St Basil's Liturgy: Deserving our Deepest Attention and Overwhelming Awe

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

 

During the five Sundays of Great Lent we turn to the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great for our Eucharistic celebration on the Lord's Day.  This Liturgy is used another five times during the year, two more of which are during Holy Week - Thursday and Saturday.  (The other three times are the Feasts of Nativity and Theophany, and then on St. Basil's day of commemoration, January 1).   

 

This Liturgy is known for its long(er) prayers, some of which may challenge our capacity to stand still in concentration and prayerful attention.  But what prayers!  They strike me personally as being unrivaled in our entire Tradition for their beauty of expression and the depth of their theological/spiritual content.  Even though we are hearing them in translation, that beauty and depth remain intact and shine through quite well.

Now St. Basil did not sit down and "compose" the entire Liturgy "from scratch," to use that expression.  The basic structure of the Liturgy was already an essential element of the Church's living liturgical Tradition.  However, there is every reason to believe that he is responsible for the magnificent Anaphora prayers.  These prayers reflect St. Basil's intense preoccupation with the Church's Trinitarian faith - that we worship the One God as the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the Son and the Holy Spirit being consubstantial with the Father as to their divine nature, and thus co-enthroned and co-glorified with the Father from all eternity. (St. Basil wrote a separate magnificent treatise On the Holy Spirit, demonstrating the divinity of the Holy Spirit through his knowledge of the Scriptures and the Church's liturgical Tradition). 

That belief in the Holy Trinity, though present "in the beginning" of the Church's proclamation of the Gospel, was under attack during the turbulent fourth century, with the Arian heresy and its various offshoots stirring up seemingly interminable debate and dissension. 

 

St. Basil was one of the premier exponents of the Church's faith that the one God is the Holy Trinity; and he helped establish the classical terminology of the Church in expressing that Faith:  God is one in "essence" (Gk. ousia), yet three distinct "Persons" (Gk. hypostaseis).  That terminology remains intact to this day.  The opening Anaphora Prayer, "O Existing One, Master, Lord  God, Father almighty and adorable!..." is steeped in praise and glorification of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and thus deserves our deepest attention and sense of overwhelming awe as we stand in the presence of the Holy Trinity and as we join the angelic powers in "singing, shouting, and proclaiming: Holy!  Holy!  Holy!  Lord of Sabaoth!..." 

In profound relationship to the prayers of the Liturgy revealing the Church's belief in the Holy Trinity, we find St. Basil's unrivaled expression of the divine "economy" (Gk. oikonomia) throughout. This refers to God's providential dispensation/design toward His creation - culminating in the salvation of the world - in and through the Incarnation, Death, Resurrection and Glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

 

If I were asked to present to an interested inquirer the most compelling and succinct expression of the divine economy as taught and proclaimed by the Orthodox Church, I would definitely refer this person to the long Anaphora Prayer of St. Basil's Liturgy beginning where the Thrice-holy left off:

"With these blessed powers, O Master who lovest mankind ..."  

 After praising God "for the magnificence of Thy holiness,"  we begin to prayerfully recall - and thus make present - the full extent of His providential dispensation toward the world:

"When Thou didst create man by taking dust from the earth, and didst honor him with Thine own image, O God ..."  

This long remembrance takes us through what we refer to as the "Fall," through the promises of the prophets — "foretelling to us the salvation which was to come ..."  — all the way through to the Lord's Incarnation, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and even Second Coming:

"Ascending into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of Thy majesty on high, and He will come to render to every man according to his works ..." 

Further recalling, and thus actualizing "the night in which He gave Himself up for the life of the world," this entire process will culminate with the Epiklesis, or Invocation of the Holy Spirit "to bless, to hallow and to show" that the bread and wine of our offering will "become" the Body and Blood of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.  We will then receive the Holy Gifts "for the remission of sins and unto life everlasting."

Today, the Orthodox faithful are blessed in that the prayers of St. Basil's Liturgy are read aloud so that the entire gathered assembly of believers may actually "hear" the prayers that reveal the Lord God's Trinitarian nature and the divine economy together with the consecration of the Holy Gifts.  In the past that may have not been so, and even today it is not so in all Orthodox churches.  So we thank God for our own liturgical revival which has so enlivened our contemporary worship experience with full parish participation in the Church at prayer and praise.

