine at the Prothesis before being carried during the Divine
Liturgy to the Altar. The Prothesis also represents the cave in which
Christ was buried.
In the
Sanctuary behind the Altar there is a large apse which is often painted
with the Icon of the Mother of God as “She who is wider than the heavens”.
The Icon reveals the Blessed Virgin as the throne of God and the temple of
the Godhead. She is more spacious and wider than the heavens, for whereas
the great expanse of the heavens cannot circumscribe the Lord; He is now
circumscribed by the Virgin’s womb. It is from this expression that the
Icon derives its name of ‘Platytera ton Ouranon’ [She who is wider than
the heavens]. It is not by mere chance that The Icon of the Mother of God
is portrayed in this apse. As we mentioned before, the Dome with the Icon
of Christ represents heaven. The apse in the Sanctuary is between heaven
and earth with the top of the apse touching the ceiling and the lower part
touching the ground. This teaches us that the Mother of God is, as we hear
in the Akathist hymn, “The Heavenly Ladder by which God descended to
earth. In other words, She is the ladder that joins heaven with earth. In
the centre of the Apse in day of old, there used to be the Bishop’s
throne. Now the throne has been moved into the nave of the Church, but
spiritually it is still there and represents Christ’s throne when he shall
come again in glory. On each side are seats which represent the thrones of
the 12 Apostle’s who shall judge the 12 tribes of Israel.
So now that we
have seen the architectural symbolisms of the Church we could also explain
the symbolic meanings to the holy vessels that are used during the service
but to save time we can incorporate them into the interpretation of the
Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy consists of three parts: The
Preparation and office of Oblation, The Liturgy of the Catechumen and the
Liturgy of the faithful. The Preparation and office of Oblation is said
before the onset of the Liturgy and is said silently by the Priest. The
people never get to see or hear what is said and done but as it is an
important part of the Liturgy, this is where we will begin.
A Priest
serves the Divine Liturgy on behalf of the Bishop so before beginning he
must have the Bishop’s blessing. The Bishop cannot be in all the Churches
at the same time, but the Priest will go to Bishops throne where he will
make three prostrations as though the Bishop is present. He will then
stand before the Royal Doors and begin a short service called Kairos
(Time). This we can call the forerunner or herald of the Liturgy and
reminds us that the fullness of time has come and the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. It prepares us for the acceptance of Christ the King and our
participation in the supper of his kingdom. In other words it announces
the Second Coming of Christ because the Divine Liturgy transcends our
earthly time. With the Resurrection of our Lord we no longer live in death
but in life and within time we live in eternity. This is the victory of
Christ that we celebrate with the Divine Liturgy, because the Divine
Liturgy is one continuous Pascha: It is forever Pascha. That is why the
day above all days for celebrating the divine Mystery is the day of the
Resurrection of our Lord, the Sunday: the day which symbolises the
surpassing of time, because it is the first day of creation and at the
same time the eighth day of the Kingdom: the day which has no beginning or
end. So now having said the short service of the announcement, the Priest
enters the Sanctuary and kisses the Gospel book and the holy Altar and
vests himself with his priestly vestments. Each vestment has a symbolic
meaning and as he blesses and puts each one on he says a short verse that
refers to that symbolism. Being fully vested he will go the piscina (wash
basin) and wash his hands. A Priest should approach the holy Altar with a
pure heart cleansed of every kind of sin. The washing of the hands is
symbolic of a clear conscience in spirit and in mind. He will then go to
the Prothesis and prepare the Holy Vessels, placing them in the right
order to begin the Office of Oblation.
There
are two basic vessels: the Paten and the Chalice and two utensils: the
spear and the spoon. Each has a practical use but also a symbolic meaning
or even many meanings. Thus the Paten is used to carry the sacrificial
lamb to the Altar but it also symbolises the manger where Christ was laid
in the cave of Bethlehem and also the place where he was laid after his
saving death on the Cross. According to St. Germanos of Constantinople, it
also represents the hands of Joseph and Nicodemus who buried Christ and
also represents heaven containing Christ the spiritual sun seen visibly in
the bread.
The
Chalice represents the very cup that Christ used at that first Mystical
Supper. The cup that after he had blessed gave to his disciples saying
“Drink ye all of it; this is my Blood of the New Testament, which is shed
for you and for many for the remission of sins.”
The
Spear is used to cut away the lamb from the rest of the bread but also
represents the spear the soldier used to pierce the side of Christ when He
was on the Cross and having pieced his side, there forthwith came out
blood and water.(John 19:34)
The
Spoon is used to commune the people of the Precious Body and Blood of our
Lord, but this also has a symbolic meaning. When God called the Prophet
Isaiah to be his Prophet, he was reluctant to accept such a high posting
because he felt his lips were unclean to speak on behalf of God. He then
had a vision of the Lord in heaven sitting upon a throne with the
Seraphims flying above and around him and they cried out to each other
Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of thy
glory. Then one of the Seraphim flew unto him having a live coal in his
hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar and he laid it
upon Isaiah’s mouth saying “Lo this hath touched thy lips and thine
iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged.
