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Synopsis of this Chapter
We must first of all realise
that we perform a sacrifice of which we eat, and that it is the office of the
priest of the New Testament to offer this sacrifice, as it is through it that
the New Covenant appears to be maintained. We must think that the priest who now
draws near to the altar performs the image of the (heavenly) sacrifice, and we
must also think that the deacons represent the image of the service of the
invisible hosts. They have an apparel which is consonant with their office,
since their outer garment is taller than they are. They place a stole on their
left shoulders, and it floats on either side equally.
We must think of Christ
being at one time led and brought to His Passion, and at another time being
stretched on the altar to be sacrificed for us. This is the reason why those
deacons who spread linens on the altar represent the figure of the linen clothes
of the burial (of our Lord), while those who stand on both sides (of the altar)
agitate all the air found upon the holy body with fans. These things take place
while everybody is silent, then comes prayer —not a silent prayer—announced
beforehand in the loud voice of the deacon. When everyone is silent the priest
begins with the appointed service.
And the priest finishes his
prayer, after which he offers thanksgivings for himself; and all the
congregation says: "Amen." And the priest prays: "Peace he to you" and for this
the congregation answers: "And to your spirit" And the priest begins to give
peace, and the Church crier shouts and orders all to give peace one to another.
While this is taking place the priest washes his hands first, and then all those
who, whatever their number, are counted in the assembly of priesthood. Then the
names of the living and the dead are read from Church books. After this the
priest draws near to the service while the Church crier shouts: "Look at the
oblation."
It is the habit of men to wrap the newborn babes
in swaddling clothes so that a freshly constituted and still soft body may not
receive any injury, but that it should remain firm in its composition. They
first stretch and place them restfully in swaddling clothes, and then bring to
them a natural food that is fitting and suitable to them. In this same way we
have also tightly wrapped in our teaching, as in swaddling clothes, those who
were newly born of baptism so that the memory of the grace promised to them
might be firmly established in them; and we soothed them by the cessation of our
speech, because the measure of things that were said was adequate. To-day,
however, I am contemplating to draw you, by the grace of God, to the nourishment
of a bread, the nature of which you must know and the greatness of which you
must learn with accuracy.
When we shall have received the true birth
through the resurrection, you will receive another food that cannot be described
with words, and you will then be clearly fed by the grace of the Spirit whereby
you will remain immortal in your bodies and immutable in your souls. It is a
food such as this that is suitable to that birth; and the grace of the Spirit
will grant those who shall be born of the resurrection to remain firm, so that
their bodies shall not suffer dissolution and their souls shall not be affected
by any change that may incline them to evil. And because we are born now
symbolically through baptism, in the hope of that other birth which we are
expecting, we receive at present, in form of an earnest, the firstfruits of the
grace of the Holy Spirit, which will then be given to us, as we expect to
receive it fully in the next world through the resurrection. It is only after
its reception that we hope to become immortal and immutable, and it is right for
us now to eat symbolically, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, a food suitable to
the present life.
For this reason the blessed Paul said: "For as
often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do remember the Lords death
till He come." He shows that when our Lord shall come from heaven, and make
manifest the future life, and effect the resurrection of all of us—from which we
shall become immortal in our bodies and immutable in our souls—the use of
sacraments and symbols shall by necessity cease. Since we shall be in the
reality itself, we shall be in no need of visible signs to remind us of the
things that shall take place. Inasmuch as in this world we exist by two acts:
birth and food—in birth we receive our existence and in feeding ourselves we are
enabled to maintain our existence, as those who are born will surely die if they
are short of food—so also is the case with the next world, in which having been
born of resurrection we shall receive our existence, and having become immortal,
we shall continue to remain in that state.
The blessed Paul therefore said: "For we know
that if this our earthly house were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." In this world we contrive to
feed ourselves by the labour of our hands, and so we maintain our existence; but
when, at the resurrection, we have become immortal and received the heavenly
abode, we shall have no more need of this food of the labour of our hands,
because immortality, which we shall then assume, will maintain us in our
existence by the power of grace, as with food. This is the reason why the
blessed Paul calls our abode of that time "an house not made with hands, and a
building of God in heaven."
These things will, as I have said, happen to us
in the future, at the resurrection; and because we are now born in baptism
through symbols and signs, it is right for us also to take our food according to
the same symbols, so that we may be enabled to maintain the existence which we
receive from baptism. Indeed, every animal is born of another animal and feeds
on the body of the animal that brings it forth, and God has so arranged it at
the beginning, with the creatures, that every animal that brings forth possesses
food suitable to those that are born of it. In this same way it is necessary for
us, who have symbolically received the grace of God, to receive our food from
where we had our birth, and the death of Christ our Lord, when abolished by His
resurrection, showed to us the birth that will come to us in the next world
through the resurrection.
This is the reason why the blessed Paul said
also: "As many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His
death, because we were buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of His Father, even so we also
should walk in the newness of life. For if we have been planted with Him in the
likeness of His death, we shall also live in His life." He shows here that
resurrection was made manifest in the death of Christ our Lord, and that we are
buried with Him in baptism, and after we have been here partakers of His death
in faith, we shall also participate in the resurrection. As we receive birth of
baptism in the death of Christ our Lord, so also we receive food symbolically in
death. The blessed Paul bears witness to this when he says: "As often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do remember the Lord's death till He come."
