Great & Holy Friday Mediation -- It is Finished (τετελεσται)

 

Source: oca.org

With his death, all that was involved in his earthly ministry was complete: becoming incarnate, growing from infancy to adulthood, the calling of disciples, the constant teaching, preaching and healing of thousands, his instruction to the Twelve, patiently enduring the debates, arguments, opposition, and accusations of the religious authorities, his institution of the Eucharist, the betrayal, the arrest, the trials, the beatings, the scourging, the mocking, the humiliation, and lastly the excruciating pain of the crucifixion itself. It was over. It was accomplished. His work was done, complete to perfection, exactly according to plan. He had achieved his goal:Tetelestai.

Eugenia Constantinou, The Crucifixion of the King of Glory, p. 284

Great & Holy Friday Meditation -- The Tearing of the Veil

 

Source: goarch.org

Hebrews 10 explains that since Christ has offered himself as a sacrifice, we now have confidence to enter the sanctuary,"by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain (katapetasma), that is, through his flesh" (Heb. 10:20). In that verse, Hebrews is telling us that the curtain is the flesh of Christ, through which we enter the sanctuary - the place of intimate encounter with God. It is this flesh, which he assumed as God for our salvation, that was torn and hanging on the cross. Through the breaking of the body of Christ, the tearing of the veil of his flesh, the sacred, the divine, is opened to us. This happened, not because someone had to pay for sin but because God loved the world and chose the cross to graphically demonstrate that his love is without limits. We directly participate in the life of God, because Christ was incarnate, and through the sacrament of Holy Communion we physically commune and dwell with him and he in us.The depth of meaning is profound and inexpressible.

Eugenia Constantinou, The Crucifixion of the King of Glory

Great & Holy Friday Meditation

Source: legacyicons.com

Today our Lord Jesus Christ is on the cross, and we celebrate the festival, so that you may learn that the cross is a festival and a spiritual celebration. For previously the cross was a name of condemnation, but now it has become a thing of honor; previously a sign of sentencing, but now the basis of salvation. …

Not from the cross alone, but also from the very sayings on the cross can one see His unspeakable love of humanity. For even while He was nailed, made into a joke, and ridiculed, at the time He said: Father, forgive them the sin, for they do not know what they are doing. Even while being crucified He prays for those who crucified. … 

Hence, so that we also may enjoy His love of humanity, let us not be ashamed to confess our own sins fully. … For behold this person also confessed fully, and he found paradise opened. 

Whence, tell me, O bandit, were you reminded of a kingdom? … Nails and cross are visible, and accusations of jests and insults. “Yes,” he says, “for the cross itself seems to me to be a sign of a kingdom. For this reason I call Him king, because I see Him crucified. For it belongs to a king to die on behalf of those ruled. … Therefore, because He has laid down His soul, for this reason I call Him king: Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your kingdom.”

—St. John Chrysostom, On the Cross and the Bandit, as found in Behold the Thief with the Eyes of Faith

Great & Friday Mediation from Sister Vassa -- MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY…?

“And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Elo-i, Elo-i, lama sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ And some of the bystanders hearing it said, ‘Behold, he is calling Elijah.’ And one ran and, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’ And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (Mk 15: 33-39)

Centuries before the events of this Holy and Great Friday, when the All-powerful became powerless, and the Life-Giver died, the Prophet Isaiah explained that “we” were the ones “ in trouble,” and not Him, even while those who had Him crucified believed He was disrupting “ our peace.” But He took our “trouble” and false “peace” upon Himself, in order to expose it, and vanquish it, in Him: “ He bears our sins,” Isaiah proclaims, “ and is pained for us: yet we accounted him to be in trouble, and in suffering, and in affliction. But he was wounded on account of our sins, and was bruised because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace(παιδεία εἰρήνης ἡμῶν) was upon him; and by his wounds we were healed.” (Is 53: 4-5)

As I weep today, with the Church, beholding the crucifixion, abandonment, and death of our Lord many Fridays ago, I remember that He takes all our darkness upon Himself wilfully, in order to bring us out of it into new Life and new Light, with Him and in Him. He takes on our derision, anger, cruelty, despair, and injustice, – so we no longer need to unleash those things on one another, nor upon ourselves. “ For God so loved the world.” (Jn 3: 16) Glory be to Him.

Fragments for Friday

Source: legacyicons.com

 Here are two deeply insightful passages from two of my former professors at St. Vladimir's Seminary during my three years there: Frs. Alexander Schmemann and Paul Lazor. In my final year, I served Holy Week and Pascha with them both in the old seminary chapel. Quite an unforgettable experience!

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"The Orthodox Church never loses sight of the universal significance of the Passion of Christ. The glorification of the wounds, the bloodshed and the tortured agony experienced by Christ does not find its origins in a simple awe before human suffering. Beyond the scene of the human suffering of Christ is the reality of His work for the redemption of all men. He is the God-man. He does what no human being alone can do. He takes upon Himself the sin of the all and shatters its power. He suffers and dies for all in order that all might be able to pass through and find new hope in the agonies of suffering and death. ... Christ suffered and died not for the sake of some vague "human mass," but for unique human persons - for you and me. In this fact lies the hope and joy of each Christian."

Archpriest Paul Lazor

"Christ freely accepts death; of His life He says that "no man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself." (Jn. 10:18) He does it not without a fight: "and He began to be sorrowful and very heavy." (Matt. 26:27) Here is fulfilled the measure of His obedience and, therefore, here is the destruction of the moral root of death, of death as the ransom for sin. The whole life of Jesus is in God as every human life ought to be, and it is this fullness of Life, this life full of meaning and content, full of God, that overcomes death, destroys its power. For death is, above all, a lack of life, a destruction of life that has cut itself off from its only source. And because Christ's death is a movement of love towards God, an act of obedience and trust, of faith and perfection - it is an act of life (Father! Into Thy hands I commend my spirit - Lk. 23:46) which destroys death. It is the death of death itself."

Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann