LET US DRAW NEAR TOGETHER IN OUR HEARTS

The words of the faithful immediately after receiving the Body and Blood of Christ during the Divine Liturgy are: “We have seen the true Light! We have received the Heavenly Spirit! We have found the true Faith!  Therefore, let us praise the Undivided Trinity Who has saved us!”  We sing this stichera (verse) at every Divine Liturgy.  But, what does it mean?  We know that light is necessary for our physical survival in this world.  But is the light to which we refer merely physical light that we can see or a much deeper reality?  St. Gregory Palamas, the father of Hesychasm,  speaks of the vision of light as the “uncreated energies of the Holy Spirit,” the “garment of deification.”  The vision of the uncreated Light is union with God.  Union is communion and this communion offers knowledge of God.

God, the eternal Other, is beyond space and time.  In His love, He created the world out of nothingness.  Union with God is what is life.  Even though we live within the bounds of space and time, we have the opportunity now to embrace this true light.  In doing so, we enter into a never-ending relationship with God.  Of course, we can never really fully know God in Himself, just as we can never fully know other persons.  This relationship formally begins at our baptism.  However, with any relationship, we must nurture it in order for it to grow.  We have the opportunity to do so throughout our lives within the community of the Church.  The Divine Liturgy, in particular, is replete with the opportunity to know God, to enter into this never- ending relationship with God, to glimpse into the energies of God and receive not only knowledge of His presence, but nourishment for our souls.  “What is liturgy?”  In its basic terms, liturgy can be thought of as “a living tradition that provides the means by which we actively unite in celebrating the sacred mysteries of life and our faith. Liturgy constitutes the Church, it shapes it and sustains it, it is at the heart of the Church. Without the Liturgy there could be no Church!

The Liturgy is context. By it, we actively unite and become Church, the community of believers. This is why we sing after Communion: “We have seen the true light!  We have received the Heavenly Spirit!  We have found the true faith!  Therefore, let us worship the undivided Trinity who has saved us.”  The English holy one, St. Bede the Venerable puts it clearly:  “Whenever we enter the church and draw near to the heavenly mysteries, we ought to approach with all humility and fear, both because of the presence of the angelic powers and out of the reverence due to the sacred Eucharist; for as the Angels are said to have stood by the Lord’s body when it lay in the tomb, so we must believe that they are present in the celebration of the Divine Mysteries.”
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This can be seen in the original Entrance prayer of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom that was said as both the clergy and the people entered the church (building) as the ‘C’hurch.  A similar entrance prayer is said in most early liturgies, including the Liturgy of St James. It reads  “Benefactor and Creator of all creation, receive the Church which is advancing [together], accomplish what is good for each one: bring all to perfection, make us worthy of your Kingdom; by the grace and mercy and love for [us] of your only-begotten Son, with whom you are blessed, together with your holy good and life-giving Spirit, now and always. Today, we have retained only a remnant of this prayer (and an alternate prayer)-known as the “Little Entrance.”)

Liturgy is catechetical.  The Divine Liturgy is the foundation of and gives shape to all Orthodox theology. It is an opportunity to learn and grow in our knowledge about and relationship with God-to get a taste of this Kingdom to which the entrance prayer refers-from our experience.  This opportunity is available to us on both the vertical (i.e. personal-“me and God”) and horizontal (i.e. communal-“me and God through my neighbor”-our relationships with others) levels, as well as through the Church community throughout the ages, what we call the revelation of Scripture and Holy Tradition.  We do not know God generally.  We know Him by how he has revealed Himself to us.  The Anaphora of the Liturgy, or the narrative that lays open the saving work of God and includes the consecration of the bread and wine, teaches us. As the liturgist Hugh Wybrew says in his book on the Orthodox Liturgy: “The conscious, reasoning mind must be involved in worship.  But so must the senses and the emotions, and all that lies beneath the reasoning surface of human beings, for worship should draw into its Godward movement and penetrate with God’s sanctifying grace, the whole person.

The liturgy is formative.  It builds faith and forms identity, both individual and community.  It helps to form us as persons-those in relationship-in this world and informs our worldview.  In turn, we help to form our children.  It is the primary way by which the Church’s faith (the Church’s theology-how we understand our experience of the revelation of God-and praxis) is passed on from one generation to the next. Our faith is transmitted through our worship.  As Bishop Nazarii of Nizhnii said during the liturgical reform movement in Russia at the turn of the 20^th century,

“The Orthodox faith is acquired, strengthened, and maintained chiefly by means of liturgical worship.  Liturgical worship is properly considered to be the best school for teaching faith and morals, for it acts abundantly and salutarily on all the powers and capacities of the soul.  But if worship is to accomplish all this, then all the faithful must participate in it directly, consciously, and actively.” Liturgy shapes our soul as St. Gregory Nazianzus writes: “Without shame and without doubt, eat and drink the flesh and blood of Christ if you are desirous of true life.” The Liturgy satisfies our ultimate desire.

Ultimately, liturgy is transformative.  It is a privileged space where the grace of God is communicated to us.   The Divine Liturgy, in particular, is the sacramental actualization of God’s presence in the world-the most intimate union with Christ and with one another. This indwelling can have a transformative effect on our lives.  Christ, as both God and human, is the unity of the uncreated with the created, the bridge from the created world to God. He is the archetype of the true human person.  As St. Athanasius says: “God became [a human person] so that we may become god.”

As we pray in isolation during these days of sickness and anxiety, days of the unknown – let us draw together though apart.  Let us participate in the live-streaming of the Holy Mystery and let our prayer life during these days prepare us for that sacrifice of wonder and awe.  Let us think about these reflections and realize that without the Divine Liturgy, there is and can be no Church. This is the reason that St. John Chrysostom, author of one of the Church’s liturgies, can write: “You cannot pray at home, like you can at church, where there is a great multitude; where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the unions of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of priests.”  Let us look forward to that day when we shall be together again around the Holy Altar to praise God and to partake of the Bread of Life and the Cup of Eternal Salvation.

May what occurs on the Holy Altar come into your hearts and remain forever!

Fr. Dimitrios