He shows that in our communion and participation in the Sacrament we remember
our Lord from whom we receive resurrection and happiness of immortality. Indeed,
it is right for us who have received a sacramental birth in the death of Christ
our Lord, to receive the sacramental food of immortality in this same death, and
to feed ourselves in the future from where we had also received our birth, as it
is the habit of all the animals which are brought forth to be in a position to
feed themselves from those which bring them forth.
Our Lord also testifies to this, because in the
institution of the Sacrament He said: Take, eat, this is my body which is broken
for you for the remission of sins," and: "Take, drink, this is my blood which is
shed for you for the remission of sins." He said this because in His death He
gave us the next world in which there will be abolition of all sins. As to us it
is right for us to perform symbolically the remembrance of His death by our
participation in the Sacrament, from which we derive the possession of the
future benefits and the abolition of sins. The food of the holy Sacrament
possesses such a power, and fits the birth of those who eat it. Indeed, as in
this world we take the spiritual food in signs and symbols, it is necessary that
the nature of these signs and symbols should fit our present condition in which
we take the symbolical food.
As we received the second birth in water, which
is useful and necessary to life in this world—so much so that we are not even
able to make bread without water—so also we take our food in bread and in wine
mixed with water, as they eminently fit this life and sustain us to live in it.
As we are sufficiently enabled to maintain ourselves in this life, and to remain
in it by necessity through the suitable symbols of that spiritual food which
shall be ours, let us think in our mind that it is from this food that we are
expecting to become immortal and remain for ever. These are the things in the
hope of which we partake of this holy food of the Sacrament.
Indeed, He (our Lord) gave us the bread and the
cup because it is with food and drink that we maintain ourselves in this world,
and He called the bread "body" and the cup "blood," because, as it was His
Passion that affected His body which it tormented and from which it caused blood
to flow, He wished to reveal, by means of these two objects through which His
Passion was accomplished, and also in the symbol of food and drink, the immortal
life, in which we expect to participate when we perform this Sacrament from
which we believe to derive a strong hope for the future benefits. It is with
justice, therefore, that when He gave the bread He did not say: "This is the
symbol of my body," but: "This is my body"; likewise when He gave the cup He did
not say: "This is the symbol of my blood" but: "This is my blood," because He
wished us to look upon these (elements) after their reception of grace and the
coming of the Spirit, not according to their nature, but to receive them as if
they were the body and the blood of our Lord. Indeed, even the body of our Lord
does not possess immortality and the power of bestowing immortality in its own
nature, as this was given to it by the Holy Spirit; and at its resurrection from
the dead it received close union with Divine nature and became immortal and
instrumental for conferring immortality on others.
This is the reason why, when our Lord said: "He
that eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life," and saw that the Jews
were murmuring and doubting the things that were said, and thinking that it was
impossible to receive immortality from mortal flesh, He added immediately for
the purpose of removing this doubt: "If you see the Son of Man ascend up where
He was before." It is as if He were saying: the thing that is being said about
my body does not appear now true to you, but when you see Me rising up from the
dead and ascending into heaven, it will be made manifest (to you) that you were
not to think that what had been said was harsh and unseemly, as the facts
themselves will convince you that I have moved to an immortal nature, because if
I were not in such a nature I would not have ascended into heaven. And in order
to show from where these things came to Him He added quickly: "It is the Spirit
that lives, the flesh profites nothing," as if He were saying: these things will
come to it from the nature of the vivifying Spirit, and it is through Him that
it will be given to it to become immortal and to confer also immortality on
others. These things it did not possess, and was not, therefore, in a position
to confer upon others as coming from its nature, because the nature of the flesh
is not able by itself to grant a gift and a help of this kind. If, therefore,
the nature of the vivifying Spirit made the body of our Lord into what its
nature did not possess before, we ought, we also, who have received the grace of
the Holy spirit through the symbols of the Sacrament, not to regard the elements
merely as bread and cup, but as the body and the blood of Christ, into which
they were so transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit, by whom they become
to the partakers of them that which we believe to happen to the faithful through
the body and blood of our Lord. This is the reason why He said: "I am the bread
which came down from heaven," and "I am the bread of life"; and to show them
what was that which He called bread, He said: "And the bread that I will give is
my flesh which I will give for the life of the world."
Because we sustain ourselves in this life with
bread and food, He called Himself the bread of life that came down from heaven,
as if He were saying: I am truly the bread of life and give immortality to those
who believe in Me through this visible (body) for the sake of which I came down
and to which I granted immortality, which through it will extend to those who
believe in Me. While He might have said: "It is I who give life," He did not say
it, but said "I am the bread of life," because as we would be receiving the
promise given us here of the immortality, which we expect in sacramental
symbols, through bread and cup, we had to honour also the symbol which became
worthy of this appellation. He called Himself bread as an allusion to the things
that were to be given, as He wished to convince us, from things belonging to
this world, that we shall receive also without doubt the benefits that are high
above words. The fact that in order to sustain ourselves in this life we eat
bread, and the fact that bread cannot fulfil this function by its nature, but
has been enabled to do so by order of God who imparted this power to it, should
by necessity convince us not to doubt that we shall receive immortality by
eating the sacramental bread. Indeed, although bread does not possess such a
nature, yet when it receives the Holy Spirit and His grace it is enabled to
impart to those who eat it the happiness of immortality. If it is capable of
sustaining us in this life by a decree of God, although not possessing this
power by nature, how much more will it not be capable, after it has received the
descent of the Holy Spirit, of helping us to assume immortality. It does not do
this by its own nature but by the Spirit who is dwelling in it, as the body of
our Lord, of which this one is the symbol, received immortality by the power of
the Spirit, and imparted this immortality to others, while in no way possessing
it by nature.
(Our Lord) chose, therefore, very fittingly
bread as food, and the cup—which consists of wine mixed with water—as drink. The
Old Testament had already taken blood to mean wine: "He gave him to drink the
blood of the grapes," while in another passage it says: "He shall wash his
garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes." That what He gave was
wine He made perfectly clear by saying: I will not drink henceforth of this
fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom." He
alludes by the Kingdom of God to the resurrection, because it is for those who
shall rise from the dead in the next world that He has established the Kingdom
of God. And since He was about to commune with them in food and drink after His
resurrection, and before His ascension into heaven, as the blessed Luke said, He
meant by the above words that His Passion was near and that He would not be
taking any food with them before this Passion, but that after His resurrection
from the dead He would be eating and drinking with them in order to confirm this
resurrection.
This is the reason why He said: "I will not
drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in the
Kingdom of God." As if He were saying: I shall not take food or drink with you
before my Passion, because it is very near, but when I have risen from the dead
I shall both eat and drink, and in this I shall do a novel thing. It is indeed a
novel thing for one who rose from the dead and became immortal in his nature to
eat and drink, but I shall do violence to the natural laws so that you may
possess a strong faith about Me that I rose from the dead. It is I—whom you
previously knew to have eaten and drunk with you—who rose. Because you will have
much doubt about my resurrection, it is necessary that I should do violence to
the natural laws in order to confirm it to you, and that I should perform a
novel thing that has never happened before, namely to eat and drink after having
assumed immortal nature. A firm knowledge of my resurrection is all the more
required of you because you will be the teachers of this resurrection to others.
That what is given to you in the cup by Christ
our Lord as a symbol of His blood is wine, one is able also to see from the fact
that it is mixed with water. This is either due to the fact that it is generally
drunk in this way, or to the fact that having already taken bread it was fitting
as a counterpart of it to take a cup of water—as bread cannot be made without a
mixture of water—or also to the fact that having made use of this symbol in the
birth of baptism we do likewise make use of it for the delight of the Sacrament
of our nourishment. As it was necessary to remember the death of our Lord in our
participation in the holy Sacrament, as the blessed Paul said, in the same way
as we remember it in the things that take place in baptism, what was necessary
for us to find in the elements of the gift of the holy baptism, from which we
believe that we symbolically receive the second birth, had also to be found in
the elements of the symbols of the Sacrament.
This is the power of the Sacrament, and these
are the symbols and the signs of the Sacrament in its twofold side of eating and
drinking. It is useful now to speak to you, for the sake of your sound teaching,
of the way in which they are effected.
We must first of all realise that we perform a
sacrifice of which we eat. Although we remember the death of our Lord in food
and drink, and although we believe these to be the remembrance of His
Passion—because He said: "This is my body which is broken for you, and this is
my blood which is shed for you"—we nevertheless perform, in their service, a
sacrifice; and it is the office of the priest of the New Testament to offer this
sacrifice, as it is through it that the New Covenant appears to be maintained.
It is indeed evident that it is a sacrifice, but not a new one and one that (the
priest) performs as his, but it is a remembrance of that other real sacrifice
(of Christ). Because the priest performs things found in heaven through symbols
and signs, it is necessary that his sacrifice also should be as their image, and
that he should represent a likeness of the service of heaven. It would be
impossible for us to be priests and do priestly service outside the ancient law
if we did not possess the likeness of heavenly things.
The blessed Paul said about Christ our Lord that
"if He were on the earth He should not be a high priest, seeing that there were
priests of the law who offer gifts according to the law and who serve to the
example and shadow of heavenly things." He means by this that all the priests
according to the law performed their priestly service on earth, where all the
law was made to suit mortal men, and the sacrifices consisted of irrational
beasts led to be slaughtered to death, which meant that they were fit for this
mortal sojourn on earth. It is indeed clear that all the injunctions and ritual
of the law were only partially suitable. Circumcision, Sabbath, holy days,
observances of days, and distinctions in food: all these suited a mortal nature,
and none of them has any place in an immortal nature, and to people who
performed such things even sacrifices of irrational beasts are not suitable, as
these are slaughtered and die in the act of sacrifice. As to Christ our Lord, if
He were about to perform His priestly service on earth, it was necessary that He
also should perform this service according to the Divine law, which was
something that harmonised with the (Mosaic) law; and if He did not perform a
priestly service according to the law, He would not have been a high priest, as
He would then be performing a priestly service not according to the law of God.
Now, however, He performs the priestly service in heaven and not on earth,
because He died, rose, ascended into heaven in order to raise us all up and
cause us to ascend into heaven, and made a covenant with those who believe in
Him that He will grant them participation in the resurrection from the dead and
ascension into heaven.
He performs a real high priesthood and offers to
God no other sacrifice than Himself, as He had delivered also Himself to death
for all. He was the first to rise from the dead, and He ascended into heaven and
sat at the right hand of God in order to destroy all our adversaries, as the
blessed Paul said: "He offered one sacrifice for our sins for ever, sat on the
right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His
footstool. For by one offering He has perfected for ever them that are
sanctified." He calls His enemies those who fight against us, and their
destruction is clearly seen in our perfection, as the work of a high priest
consists in his drawing near to God first and then in drawing also the others to
Him through himself. The blessed Paul rightly calls Him high priest because He
was so in reality, as through His resurrection He was the first to ascend into
heaven; and He sat on the right hand of God, and granted us through Himself to
be near to God and partakers of good things. "The high priest of all of us is,"
as the blessed Paul said, "Christ our Lord, who did not, like the high priests
of the law, serve to the example and shadow of heavenly things, but He is the
minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which God pitched and not
man," so that through them He might make manifest the heavenly things. He refers
by the word "sanctuary" to heavenly things which do not contain anything that is
contrary or reprehensible, and by the sentence "the true tabernacle which God
pitched and not man" to the heavenly abode, because the tabernacle of the law
was pitched by man, but heaven is made not by men but by God, and it is of it
that the Apostle said that Christ is the minister, as He ascended into heaven
and there performs service for all of us, so that He might draw us to Him by all
means, according to His promise. It is for this reason that he said in another
passage that "He is at the right hand of God and making intercession for us." He
calls "intercession" not a supplication made for us in words, as this
intercession is made in deeds, because through His ascension into heaven He
makes intercession for us to God and is anxious that all of us should ascend
into heaven to Him.
If, as the blessed Paul said, Christ our Lord
should not be a priest if He performed His priestly service on earth, it follows
that He does not perform His service according to the ritual of the law, but
since priesthood and the service of the law were made manifest by God on earth,
it was not necessary that it should be rejected by God and another one be
substituted on the same earth. He is then rightly a priest because He performs
priestly service in heaven, where there is not a single association with earthly
things, and in this way no blame attaches to the priests of the law. Since these
are said in another place to do their work among mortal and earthly men, while
He performs His priestly service in immortal and heavenly things, which are much
higher and loftier, is it not clear that neither can we be priests appointed to
do priestly service for earthly things? It is indeed well known that the
priesthood of the law suited earthly and mortal men, while Christ is the high
priest of heavenly things, and will cause all of us to ascend into heaven at the
right time.
As to us who are called to a new covenant, as
the blessed Paul said, we received salvation and deliverance in hope, and
although we have not seen them we expect "by our patience to be absent from the
body and be with our Lord." We walk by faith and not by sight because we are not
yet in the reality, as we are not yet in the heavenly benefits. We wait here in
faith until we ascend into heaven and set out on our journey to our Lord, where
we shall not see through a glass and in a riddle but shall look face to face.
These things, however, we expect to receive in reality through the resurrection
at the time decreed by God, and now it is only by faith that we draw near to the
firstfruits of these good things: to Christ our Lord and the high priest of
things that belong to us. We are ordered to perform in this world the symbols
and signs of the future things so that, through the service of the Sacrament, we
may be like men who enjoy symbolically the happiness of the heavenly benefits,
and thus acquire a sense of possession and a strong hope of the things for which
we look.
As the real new birth is the one which we expect
through the resurrection, and we nevertheless perform this new birth
symbolically and sacramentally through baptism, so also the real food of
immortality is that which we hope to receive truly in heaven by the grace of the
Holy Spirit, but now we symbolically eat the immortal food which is given to us
by the grace of the Holy Spirit, whether in symbols or through symbols. It
follows that a role of a high priest must needs be filled, and it is found in
those who are appointed for the service of these symbols. Those who have been
chosen as the priests of the New Testament are believed to perform
sacramentally, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, and for the confirmation and
admonition of the children of the Sacrament, these things which we believe that
Christ our Lord performed and will perform in reality.
This is the reason why they do not immolate at
all times new sacrifices like the priests of the law. These were ordered to
offer to God numerous and different sacrifices of oxen, goats and sheep, and
offered new sacrifices at all times. When first sacrificial beasts had been
slaughtered, had died and suffered complete dissolution, others were always
immolated in the place of those which had been slaughtered a long time
previously. As to the priests of the New Testament they immolate the same
sacrifice always and everywhere, because one is the sacrifice which has been
immolated for us, that of Christ our Lord who suffered death for us and who, by
His offering this sacrifice, obtained perfection for us, as the blessed Paul
said: "By one offering He perfected for ever them that are sanctified." All of
us, everywhere, at all times, and always, observe the commemoration of that
sacrifice, "for as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we do show the
Lord's death till He come." As often, therefore, as the service of this
awe-inspiring sacrifice is performed, which is clearly the likeness of heavenly
things and of which, after it has been perfected, we become worthy to partake
through food and drink, as a true participation in our future benefits—we must
picture in our mind that we are dimly in heaven, and, through faith, draw in our
imagination the image of heavenly things, while thinking that Christ who is in
heaven and who died for us, rose and ascended into heaven and is now being
immolated. In contemplating with our eyes, through faith, the facts that are now
being re-enacted: that He is again dying, rising and ascending into heaven, we
shall be led to the vision of the things that had taken place beforehand on our
behalf.
Because Christ our Lord offered Himself in
sacrifice for us and thus became our high priest in reality, we must think that
the priest who draws near to the altar is representing His image, not that he
offers himself in sacrifice, any more than he is truly a high priest, but
because he performs the figure of the service of the ineffable sacrifice (of
Christ), and through this figure he dimly represents the image of the
unspeakable heavenly things and of the supernatural and incorporeal hosts.
Indeed, all the invisible hosts did service to that Economy which transcends our
words and which Christ our Lord accomplished for us. "They are all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" as the
blessed Paul said. Matthew, the evangelist, showed also this when he said: "and
the angels came, and ministered to Him." This is also attested by our Lord who
said: "Hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and
descending to the Son of Man." Incidents in the Gospel show also events that
happened through them, whether it be through those who at the birth of our Lord
sang: "Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good hope to men," or
through those who at His resurrection revealed to women what had occurred, or
through those who at His ascension explained to the Apostles that which they did
not know. It is necessary, therefore, that here also, when this awe-inspiring
service is performed, we should think that the deacons represent an image of the
service of these invisible spirits, and that they have been appointed to
minister to this awe-inspiring service by the grace of the Holy Spirit which
they received.
This is the reason why all of us are called the
ministers of Christ, as the blessed Paul said: "Inasmuch as I am the apostle of
the Gentiles I magnify my ministry." This name, however, is especially applied
to those who perform this ministry, and are called by all "deacons," as they are
alone appointed to perform this ministry, and represent a likeness of the
service of the spiritual messengers and ministers. They have also an apparel
which is consonant with their office, since their outer garment is taller than
they are, as wearing such an apparel in such a way is suitable to those who
serve. They place on their left shoulders a stole, which floats equally on
either side, forwards and backwards. This is a sign that they are not performing
a ministry of servitude but of freedom, as they are ministering to things that
lead to freedom all those who are worthy of the great house of God, that is to
say the Church. They do not place the stole on their neck in a way that it
floats on either side but not in front, because there is no one serving in a
house who wears such an apparel; it is only those who are masters of themselves
and remote from servitude of any kind who wear it in this way, but the deacons
place it on their shoulders because they are appointed for service. The stole is
their only sign of that freedom to which all of us, who believed in Christ, have
been called; and we hasten to go to, and be in, "the house of God, which is the
Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth," as the blessed
Paul says; and they are clearly appointed for the service of all things
performed in it.
Because the things performed for us by Christ
our Lord are awe-inspiring, and because we expect their complete fulfilment in
the next world, we receive them now only by faith, and we proceed gradually in
this world in a way that we are in nothing absent from our faith in them. This
being the case, we are necessarily confirmed in the faith of the things revealed
to us through this ministry of the Sacrament, as we are led through it to the
future reality,2 because it contains an image of the ineffable Economy of Christ
our Lord, in which we receive the vision and the shadow of the happenings that
took place. This is the reason why through the priest we picture Christ our Lord
in our mind, as through him we see the One who saved us and delivered us by the
sacrifice of Himself; and through the deacons who serve the things that take
place, we picture in our mind the invisible hosts who served with that ineffable
service. It is the deacons who bring out this oblation—or the symbols of this
oblation—which they arrange and place on the awe-inspiring altar, (an oblation)
which in its vision, as represented in the imagination, is an awe-inspiring
event to the onlookers.
We must also think of Christ being at one time
led and brought to His Passion, and at another time stretched on the altar to be
sacrificed for us. And when the offering which is about to be placed (on the
altar) is brought out in the sacred vessels of the paten and the chalice, we
must think that Christ our Lord is being led and brought to His Passion, not,
however, by the Jews—as it is incongruous and impermissible that an iniquitous
image be found in the symbols of our deliverance and our salvation—but by the
invisible hosts of ministry, who are sent to us and who were also present when
the Passion of our Salvation was being accomplished, and were doing their
service. Indeed, they performed their service to all the Economy of Christ our
Lord without any exception, and were present with their service at the time of
the Passion, endeavouring to perform it according to the will of God. When our
Lord was in deep thought and fear at the approach of His Passion, the blessed
Luke said that "an angel appeared to Him strengthening and encouraging Him," and
like those persons who are wont to stir up the courage of the athletes with
their voices, he anointed Him to bear tribulations, and by encouraging words
persuaded Him to endure pains with patience, and showed Him that His Passion was
small in comparison with the benefit that will accrue from it, as He would be
invested with great glory after His Passion and His death, from which He would
be the cause of numerous benefits not only to men but to all the creation.