However, and admittedly, there is one prayer that is usually read while the choir is singing (at least that is what we do here in our parish); and that is a final prayer near the very end of the Liturgy that the priest will say while facing the Table of Preparation and the remaining Holy Communion that will eventually be consumed by the priest or deacon), and while the choir is singing "Blessed be the name of the Lord, henceforth and forevermore" three times:

The mystery of Thy dispensation, O Christ our God, has been accomplished and perfected as far as it was  in our power; for we have had the memorial of Thy death; we have seen the type of Thy Resurrection; we have been filled with Thine unending life; we have enjoyed Thine inexhaustible food; which in the world to come be well-pleased to vouchsafe to us all, through the grace of Thine eternal Father, and Thine holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.

 

This summation of the meaning, purpose and experience of the Liturgy is an "awesome" claim that perhaps may strike us in its awesomeness  even more effectively if we break the prayer down into its component parts:

• We have had the memorial of the Lord's death;
• We have seen the type of the Lord's Resurrection;
• We have been filled with the Lord's unending life;
• We have enjoyed the Lord's inexhaustible food;
• We ask to continue in this partaking in the world to come;
• All this through the grace of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

That is quite a Sunday morning experience which we so blandly describe as "going to church!"  Clearly the remainder of the day is all downhill - no matter what we do!  

 

When we begin the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great we know that we have a long road ahead of us.  That will require some patience, concentration, and a willingness to "stay with it" through to its dismissal.  If we are able to do that, then the "rewards" are inestimable.  It will also test our deepest desires about what is "the one thing needful" in our lives and what is the treasure of our hearts.  Yet, the Sundays of Great Lent are a unique opportunity to further our movement towards the Lord as we move through Great Lent and our lives toward the gladsome light of the Kingdom of God.

 

 

 

The First Day: 'My Wretched Life'

Dear Parish Faithful,

"The tendency to over-emphasize external rules about fasting in a legalistic way, and the opposite tendency to scorn these rules as outdated and unnecessary, are both alike to be deplored as a betrayal of true Orthodoxy. In both cases the proper balance between the outward and the inward has been impaired."

- "The Meaning of the Great Fast" by Archbishop Kallistos Ware

_____

This evening, we will begin the four-part Canon of Repentance by St. Andrew of Crete. The very first troparion (stanza) of those incredibly rich work begins as follows:

How shall I begin to mourn the deeds of my wretched life?

Is this just a bit "too much" when I begin to examine my own life? Is it really "wretched?" If this question comes to mind in a moment of sober reflection outside of the actual service of the Canon, then perhaps this passage for consideration from Frederica Mathews-Green may shed some light on the use of such language by St. Andrew:

"If you are unused to devotional writings of the first millennium, this initial plunge may seem bewildering. In contrast to today's emphasis on reassurance, this prayer is raw and challenging. Do you judge it too alien, or inapplicable to your situation? Consider letting it judge you, in a sense, and to allow yourself to be brought into line with an earlier attitude toward the urgency of sin. For the ancient Christians, repentance was a gift which must be sought and prayed for; it doesn't come naturally, because we are so blind to our true selves. Yet that knowledge is the only way to liberation and joy. Are you willing to ask God to help you acquire true repentance?"

- From First Fruits of Prayer - A Forty Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew, p. 4.

When I hear these words of St. Andrew, what also comes to mind is the famous Protestant hymn "Amazing Grace," and the verse in that hymn in which the author/singer confesses: "wretch that I am." Yet, before we detect too much similarity of thought here, I would claim that the basic presuppositions between the Orthodox and Protestant background to this honest confession are quite different; thus rendering the two confessions rather distinct and not open to an easy assimilation of one tradition with another. In some forms of Protestant theology/anthropology a person is born "a wretched sinner." This is the supposed effect of "original sin." Thus, from conception itself, a person is guilty before God and our very human nature is corrupt and deserving of punishment by the wrath of God. This is openly expressed in Calvinism, but also in other forms of Protestantism.

Yet, not so in Orthodoxy. For the Orthodox, we are not guilty sinners from our very conception or birth. Human nature, though marred by sin and death-bound as it is, remains good as coming from God. No one is born a guilty sinner. (And certainly no one is "predestined" to eternal punishment!) We are born into a sinful, broken and, again, death-bound world. We will eventually sin (all sin and fall short of the glory of God as the Apostle Paul teaches), and in the process disfigure our good human nature, and become a "wretch" in that very process. And it can get pretty ugly if we take a good look at the world around us.

But sin is not natural, and there is no "sin of nature." Only human persons sin, and we are then guilty of our personal sin(s). Sin, in our Orthodox understanding, is a "sickness" from which we need to be healed; not a legalistic situation of standing guilty before God the Judge deserving of punishment.

That is why that very opening troparion with which I began this meditation ends with the plea: "In Your compassion, O Christ, forgive my sins." We know that this is what God desires for us, for God desires all human beings to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Tim. 2:4).

When thinking of what we are meant to be, and what we can become by the grace of God, it is indeed liberating to confess that my deeds (as well as my words and thoughts) have led to a "wretched life" if and when I fail in that vocation. Without at all having to worry if I am one of the predestined "elect," I am confident in the merciful healing power of Christ.

So, I would emphasize that these basic presuppositions behind these seemingly similar confessions of sinfulness by both the Orthodox and the Protestants, render the meaning of each quite distinct from each other.

Preparing for Great Lent, Pt 4 - Confession and Repentance

Dear Parish Faithful,

This is Part 4 of the series, 'Preparing for Great Lent':

• Part 1: A Lenten Reading List
• Part 2: The Great Canon, and A Summary of Lent
• Part 3: A Season to Embrace or Endure?

Part 4: Confession and Repentance

Great Lent is the season in the year when most Orthodox Christians participate in the grace of sacramental Confession. And that is what I anticipate each year as I get ready for the start of Great Lent next Monday, March 2. 

For more than a few of you reading this letter, I can probably say, "It's about time." What I mean is that it has been at least a year since some of you have come to Confession. If you are a communicant, that is, if you receive the Eucharist with any kind of regularity, then that is simply too long of a period to continue to approach the Chalice. If Great Lent is called a "School of Repentance," then that repentance is most fully-realized in an honest and heartfelt confession of sins. In a sense, we could say that sacramental Confession is the "crown" of the lenten season, in that it is in that context of standing before the Icon of Christ, that we have the opportunity to openly acknowledge our sins before God. And this is an "opportunity" that we should avail ourselves of, as God's grace in immeasurable, and always readily available when we turn to God in a spirit of humility and repentance. No one can plead, "I am too busy." You simply have to find the time and attend to what we somewhat misleadingly refer to as our "spiritual life."

On the pastoral level, hearing the steady stream of confessions throughout the forty days of Great Lent has become my greatest challenge, simply on the level of "finding the time" to work everyone in, including all of our Confession age-appropriate children. 

Children, by the way, usually begins to come to Confession by the age of seven. Some children are quite ready by that age, others may need a bit more time. It is my humble opinion as a priest for almost forty years now, that you are not sparing your children from anything "bad;" but actually keeping them from something "good" when you hold them back from sacramental Confession. 

When children confess their sins, a deep sense of right and wrong. good and bad, is reinforced in a spiritually-healthy manner. Therefore, as I have been doing for a few years now at least, I will reserve every Saturday morning as a time to hear confessions between 9:00 a.m. - Noon. (We do have a Memorial Liturgy on the Second Saturday of Great Lent, March 14, so that may prove to be an exception). So, please plan ahead and contact me to reserve a slot on one of those available Saturdays.

Before each person's confession I read the following exhortation found in our Prayer Book that very succinctly captures the meaning and purpose of Confession:

Behold, Christ stands invisibly before you to hear your confession. Be not ashamed, neither be afraid, and hide nothing from me. Rather, do not fear to tell me all that you have done, so that you may receive forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, his icon is before us. And I am only the witness, that I may bear witness before him of all that you tell me. If you hide anything from me, you shall have the greater sin. Take heed, therefore, lest having come to the place of the Physician, you depart unhealed.

