The 'Immovable Bookends' of the Paschal Season

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

It strikes me that two of our significant Sunday Liturgies during the year are both immediately followed by a Vespers Service that most of the parish stays for. I am referring to the service of Forgiveness Vespers and the Vespers of Pentecost. 

The first of these two is on the eve of Great Lent and actually inaugurates the lenten season. In addition to the "lenten" tone of Forgiveness Vespers - with the all-important Rite of Forgiveness attached at the end - we also hear the chanting of the joyous paschal canon so that we are reminded of this long journey's destination. And the Vespers of Pentecost - though praising and glorifying the Holy Spirit through some truly inspired hymnography - highlights the Kneeling Prayers in which we beg God to forgive our many sins:

Thou art our God, but since our days have passed in vanity, we have been deprived of every defense. But emboldened by Thy compassions, we call out: Remember not the sins of our youth and our ignorance and cleanse Thou us of our secret sins, cast us not away in time of old age; when our strength fails, forsake us not.

There are seven weeks - or a "week of weeks" - from Forgiveness Vespers to Pascha; and then another seven weeks - or "week of weeks" - from Pascha to Pentecost. All together, a substantial portion of the liturgical year. Thus, these two unique Vespers services are like immovable "bookends" that hold our lives together in a kind of "holy stability" as we journey from Great Lent, through Holy Week and Pascha, to the "last day of the Feast" - Pentecost.

In the first stikhera for Pentecost, at Great Vespers, we sing "How noble and awesome is this great mystery!" Do we encounter anything in today's world that is "noble and awesome?" There is either misery and cynicism; or entertainment and escapism. We seem to be surrounded by a sea of lies emanating from politicians or con artists, and we seek refuge from this wherever we can find it. And that refuge may be found only in the bosom of our homes and families; or with the closest of friends. (There is a great deal that is "noble and awesome" in the natural world that surrounds us, but we may have to look up and around outside of our pressing interior thoughts to discover that God-created majesty). The overall effort, however, can be to reduce what is "noble and awesome" to a naive, even archaic phrase that no longer conforms to reality.

But not so in the Church. Pentecost is precisely a "noble and awesome and great mystery." It is the coming of the Holy Spirit, "the Comforter and Spirit of Truth." It may take a conscious effort "to lay aside all earthly cares" to discover it, but as an old saying has it: it is hidden within plain sight. We only need an open mind and heart and interior eyes that we can "see" with.

We have seen the true Light! We have received the Holy Spirit! We have found the true Faith! Worshiping the undivided Trinity, who has saved us.