We must think, therefore, that the deacons who
now carry the Eucharistic bread and bring it out for the sacrifice represent the
image of the invisible hosts of ministry, with this difference, that, through
their ministry and in these remembrances, they do not send Christ our Lord to
His salvation-giving Passion. When they bring out (the Eucharistic bread) they
place it on the holy altar, for the complete representation of the Passion, so
that we may think of Him on the altar, as if He were placed in the sepulchre,
after having received His Passion. This is the reason why those deacons who
spread linens on the altar represent the figure of the linen clothes of the
burial (of our Lord). Sometime after these have been spread, they stand up on
both sides, and agitate all the air above the holy body with fans, thus keeping
it from any defiling object. They make manifest by this ritual the greatness of
the body which is lying there, as it is the habit, when the dead body of the
high personages of this world is carried on a bier, that some men should fan the
air above it. It is, therefore, with justice that the same thing is done here
with the body which lies on the altar, and which is holy, awe-inspiring and
remote from all corruption; a body which will very shortly rise to an immortal
nature.
It is on all sides of this body that persons,
who are especially appointed to serve, stand up and fan. They offer to it an
honour that is suitable, and by this ritual they make manifest to those present
the greatness of the sacred body that is lying there. It is indeed clear to us
from the Divine Book that angels sat upon the stone near the sepulchre and
announced His resurrection to the women, and remained there all the time of His
death, in honour of the One who was laid there, till they witnessed the
resurrection, which was proclaimed by them to be good to all mankind, and to
imply a renewal of all the creation, as the blessed Paul said: "Any man who is
in Christ is a new creature. Old things are passed away and all things are
become new.
Was it not right, therefore, that here also (the
deacons) should represent as in an image the ministry of the angels? It is in
remembrance of those who constantly came to the Passion and death of our Lord,
that they also stand in a circle and agitate the air with fans, and offer honour
and adoration to the sacred and awe-inspiring body which is lying there. In this
they make manifest to all those present the greatness of the object that is
lying there, and induce all the onlookers to think of it as awe-inspiring and
truly sacred, and to realise that it is for this reason that they keep it from
all defiling things, and do not even allow the dirty tricklings of birds to fall
upon it and come near it. This they do now according to their habit in order to
show that because the body which is lying there is high, awe-inspiring, holy,
and truly Lord through its union with the Divine nature, it is with great fear
that it must be handled, seen and kept.
These things take place while every one is
silent, because when the service has not yet begun, every one must look at the
bringing out and spreading of such a great and wonderful object with a quiet and
reverential fear and a silent and noiseless prayer. When our Lord also had died
the Apostles moved away and were in the house in great silence and immense fear;
so great indeed was the silence that overtook every one that even the invisible
hosts kept quiet while looking for the expected resurrection, until time came
and Christ our Lord rose, and a great joy and an ineffable happiness spread over
those invisible hosts. And the women who came to honour the body received from
the angels the new message of the resurrection that had taken place, and when
the disciples also learnt through them what had occurred they run together with
great zeal to the sepulchre. We are drawn now by similar happenings to the
remembrance of the Passion of our Lord, and when we see the oblation on the
communion-table—something which denotes that it is being placed in a kind of a
sepulchre after its death— great silence falls on those present. Because that
which takes place is awe-inspiring, they must look at it with a quiet and
reverential fear, since it is necessary that Christ our Lord should rise in the
awe-inspiring service which is performed with the sacerdotal ceremonies, and
announce our participation in ineffable benefits to every one. We remember,
therefore, the death of our Lord in the oblation because it makes manifest the
resurrection and the ineffable benefits.
Then comes prayer—not a silent prayer—announced
beforehand in the loud voice of the deacon, who, as we ought to know, explains
the sign and the aim of all the things that take place. The ceremonies that are
to be performed by all those present are made known by the proclamation of the
deacon, who orders and reminds every one of the statutory acts that are to be
performed and accomplished by those who are assembled in the Church of God.
After he has finished his congruous service and
admonished all with his voice and exhorted them to recite the prayers that are
suitable to ecclesiastical gatherings, and while all are silent, the priest
begins with the appointed service, and before everything else he offers prayer
to God, because before all other things that are indispensable to religion he
has necessarily to begin with prayer. This is especially the case with this
awe-inspiring service in which we are in need of God's help, as He alone is able
to perform things such as those (implied in it). And the priest brings his
prayer to a close after having offered thanksgivings to our Lord for the great
things which He has provided for the salvation and the deliverance of men, and
for His having given us the knowledge of these wonderful mysteries which are a
remembrance of that ineffable gift which He bestowed upon us through His
Passion, in that He promised to raise us all from the dead and take us up to
heaven. After this he offers also thanksgivings for himself for having been
appointed servant of such an awe-inspiring Sacrament. With this he prays also
for the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may be now made by Him worthy of
the greatness of this service, as he had been rendered by Him worthy of
priesthood; and so that he may perform this service free, by the grace of God,
from all evil conscience, and not fearing any punishment, as he, being
infinitely below the dignity of such a service, is drawing near to things that
are much higher than himself.