Two closing notes:

1) Please keep the following in mind: If about half the parish waits until the last week or so, then it becomes very difficult to "fit" everyone in.
And 2) if you choose to see another priest for sacramental Confession, please inform me of this.

Preparing for Great Lent, Part 3

Dear Parish Faithful,

Great Lent: A Season To Embrace or To Endure?

See also in this Preparing for Great Lent series:

• Part 1: A Lenten Reading List
• Part 2: The Great Canon, and A Summary of Lent
• Part 4: Confession and Repentance

With the beginning of Great Lent this coming Monday, we will face the challenge of embracing the fast with a sense of expectation and spiritual "eagerness;" or of simply enduring the long six weeks with a minimal amount of lifestyle changes. In fact, we could ask ourselves: Are we going to be (or try to be) "lenten maximalists" or "lenten minimalists?" The former at least opens the door to the possibility of spiritual renewal, but the latter will leave us enclosed in the status quo. Attitude is a key factor in all of this. As Jesus taught: "But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face... " (Matt. 6:17).

Great Lent offers the possibility of emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing as we make the effort to restore/recover our relationship with God and with our neighbors. Here is the opportunity to recover our true humanity as we draw closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.

Our "neighbors," by the way, are right in our own homes, as we begin with our immediate family; extend that to our parish family; and then beyond to the human family of our everyday world and encounters. This is why we use the term the "Lenten Spring" as we thaw out our cold hearts with the warmth of the Grace of God by allowing that grace to enter into our hearts in order to transform us. Great Lent affords us the opportunity of liberating ourselves from the spiritually ossifying effects of frozen patterns of living, and even of "bad habits," so that we can recover the Gospel-oriented life that Christ promises us. This can be an initially painful process, as all change - even for the better - takes us out of our comfort zones. But as the saying has it: "No pain - no gain."

Therefore, I encourage everyone to "redeem the time" during these sacred forty days. May our many lenten practices - beginning with prayer, alsmsgiving and fasting - be the outward signs of our inward repentance as we return from a "far country" into the embrace of our loving heavenly Father.

Forgiveness Vespers

This return journey to God begins with our willingness and capacity to forgive others, as God has forgiven us. We will hear this teaching of Christ in Sunday's Gospel. Following the Liturgy and some refreshments, we return to the church for the service of Forgiveness Vespers. This is a long-standing tradition in our parish as it is in most Orthodox parishes.

What is unique and special about this service?

It is the Rite of Forgiveness that is the climax of the service, but the beginning of our lenten efforts. What does this rite entail? Starting with me as the parish priest, and then with our deacons, we basically form a line and approach one another asking for, and then extending, mutual forgiveness to one another. We do this by making a bow at the waist before one another, accompanied by the words, "forgive me," with the response "God forgives." We then exchange the "kiss of peace" - the same "three-cheek" kiss as on Pascha - and then move on to the next person. (As we are doing this, the Paschal Canon is being chanted in anticipation of our final destination for Great Lent). Before we are done, every person has come before every other person in seeking and granting mutual forgiveness.

Every face-to-face encounter with another person is always challenging. One more lenten practice that removes us from the safety of our comfort zones. It takes a certain humility and courage to participate, as we open ourselves up to the next person, hopefully with sincerity. Over the years, many parishioners remain for this important service and rite. Hopefully, that will continue this year.

I hope and pray that everyone enjoys a blessed Great Lent as we move toward the Feast of Feasts - Pascha - and our celebration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ!

Lives Worth Judging

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

As we draw closer to the beginning of Great Lent – at least for Orthodox Christians – we are able to set our Lenten efforts against the background of the Last Judgment, thus giving us the “big picture” within which we live our lives and determine our personal destinies.

The Gospel read at the Eucharistic Liturgy just this last Sunday was that of the Parable of the Last Judgment (MATT. 25:31-46). Therefore, the second Sunday before Great Lent is also called the Sunday of the Last Judgment. In highly symbolic form and with awesome imagery, the Lord speaks of His own Parousia as the glorified Son of man at the end of time and reveals to us that this will be a time of judgment. And this judgment will lead to separation.