(Isaiah 6:3-7)
The Spoon is the tongs and the Holy Mysteries are the coal, which for
those who are worthy takes away their iniquity and purges them of their
sin. For those who are unworthy is becomes like fiery coal that burns
them.
So now having
prepared the vessels and the utensils, the Priest is almost ready to begin
the oblation. It remains for him to select the prosphoron (bread) and the
wine that will be used for the offering. With the Divine Liturgy God
offers man his life. But because He doesn’t want the divine gift to appear
as Grace on his part only, he therefore accepts a kind of offering from
man so that His Grace appears as a reward. Thus the Divine Liturgy is both
man’s offering to God and God’s offering to man. The Office of oblation is
the part of the Divine Liturgy which is man’s offering to God. The
faithful bring offerings of bread and sweet wine and from these the Priest
will select the best to offer to God. But why bread and wine? Why did
Christ himself use bread for his Body and wine for His Blood? Everything
on earth belongs to God: He is the creator of all things, What then can we
offer him that we can call ours. In truth the only thing we can offer him
is our love and our life and bread and wine represent an offering of our
whole life. They are two basic foods peculiar only to man. The Jewish
offerings were also offerings of the earth and of livestock, but they were
not foods that belonged only to man, but also to animals. Bread and wine
are exclusively foods for man. God gives as the wheat and the water, but
we take the wheat, clean it and grind it into flour, then with the water
we knead it into a dough and then bake it to become bread. The prosphoron
we use in the Divine Liturgy is even more peculiar because it is prepared
separately from common bread. When making a prosphoron, we have in mind
that it will to be used for the offering, so we prepare ourselves for this
sacred work and make it with prayer and love. The wine again is mans
peculiar offering because God gives us the vine and the grapes but it is
man who looks after the vineyard making sure to prune it and dust it to
protect it from the scorching sun, it is man who will harvest the fruit
and crush the grapes to produce the wine. We have put labour, prayer, love
and our life into our offering.
So having
selected the prosphoron and the wine the priest will first say this hymn
from the pre-feast of Christmas:
“Make ready, O
Bethlehem, for Eden has been opened for all. Prepare, O Ephratha, for the
tree of life has blossomed forth in the cave from the Virgin. For her womb
has been shown forth as a spiritual paradise, in which is the divine
plant, from which if we eat thereof, we shall live and not die as Adam.
Christ shall be born raising the image that fell of old.”
This he says because every thing Christ did for us is re-lived in the
Divine Liturgy. Our Salvation began with the Incarnation and Bethlehem is
the place where God appeared in the flesh.
Taking the holy spear and placing it on the Prosphoron (bread) he shall
raise them to his forehead saying:
“Thou hast
redeemed us by Thy Precious Blood from the curse of the law: being nailed
to the Cross and pierced with the spear, Thou art become for men the fount
of immortal life: our Saviour, glory to Thee.”
(Troparion for Great Friday)
The first hymn the Priest said revealed Christ’s Nativity. The Second
reveals his Crucifixion for as Christ said “for this cause came I unto
this hour.”
(John 12:27)
In other words he was born to suffer the passion and the crucifixion. The
lifting of the bread represents his lifting up on the Cross. His Sacrifice
on the Cross has redeemed us from the curse of the law and we are made
free men with the gift of the Holy Spirit which followed.
The Priest then officially begins the Office of oblation saying:
Blessed is our
God, always now and forever world without end.
Then holding with his left hand the prosphoron and with his right the holy
spear, shall with the spear, make the sign of the Cross three times over
the prosphoron saying each time:
“In
remembrance of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
During that very first celebration of the Mystical Supper, Christ took the
bread and after giving thanks, broke it and gave to his apostles saying:
“This
is my Body which is given for you,” then offering the cup he said “This is
the cup of the New Testament in my Blood, which is shed for you.” Thus
Christ at this supper performed a remembrance of his sacrifice on the
Cross before his Passion and Crucifixion and gave the commandment for us
to also do this in remembrance of him. But which of his actions are we
called to remember? That he raised the dead, that he gave sight to the
blind, that he fed thousands with a few loaves, thus showing himself to be
God Almighty? By no mean. Rather, we must remember those events which seem
to denote nothing but weakness: his Cross, his Passion,, his Death - these
are the happenings which he asks us to commemorate. This is verified by
St. Paul who writing to the Corinthians concerning this mystery added
after the Lord’s words “Do this in remembrance of me” “For as often as ye
eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he
come.”
(1 Cor. 11:26)
The miracles serve as demonstrations and Christ
performed them so that men might have faith in him as the true Saviour,
but it is his passion that is the very cause of our salvation and without
it mankind could not be redeemed. So remembering his passion, the Priest
makes a incision into the right side of the seal where is the IC, and
while he cuts it, he calls to mind what the Prophet Isaiah prophesized
concerning the Lord’s Passion:
“He was led as
a sheep to the slaughter.”
The Jews for the Passover sacrifice used a lamb, because the lamb is a
harmless gentle animal. St. John in his Gospel also makes mention of
Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Then making a cut on the left side where is the XC, he shall say:
“And as a lamb
without blemish before the shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth.”
Christ is silent
before the High priests, he is silent before Pilate. Jesus gave him no
answer. Christ’s silence at the Passion underlines the fact that Christ
willingly accepted to be crucified as he himself said “I lay down my life,
that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of
myself.
The Priest then cuts the upper part of the Seal saying:
“In his
humiliation, his judgement was taken away.”
With his
incarnation Christ made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in
fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross.
(Philippians 2:7-8)
From his throne on high Christ walked the road of humility until he
reached the Cross. His humility was so great in relation to his height as
God. It is a great humility that Christ became a servant, something that
can not be put to words, but to suffer death is so much more. And what
sort of death because not all deaths are the same? He suffered the most
humiliating of all deaths because crucifixion was considered a curse and
the most humiliating form of death. As St. Paul says: “being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
(Gal. 3:13)
Then cutting the lower part of the seal the Priest shall say:
“Who shall
declare his generation?”
The Prophet means by generation - who shall declare his existence, because
who can explain the existence of the Only-Begotten Son. What language can
narrate how the Son was begotten of the Father before all ages. We know
and believe that the Son was born of the Father, but how is beyond our
understanding.
Then the Priest thrusting the spear horizontally into the side of the
prosphoron so as to cut it shall lift out the lamb from it saying:
“For his life
is taken away from the earth.”
And the lamb is placed on the paten.
This reminds us of Christ’s words when he said: “And I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what
death he should die.”
(John 12:32-33)
His sacrifice was offered for all mankind. St. John Chrysostom says: “Why
was Christ’s sacrifice not made within the temple, but rather outside the
city walls in a high place? And he replies to this question: So that you
might learn that his sacrifice was for all men. So that you might learn
that his offering was for all the earth.
In the Acts of the Apostles you might remember that when the Apostle
Philip approached the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch who had the charge
of Queen Candace’s treasure, he was reading aloud from the Book of Isaiah.
Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading and he said, How can
I, except some man should guide me? The passage he was reading was the
prophesy the priest just said: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In
his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his
generation? for his life is taken from the earth.” And the eunuch asked
Philip, of whom does the prophet speak, of himself, or of some other man?
And Philip starting from the same scripture, preached unto him Jesus.
(Acts of the Apostles 8:32-35)
The Priest with these same prophetic sayings does
the same thing: he begins preaching the good news of the Eucharistic
sacrifice and presence of Christ.
The Priest having placed the lamb upside down on the Paten shall now cut
it crosswise leaving the seal intact saying:
“The Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world, is sacrificed for the life
and salvation of the world.”
And
“When Thou
wast crucified, O Christ, the tyranny of the enemy was destroyed, and his
power was trampled underfoot. For it was not an angel nor a man that saved
us, but Thou Thyself, O Lord: glory to Thee.”
We have already mentioned that Christ is the Lamb of God who taketh away
the sin of the world. These are the words of St. John the Baptist when he
saw Christ coming to him to be baptized.
(John 1:29)
The words “is sacrificed for the life and salvation of the world” is taken
from Christ’s own words when he said: “the bread that I will give is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
(St John 6:51)
The second verse reassures us that with Christ’s crucifixion, the devil’s
tyranny was crushed and destroyed, his power was trampled underfoot. No
more is there the religion of demons: creation has been sanctified with
the Divine Blood, the temples of idols have been destroyed and the
knowledge of God has taken root. The consubstantial holy Trinity is
worshiped, the uncreated Godhead, the one true God, the creator and Lord
of all. And this our salvation came about not because of an angel or a
man, but because Christ himself saved us through his Passion and death on
the Cross.
Then the Priest turning the lamb the right way up shall pierce with the
spear the right side, immediately below the IC saying:
“One of the
soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood
and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true.”
(John 19:34-35)
And saying this,
the Priest pours wine and water into the Chalice.
With these words, the Priest recalls the Roman soldier who with a spear
pierced Christ’s side. The Holy Fathers write that the blood and water
that came forth, are an image of the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the
Holy Eucharist. These two Sacraments that flow from Christ’s side create
the Church. From these two Mysteries the Church was born. Thus Christ
created the Church from his side exactly as he created Eve from the side
of Adam. And as he created Eve while Adam was asleep, so too the Church
was created as Christ the New Adam was sleeping in death. From his side he
gives life to mankind.
The Priest then blesses over the chalice saying:
“Blessed is
the union of Thy holy things, always, now and for ever: world without end.
Amen.”
In other words,
he blesses the Church that has been born from Christ’s side.
Here we will stop for this week and continue with the second part of the
Office of Oblation next week.
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