After the priest has finished his prayer with
this and similar things, all the congregation says: "Amen," a word that
signifies agreement with, and confirmation of, the prayer of the priest, as it
is said: "He that occupies the room of the unlearned says Amen at your giving of
thanks, while he does not understand what you say." The congregation must make
use of this word to signify their agreement with the prayers and thanksgivings
of the priest.
After the congregation has said this word the
priest prays: "Peace be to you." It is appropriate to begin with this phrase
every service that takes place in a Church gathering, and especially this
awe-inspiring service which is about to be performed. The blessed Paul also
placed at the beginning of all his Epistles: "Grace and peace be to you." (The
priest) prays for us concerning the benefits granted for the happiness of all of
us through the Economy of Christ our Lord, who by His coming abolished all wars,
and completely destroyed all hatred and all fight against us, and by His
resurrection delivered us from death, corruption, sin, passion, vexations of the
demons and all harassing things, and made us completely immortal and immutable,
and will take us up to heaven where He will give us His full confidence and
prepare for us great friendship and fellowship with the invisible hosts, the
trusted messengers of God. The reason why the blessed Paul writes at the
beginning of all his Epistles the word "grace" before the word "peace" is found
in the fact that it was not we who began or did anything by ourselves to merit
the reception of such a gift, but it was God Himself who bestowed it on us by
His grace.
There is an ordinance, found (in the Church)
from the beginning, to the effect that all those who have been deemed worthy to
do the work of priesthood, should begin all the functions performed in a Church
assembly with the above phrase, which is more than anything else suitable to
this awe-inspiring service. The priest prays for peace to all because it is he
who makes manifest these great benefits, of which this Divine service, which is
the remembrance of the death of our Lord, is a figure and a symbol, and because
it is through him that the greatness of these and similar benefits has been
promised to us.
And those present answer him: "And to your
spirit." They requite him with an identical prayer so that it may be made
manifest to the priest and also to all of them that it is not only they that are
in need of the benediction and the prayer of the priest, but that he also is in
need of the prayer of all of them. This is the reason why, by an ordinance found
in the Church from the beginning, the priests are also mentioned in all the
ecclesiastical prayers side by side with the rest of the congregation. Indeed
all of us are one body of Christ our Lord and all of us are members one of
another, and the priest only fills the role of a member that is higher than the
other members of the body, such as the eye or the tongue. Lo, like the eye he
sees the works of every one, and with the diligence pertaining to a priest he
also leads and directs every one according to the rule of priesthood, to that
which is necessary; and like the tongue he offers the prayers of every one; and
as every one requires that the members that are attached to his body should
perform their particular function, and as for this it is necessary that they
should be healthy and sound in their structure so that they may be in a position
to perform this function when asked to do so, in this same way the priest, who
is also attached to the body of the Church, is required to be healthy in his
office, so that after making manifest the health of good works and priesthood,
which are required of him, he may be seen to be worthy of the honour that he
possesses, and capable of filling helpfully and suitably the needs of every
member of the community.
This is the reason why he blesses those present
with the voice of greeting, and for this receives also blessing from them, when
they answer him: "And to your spirit." In saying and to your spirit" they do not
refer to his soul, but to the grace of the Holy Spirit by which those who are
under him believe that he drew near to priesthood, as the blessed Paul said: "I
serve Him with the Spirit in the Gospel of His Son." It is as if he were saying:
so that, through the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit which is promised to
me, I may fulfil the service of the Gospel, and all of you may join with my
spirit; meaning by this that "I received from God to be in a position to perform
these and similar things and did not find peace for my spirit"; meaning also
that "I was not able to do the thing that any one who serves with the Holy
Spirit has to do for the utility of others, because the one who had to be my
fellow-worker was absent."
It is in this sense that the phrase: "And to
your spirit" is addressed to the priest by the congregation, according to the
regulations found in the Church from the beginning, the reason for it being that
when the conduct of the priest is good, it is a gain to the body of the Church,
and when the conduct of the priest is unholy, it is a loss to all. All of them
pray that through peace the grace of the Holy Spirit may be promised to him, so
that he may strive to perform his service to the public suitably and rightly. In
this way the priest obtains more abundant peace from the overflow of the grace
of the Holy Spirit, and from it he receives help for the works required of him,
because, as in other affairs so in service, the priest will appear to be doing
the right thing when the blessing goes from him to the congregation and from it
to him.
The priest, then, begins by giving peace, and
the Church crier, who is the deacon, cries and orders all to give peace one to
another so that they may do that which the priest is doing, and so that in
giving peace one to another and in embracing one another they may make a
profession of their mutual concord and of their love to one another. Every one
of us gives peace as far as possible to the one next to him, but by implication
all of us give peace one to another, because that which is taking place implies
that all of us ought to be one body of Christ our Lord, to possess towards one
another the harmony which is found between the members of one body, mutually to
love one another, to help and assist one another, to count our private affairs
as affairs of us all, and to suffer with the sufferings of one another and
rejoice with the joys of one another.
