Holy Week Meditation -- Great and Holy Thursday

 

Source: oca.org

He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Lk. 22:19). We are blessed today to keep that commandment and to do this in remembrance of Him. …

In this Divine Liturgy, we will remember and proclaim the entire plan of God—all of the marvelous, wonderful works of God for the sake of our salvation. …

So we remember, we proclaim, and we celebrate that we have been given the honor of living in paradise, enjoying God’s blessings forever. These blessings are nothing less than the very qualities of God Himself. Our delight—and our paradise—is to live within the communion of the Holy Trinity of the uncreated Godhead, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and to enjoy these unending blessings by keeping His commandments.

—Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko, “Remember Me, O Lord,” in Holy Week: A Series of Meditations

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- JUDAS & THE ‘SINFUL’ WOMAN WHO ANOINTED CHRIST

“O the damnation of Judas! Seeing the harlot kissing the feet, he plotted the deception of the kiss of betrayal. She let down/freed her hair, while he bound himself through anger, carrying, instead of myrrh, his ill-smelling malice, for envy does not appreciate preferring that which is beneficial. O the damnation of Judas! Deliver our souls from it, O God!” (Byzantine hymn of Holy & Great Wednesday)

It’s interesting that, on this Holy and Great Wednesday, just before our Lord’s passion, the betrayal of Judas is compared, specifically, to a woman ‘who was a sinner,’ who anointed the feet of our Lord in the house of Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7. This is interesting, because this is not one of the anointings of Christ by a woman (either Mary the sister of Lazarus or another, unnamed woman) that happen shortly before His passion, in the house of Simon the Leper at Bethany. The anointing by the ‘sinful’ woman happened long before these, and not on Bethany but probably up in Galilee.

What is the point of this comparison? It seems that our tradition is at pains, just before the final days of this week, to present us with two examples: 1. of a religious man, - one of the 12 Apostles, no less, - behaving badly; and 2. of a not-so-religious woman, - a harlot, no less, - behaving beautifully. It’s reminiscent of the story of the priest-monk Zosimas and St. Mary of Egypt, in which the religious man, Zosimas, begins to pride himself in his ascetic accomplishments, while the woman with a sinful past, Mary, outshines him in that regard. The point is, I think, to reassure us, as we approach the celebration of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, to assure us thateveryonecan approach and accompany our Lord at this time. And that no religious, ecclesial, or marital or other status (or lack thereof) excludes us from the possibility of being ‘in’ or ‘out’ of communion with our Lord crucified-and-risen. We could, potentially, be in sinful and ill-smelling bondage, as was one the twelve Apostles, Judas, if we bind ourselves (as did he) with his own ambitions and plans, rather than trusting the Lord’s. And we could, potentially, - even if we have been bound with ill-smelling addictions or habits (as had been the sinful woman), “let down our hair” and let ourselves be received and freed from our pain by our loving and forgiving Lord. Glory be to Him, and have a blessed Holy and Great Wednesday, dear friends!

Coffee With Sister Vassa -- I HAVE NO GARMENT

“I see Your bridal chamber adorned, O my Saviour, and I have not the garment, to enter therein; O Giver of Light, make radiant the vesture of my soul, and save me.” (Exaposteilarion-Hymn of “ Bridegroom Matins” on Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday)

Some of us have not fasted enough, or prayed enough, to be well-prepared for the upcoming celebration of Pascha. But in fact the hymns of this Holy and Great Week, like the one quoted above, speak of and for all of us, as ill-prepared for the ”bridal chamber” that is the upcoming celebration. – Like the man in the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, who is found to have no “ wedding garment,” and is thrown out for his impropriety (Mt 22: 1-14).

But today let me let go of any preoccupation with my “ill-preparedness” and join the celebration, handing over “the vesture of my soul” to the Giver of Light. Because I have a Bridegroom Who has overcome my sinful state of affairs by taking them on, having been stripped naked, crucified, and vanquishing all that, in His death and resurrection. O Lord, as You head toward Your cross for my sake, please do for me what I can’t do for myself: “Make radiant the vesture of my soul, and save me.”

Monday Morning Meditation: Golgotha is Alive

Source: omhksea.org

 We accompany Christ to Golgotha during Holy Week:

As the Lord was going to His voluntary passion,He said to the Apostles on the way,"Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,and the Son of Man shall be delivered up, as it is written of Him."Come, therefore, let us also go with Him, purified in mind ...

(Praises of Holy Monday)

We make this journey to Golgotha in our liturgical Holy Week services and in the relative safety of our lives here in America. But we can rest assured that the people of Ukraine - and other people around the world (as "wars and rumors of wars" continue to proliferate) - are experiencing a genuine "Golgotha reality," as they continue to be mercilessly assaulted by bombs and drones on a daily basis. In Ukraine, making a decision to leave one's home for a Holy Week church service can be a dangerous one. While Ukraine has proposed an "Easter truce" for next weekend, Russia has intensified its bombing of civilian targets, recently killing six civilians and wounding 40 others. President Zelensky has called this an "Easter escalation." We have yet to discover what Russia will agree to for next weekend - the "Orthodox Easter" as the press describes it. None of this killing is being tempered by a Christian consciousness, apparently. 

It must be stressed that the bombing of civilian infrastructure targets is against international laws and norms, and is essentially a war crime. This is true for any country that makes the fatal and illegal decision to bomb another country's civilian targets. We all know that "war is hell;" so to further destroy innocent civilians is to violate every norm of a civilized state. These are crimes against humanity, and no amount of misguided Christian rhetoric can hide that ugly truth. 

Holy Week reveals the great truth of divine "power" through powerlessness. That is the way of Christ, as He "empties Himself" on the road to Golgotha. That is the way that we embrace when we leave our homes and drive to the church to immerse ourselves in the intense services of Holy Week. As we chanted yesterday evening: "Let your order be contrary to that of the Gentiles ..." It is important that we remain consistent in our Christian confession of faith in Christ. What we encounter and hear in the church through the services of Holy Week, needs to taken with us into our daily lives as a vision of life that is worthy of the great name of "Christian." 

As I have written before, as we pray for peace and wait on God, apparently God is waiting on us to come to our senses and "turn" and become decent human beings. Yet, with God, "all things are possible.:

Lazarus Saturday Meditation

Source: oca.org

With epic simplicity the Gospel records that, on the coming to the scene of the horrible end of His friend, “Jesus wept” (Jn. 11:35). At this moment Lazarus, the friend of Christ, stands for all men, and Bethany is the mystical center of the world. Jesus wept as He saw the “very good” creation and its king, man, “made through Him” (Jn. 1:3) to be filled with joy, life, and light, now a burial ground in which man is sealed up in a tomb outside the city, removed from the fullness of life for which he was created, and decomposing in darkness, despair, and death. …

The time of fulfillment was at hand. Christ’s raising of Lazarus points to the destruction of death and the joy of resurrection which will be accessible to all through His own death and resurrection.

—Archpriest Paul Lazor, from the Introduction to The Feast of Palms: The Services of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday