Mystagogic Catechesis 5
MYSTAGOGIC CATECHESIS 5
Reading: 1 Peter 2.1ff: ‘Therefore setting aside all evil and guile and slander…’
1 By God's goodness you have heard in the previous meetings all you needed to know about baptism, the anointing with chrism, and the partaking of Christ's body and blood. Now I must move on to what comes next, and today I shall set the coping-stone that is needed on the spiritual building.
2 So you saw the deacon giving water for washing to the bishop and to the presbyters standing round God's altar. Of course, the deacon wasn't doing this because of any dirt on their bodies; that was not the reason: we didn't enter the church with dirt on our bodies in the first place. The washing was a symbol of our need to be cleansed of all our sins and transgressions. Since our hands stand for our actions, in washing them we are clearly symbolizing purity and blamelessness of action. Surely you heard blessed David's explanation of this rite: ‘I shall wash my hands among the innocent, and walk around your altar, Lord’ (Ps 25 (26).6 (LXX)). So to wash one's hands means not to be guilty of any sins.
3 Then the deacon calls out: ‘Greet one another; let us kiss one another.’ Don't take this kiss to be like the kiss friends exchange when they meet in the market-place. This is something different; this kiss expresses a union of souls and is a plea for complete reconciliation. The kiss then is a sign that our souls are united and all grudges banished. This is what our Lord meant when he said: ‘If you are offering your gift on the altar and remember there that your brother has a complaint against you, leave your gift on the altar and go first and be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift’ (Mt 5.23–4). Thus the kiss is reconciliation, and so is holy, as blessed Paul implied when he proclaimed: ‘Greet one another with a holy kiss’; and Peter: ‘Greet one another with the kiss of charity.’
4 After this the bishop calls out: ‘Lift up your hearts.’ For indeed at this most awesome hour we ought to hold our hearts up to God and not keep them down below involved with the earth and earthly things. In effect then the bishop is telling you all at this moment to lay aside the cares of this life and domestic worries and hold your hearts up to the loving God in heaven.
Then you reply: ‘We hold them up to the Lord’, acknowledging by these words that you accept the bishop's instruction. Let no one present be disposed to say with their lips: ‘We hold them up to the Lord’, while in their thoughts keeping their mind involved with earthly cares. You should then keep God in mind at all times; but if human weakness makes this impossible, at least at this moment you should make this your ideal.
5 Then the bishop says: ‘Let us give thanks to the Lord.’ We should indeed thank him for calling us to so great a grace when we were unworthy, for reconciling us when we were his enemies, for granting us the privilege of receiving the ‘Spirit of adoption’ (Rom 8.15). Then you say: ‘It is worthy and just.’ For when we give thanks we perform a worthy and just action; but our Benefactor did not do what was just but what was more than just when he chose us to receive such great favours.
6 After this we call to mind heaven, the earth, the sea, the sun and the moon, the stars, every creature both rational and irrational, visible and invisible, the Angels, the Archangels, the Dominions, the Principalities, the Powers, the Thrones and the many-faced Cherubim, saying in effect with David: ‘Bless the Lord with me’ (Ps 33.4 (34.3)). We also call to mind the Seraphim, whom Isaiah was inspired by the Holy Spirit to see standing round God's throne, using two wings to cover his face, two his feet, and two to fly, saying all the time: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth.’ For the reason why we recite this doxology which the Seraphim taught us is to share in the singing of the celestial armies.
7 Then, when we have sanctified ourselves through these spiritual hymns, we call upon the God who loves mankind to send down the Holy Spirit on the offerings so as to make the bread Christ's body and the wine Christ's blood, for whatever the Holy Spirit touches is made holy and transformed.
8 Then, after the completion of the spiritual sacrifice, the worship without blood, we call upon God over this sacrifice of propitiation for the peace of all the churches, the stability of the world, for kings, for our armies and allies, for the sick and the suffering, and in short for all who need help, and in intercession we all offer this sacrifice.
9 Then we commemorate those who have gone to their rest, first of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs, so that God may receive our petitions in answer to their prayers and intercessions. Then we pray for our holy ancestors and bishops who have gone to their rest, and in general for all who have gone to their rest before us, for we believe that great benefit will result for the souls for whom prayer is offered when the holy and most awesome sacrifice lies on the altar.
10 I would like to use a comparison to convince you of the truth of this. I know many people say: ‘What good does it do for a soul to be commemorated in the offering once it has departed from this world, with or without sins?’ Well then, suppose a king had banished some citizens who had offended him, and then their friends wove a garland and presented it to the king on behalf of the exiles. Wouldn't he grant them a remission of their punishment? In the same way, when we offer our petitions to God on behalf of the departed, even if they were sinners, instead of weaving a garland we offer Christ who was immolated for our sins, and thus, on their behalf and our own, we propitiate the God who loves mankind.
11 Then after this you make the prayer which the Saviour taught his own disciples. With a clear conscience you name God as Father saying: ‘Our Father who art in the heavens.’ How great is God's love for mankind! Those who have recoiled from him and lie in the worst of plights are given so generous a pardon for their crimes and a gift of grace that he allows them to call him ‘Father’. Our Father, who art in the heavens. One could take the ‘heavens’ to refer to those who bear the image of the heavenly man, those among whom God dwells and walks (cf. 1 Cor 15.49; Lev 26.11–12; Ezek 37.27).
12 ‘Hallowed be thy name.’ God's name is holy of itself, whether we say so or not. However, since his name is sometimes profaned among sinners, according to the text: ‘Through you my name is everywhere profaned among the gentiles’ (Is 52.5; Rom 2.24), we pray that God's name may be hallowed among us. Not that his name used not to be holy and has now become holy; it becomes holy in us when we become holy and act in a way that is worthy of our sanctification.
13 ‘Thy kingdom come.’ Only a pure soul can say ‘Thy kingdom come’ unreservedly. For only if we have paid attention to Paul's words: ‘So do not allow sin to reign in your mortal body’, and purify ourselves in deed and thought and word, will we be able to say to God: ‘Thy kingdom come.’
14 ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ God's sacred and blessed angels do his will, as David said in the psalm: ‘Bless the Lord, all you his angels, powerful and strong, who carry out his word’ (Ps 102 (103).20). So when you make this prayer you are in effect saying: ‘May your will be done in me on earth, Lord, as it is among the angels.’
15 ‘Give us this day our substantial bread.’ The ordinary bread we know is not substantial; but this holy bread is substantial in the sense that it is assimilated by the substance of the soul. This bread does not go down into the belly to be discharged into the privy; it is distributed throughout your whole constitution to the benefit of soul as well as body. ‘This day’ stands for ‘every day’, in accordance with Paul's saying: ‘as long as there is a today to be named’ (Heb 3.13).
16 ‘And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ We have many sins, for we stumble in word and in thought, and many of our deeds deserve condemnation. ‘And if we say that we have no sin, we lie’, as John says (1 Jn 1.8). So we make an agreement with God, requesting him to pardon our sins as we forgive our neighbours’ debts. So remembering how much we receive and how little we offer in return, let us forgive one another without delay or procrastination. The offences offered to us are slight and trivial and easily righted, but the offences we offer God are serious, and we must simply rely on his good will. So be careful not to debar yourself from receiving God's pardon for your serious sins because of the slight and trivial wrongs which you have suffered yourself.
17 ‘And lead us not into temptation’, Lord. Do the Lord's words teach us to pray not to be tempted in any way? What do other passages say? ‘A man who is not tempted is not tested’; and again, ‘Count it all joy, brethren, when you meet with many kinds of temptation’ (James 1.2). But it seems to me that to enter into temptation is not the same as to be drowned by temptation. For temptation is like a torrent which is hard to cross. Those who are not drowned in temptations get across because they are the best swimmers and are not dragged under; but those who go into the water without the same ability are drowned, just as, to give an example, Judas fell into the temptation of avarice and was unable to swim across, but was drowned both bodily and spiritually, and suffocated. Peter on the other hand fell into the temptation of denial, but though he fell into it, he was not drowned but swam across manfully and escaped from the temptation.
Listen to another passage speaking of the chorus of saints who have come through unscathed and give thanks for their release from temptation: ‘You have tested us, O Lord, and tried us in the fire like silver; you have led us into the trap. You have loaded our backs with afflictions and raised men over our heads. We passed through fire and water, and you brought us out to a place of rest’ (Ps 65 (66). 10–12). Did you notice how confidently they spoke about crossing without being snared? ‘And you brought us out to a place of rest.’ To come to a place of rest means to be rescued from temptation.
18 ‘But deliver us from the Evil One.’ If the prayer ‘lead us not into temptation’ ensured that we would not be tempted in any way, he would not have said: ‘But deliver us from the Evil One.’ The Evil One is the demon ranged against us, from whom we pray to be delivered.
Then after the completion of the prayer you say ‘Amen’, sealing the prayer which God taught us with the word ‘Amen’, which means ‘Let it be so’.
19 After this the bishop says: ‘Holy things for the holy.’ The offerings are holy, because they have received the descent of the Holy Spirit, and you are holy too because you have been granted the Holy Spirit; thus the holy things are appropriate for holy people. Then you say: ‘One is holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ.’ For truly there is one who is holy, holy by nature; for though we are holy, we are not so by nature, but by participation and discipline and prayer.
20 After this you hear the cantor to a sacred melody encouraging you to receive the holy mysteries. ‘Taste and see’, he sings, ‘the goodness of the Lord’ (Ps 33.9 (34.8)). Do not rely on the judgment of your physical throat but on that of unhesitating faith. For what you taste is not bread and wine but Christ's body and blood, which they symbolize.
21 So when you approach do not come with your wrists extended or your fingers parted. Make your left hand a throne for your right, which is about to receive the King, and receive Christ's body in the hollow of your hand, replying ‘Amen’. Before you consume it, carefully bless your eyes with the touch of the holy body, watching not to lose any part of it; for if you do lose any of it, it is as if it were part of your own body that is being lost. Tell me, if someone gave you some golden filings, wouldn't you keep them safe and take care not to incur a loss through mislaying any of them? So shouldn't you take much greater care not to drop any crumbs of what is more precious than gold or gems?
22 Then after receiving Christ's body, approach the cup of his blood. Do not stretch out your hands; bow down, say ‘Amen’ as a form of worship or adoration, and sanctify yourself by partaking of Christ's blood. While your lips are still moist, touch them lightly with your hands and bless your eyes, your forehead and your other senses. Then as you wait for the prayer, thank God for admitting you to these great mysteries.
23 Preserve these traditions inviolate and keep yourselves free from offence. Do not debar yourselves from communion, and do not deprive yourselves of these holy and spiritual mysteries by incurring the stain of sin.
‘May the God of peace sanctify you wholly, and may your body and your soul and your spirit be kept unscathed at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Thess 5.23), to whom is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.