Owing to the fact that we received one new birth
of baptism, through which we are joined as if into one natural close union, and
owing to the fact that all of us partake of one food in which we receive the
same flesh and blood and become more strongly united in the single body of
baptism, as the blessed Paul said: "For we are all partakers of one bread,
because the bread is one and we also being many bodies are one bread"—it is
right that the rite of giving peace should be performed before we draw near to
the Sacrament and to the service, as it is in it that we make our profession of
mutual concord and love to one another. It is indeed unsuitable to those who
fill the role of members of one ecclesiastical body to consider as an enemy a
child of the faith, who through the same birth drew near to the same body, whom
we believe to be like us a member of Christ our Lord, and who partakes of the
same food from the holy communion-table. This is the reason why our Lord said:
"Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable to judgment."
That which takes place is not only a profession
of love but a reminder that we must remove and cast away from us every enmity,
if it appears to us that we have aught against a child of our faith. Our Lord,
who decreed that under no circumstances an undue anger should occur, gave also a
remedy to those who sin in any way: "Therefore, if you bring your gift to the
altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave
your gift before the altar and go and first be reconciled to your brother, and
then come and offer your gift." He orders the one who has sinned to make haste
and be reconciled to the one who has been sinned against, and not to offer the
gift before he has placated the one who has been angered, and be reconciled to
him with all his might. Indeed, all of us offer the gift with the priest, and
although the latter stands up alone to offer it he nevertheless offers it, like
the tongue, for all the body. Thus the gift that is being offered belongs to all
of us in the same way as the grace which it contains belongs to all, and is
placed before all of us so that we may partake of it equally. In this sense the
blessed Paul said about a high priest that "he ought, as for himself so also for
the people, to offer for sins" in order, to show that the priest offers the gift
for all, and is ordered to offer both for himself and for the rest of the people.
It is incumbent, therefore, on the one who has
sinned to placate with all his might the one against whom he has sinned, and to
be reconciled to him. If the one who has been sinned against be near, he should
put in practice the order of Christ literally, and if he be not near let him
decide in his mind to do this to him at the right time, and then draw near to
the communion of the offering. On the other hand, the one who has been sinned
against must accept the reconciliation of the one who had sinned against him,
because the one who has been sinned against must show the same promptness as the
one who has sinned. Indeed, he must remove from his mind all the things in which
he has been sinned against, while remembering the sentence: "If you forgive not
men their trespasses, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your
trespasses. We must think of this greeting as an acceptance and a remembrance of
all this, if we are, like the blessed Paul, to salute one another with a holy
kiss, and not, like Judas, to kiss with our mouth while striving to show hatred
and evil things against the children of our faith.
While this thing is taking place the priest
washes (his hands) first, and then all those, whatever their number, who are
counted in the assembly of priesthood. This is not done for the cleanliness of
hands—if it were so all would be bound to do it, some on account of their
service and some others because of the Sacrament which they are about to
receive—but because the officiating priests offer the sacrifice for all, and in
this they remind all of us to draw near to the Sacrament which is offered, with
clean consciences. Having thus, after the giving of the peace, proclaimed that
we have removed and cast away from us all hatred and enmity against the children
of our faith, and having washed away the remembrance of trespasses, we may
believe that we have freed ourselves, to the best of our ability, from all
uncleanness. Then all rise, according to the sign given to them by the deacon,
and look at what is taking place. The names of the living and the dead who have
passed away in the faith of Christ are then read from Church books, and it is
clear that in the few of them who are mentioned, all the living and the departed
are implicitly mentioned. This is done for the teaching of what took place in
the Economy of Christ our Lord, of which the present service, which is (Divine)
help for all, living and dead alike, is the commemoration. Indeed the living
look to the future hope, while the dead are not really dead but cast in a sleep
in which they remain in the hope, for which our Lord received His death, which
we are commemorating in this Sacrament.
When the above reading is brought to an end, the
priest draws near to the service, while the Church crier, that is to say the
deacon, whose voice is a clear indication of what the congregation has to do
while following the priestly signs which are given to them—first shouts: "Look
at the oblation." In this he exhorts every one to look at the sacrifice, as if a
public service was about to be performed, and a public sacrifice was about to be
immolated, and a public sacrifice was about to be offered for all, not only for
those who are present but also for those who are absent, as long as they were in
communion with us in faith and were counted in the Church of God and had
finished their life in it. It is clear that we call also this service "offering
the sacrifice" and "immolating the sacrifice," because an awe-inspiring
sacrifice is being immolated, and if He is offered to God, "He did this once,
when He offered up Himself" as the blessed Paul says, and another time now when
(the priest) must needs have something to sacrifice. This is the reason why we
call "sacrifice" or "immolating the sacrifice the likeness of the sacrifice (of
Christ), and this is the reason why the deacon also rightly says before the
offering of the sacrifice: "Look at the sacrifice."
When every one has been prepared to look at the
object that is being placed (on the altar), and when all those things of which
we have spoken are accomplished—things which had necessarily to be performed
before the service, and which were indispensable to your instruction and your
remembrance— the priest begins with the sacrifice itself. You must now learn the
way in which this is done; but since a measure had to be fixed for the things
already said, I will keep what I have to say on this subject and say it on
another day, if God permit; and for all of them let us glorify God the Father,
and His Only Begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, now, always, and for ever and
ever. Amen.
Here ends the fifth chapter. |
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