The “sheep” (the saved) will be placed on the right hand, and the “goats” (the lost) on the left hand of the eternal Throne of God. This, in turn, will reveal the “quality” of our lives, though not in the way in which we today use the term “quality of life.” We will be confronted with the question as to how well we served the Lord by how well we served the “least” of His brethren: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brethren, you did it to me” (MATT. 25:40).

These least are the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner. How many of us have to admit that these are precisely the people that we neglect? The fact that society removes such people from our sight does not offer a very reassuring excuse for our neglect. It simply make it more convenient and less troubling for our consciences. Sadly, this may point to one of the most glaring of “disconnects” between the Gospel and our Christian lives, expressed in the following hymn:

Why do you not think of the fearful hour of death? Why do you not tremble at the dread judgment seat of the Savior? What defense then will you make, or what will you answer? Your works will be there to accuse you; your actions will reproach you and condemn you. O my soul, the time is near at hand; make haste before it is too late, and cry aloud in faith: 'I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned against you; but I know your love for humanity and Your compassion. O good Shepherd deprive me not of a place at Your right hand in Your great glory'. (Vespers, Sunday of the Last Judgment)

I, for one, am not ready to dismiss this hymn as excessively rhetorical, overly pessimistic, or unfairly harsh in its outlook. It is rather a sober and honest plea calling us to repentance and the re-direction of our lives. It further reminds us that it is never too late. And that the Good Shepherd will place us upon His shoulders to the accompaniment of rejoicing angels in heaven over our repentance.

“God is love” (I JN. 4:8). And yet God is demanding. If God “so loved the world that He gave His only Son” to die on the Cross for our redemption, then God expects us to approach and treat others with the same love. This is a love expressed in action and in giving, and is not to be confused with emotions or feelings.

We are all outcasts and alienated from God based upon the primordial sin of Adam, and yet God did not forget us or abandon us. “You were bought with a price” (I COR. 6:20). If we are indeed to “imitate the divine nature” as St. Gregory of Nyssa taught, then we could convincingly say that God expects us to “perform” according to the full capacity of our human nature made in the “image and likeness of God.” All the more plausible and possible because our fallen human nature has been renewed in and through the Death and Resurrection of Christ. Our rescue from a condition of “ontological poverty” is meant to arouse in us a desire to rescue “the least of these” from the impoverishing conditions of a fallen world.

Simultaneously with the external history of our lives there is occurring the internal history of our hearts. The outer life is more readily open to being accurately recorded, from the date of our birth to the date of our death and the significant events in between that make up our personal histories. What is happening within our hearts is far more difficult to record, because the human heart is deep and mysterious.

Yet the prophecy of the Last Judgment, testing the direction of our hearts, raises some very real questions: On what we call the “spiritual level,” is our heart expanding or contracting? Is it growing larger or smaller? Is it becoming more generous or more grasping? Is it letting the neighbor in, or keeping the neighbor out? Is it, as the years move inexorably forward, embracing God and neighbor, or is it shrinking in self-protection? These are questions to explore as we move into the Lenten season.

If our lives are worth living, then they are worthy of being judged. Our deeds, words and thoughts are significant because we must answer for them before a God who is love. Since God loves us and saves us, God will also judge us, though our judgment is actually self-inflicted and not imposed on us as a punishment. In a wonderful article entitled “On Preaching Judgment,” Fr. John Breck put it this way:

Judgment is indeed self-inflicted. God offers us life, and we choose death. He opens us the way into the Kingdom of Heaven, and we continue down our own pathway, which leads to destruction. Yet like the father of the prodigal son, God pursues us along that pathway, desiring only that we repent and return home. It is our decision to do so or not. (God With Us, p. 230)

In a bleak and cold universe absent of the presence of God and governed by immutable “laws of nature,” there is no judgment. But what does that say about the significance of our lives?

Enter not into judgment with me, bringing before me the things I should have done, examining my words and correcting my impulses. But in your mercy overlook my sins and save me, O Lord almighty.(Matins Canon of the Sunday of the Last Judgment, Canticle One)