Sunday Divine Liturgy Homily
Holy Week: An Ascending Journey Toward Pascha
2018-04-03
Holy Week is an ascending journey toward Pascha. Each day the meanings grow more concentrated, that we may brace our resolve and rise spiritually with the Lamb who is slain and risen from the dead. Indeed, whoever contemplates the prayers of Holy Week easily notices that the chief theme of this week is "spiritual watchfulness." It is a watchfulness bound to expectation and waiting; for we await the coming of the Bridegroom to enter the bridal chamber of the heart.
From this we understand why the Church repeats the hymn: "Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; but unworthy is he whom He shall find heedless. Beware, then, O my soul, lest you be weighed down with sleep, and the door be shut against you outside the Kingdom, and you be delivered up to death; but be wakeful and cry: Holy, holy, holy art Thou, O God; through all Thy saints, have mercy on us." And we pray: "I behold Thy bridal chamber adorned, O my Saviour, and I have no wedding garment to enter it; make radiant the robe of my soul, O Giver of light, and save me." And when the Church sets us before these saving events, she asks us to take a stance toward them. For the believer does not stand as a spectator, but as one who takes the initiative.
The first Bridegroom service reminds us of bearing fruit, in contrast to the withered fig tree. On the following day, that is, in the second Bridegroom service, it returns and reminds us of bearing fruit, and adds to it the parable of the ten virgins. We all know this parable — how five of them were wise and five foolish. But we often forget that the discourse is in fact about the Kingdom: "Then the Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened to ten virgins…"
The human being is on a journey toward the Kingdom, and may begin his spiritual journey with Jesus like those virgins. It is important to begin the journey, but more important is to continue walking toward the Kingdom, and to be aware of how to remain prepared to reach the goal. Hence the Orthodox liturgy of Holy Week comes to alert us to remain watchful. Let us remember that all the virgins were awaiting the Bridegroom, and all of them slumbered and slept when the Bridegroom delayed. Through the parable of the ten virgins the Church says to you: take heed, lest the oil of your lamp run dry. What is meant, certainly, is not ordinary oil. So what is this oil? And why the emphasis on the number five in the text? Why did the Lord not speak of one wise virgin and another foolish?
Saint John Chrysostom sees in the number five a reference to the five senses; and the oil a reference to the good and holy works that distinguish living faith from dead. For the believer, by the Holy Spirit, offers his senses sanctified to the Bridegroom, through faith working by love (Galatians 5:6). The foolish, however, did not acquire the holy oil — that is, the good works, the works that come from the love and passion of the Lord — but carried a dead faith and formal devotions.
In truth, what happens with the virgins happens with each one of us. At depth it is nothing new, but an extension of what we practise on earth. For the wise virgins enjoy the new inner life as a life of communion and union with the Bridegroom which they practised on earth. The foolish, however, have no experience of the Bridegroom, but live on earth a merely outward spiritual life.
So let us heed what the Church teaches us today: whoever wishes to enter with the Bridegroom into the holy bridal chamber must have known Him on earth, and seen Him within himself and in the face of every poor and needy person; then he has the right to behold Him in the Kingdom, face to face. But as for the one who did not grow wise, and did not love Christ, and did not see Him in the faces of his beloved — let us not be astonished at the Lord's word to him, "I do not know you," for he had never in the first place entered into true communion with Him, nor beheld His glory within himself.
Broummana — Great Tuesday 2018 — Fr. Rami Wannous
From this we understand why the Church repeats the hymn: "Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; but unworthy is he whom He shall find heedless. Beware, then, O my soul, lest you be weighed down with sleep, and the door be shut against you outside the Kingdom, and you be delivered up to death; but be wakeful and cry: Holy, holy, holy art Thou, O God; through all Thy saints, have mercy on us." And we pray: "I behold Thy bridal chamber adorned, O my Saviour, and I have no wedding garment to enter it; make radiant the robe of my soul, O Giver of light, and save me." And when the Church sets us before these saving events, she asks us to take a stance toward them. For the believer does not stand as a spectator, but as one who takes the initiative.
The first Bridegroom service reminds us of bearing fruit, in contrast to the withered fig tree. On the following day, that is, in the second Bridegroom service, it returns and reminds us of bearing fruit, and adds to it the parable of the ten virgins. We all know this parable — how five of them were wise and five foolish. But we often forget that the discourse is in fact about the Kingdom: "Then the Kingdom of Heaven shall be likened to ten virgins…"
The human being is on a journey toward the Kingdom, and may begin his spiritual journey with Jesus like those virgins. It is important to begin the journey, but more important is to continue walking toward the Kingdom, and to be aware of how to remain prepared to reach the goal. Hence the Orthodox liturgy of Holy Week comes to alert us to remain watchful. Let us remember that all the virgins were awaiting the Bridegroom, and all of them slumbered and slept when the Bridegroom delayed. Through the parable of the ten virgins the Church says to you: take heed, lest the oil of your lamp run dry. What is meant, certainly, is not ordinary oil. So what is this oil? And why the emphasis on the number five in the text? Why did the Lord not speak of one wise virgin and another foolish?
Saint John Chrysostom sees in the number five a reference to the five senses; and the oil a reference to the good and holy works that distinguish living faith from dead. For the believer, by the Holy Spirit, offers his senses sanctified to the Bridegroom, through faith working by love (Galatians 5:6). The foolish, however, did not acquire the holy oil — that is, the good works, the works that come from the love and passion of the Lord — but carried a dead faith and formal devotions.
In truth, what happens with the virgins happens with each one of us. At depth it is nothing new, but an extension of what we practise on earth. For the wise virgins enjoy the new inner life as a life of communion and union with the Bridegroom which they practised on earth. The foolish, however, have no experience of the Bridegroom, but live on earth a merely outward spiritual life.
So let us heed what the Church teaches us today: whoever wishes to enter with the Bridegroom into the holy bridal chamber must have known Him on earth, and seen Him within himself and in the face of every poor and needy person; then he has the right to behold Him in the Kingdom, face to face. But as for the one who did not grow wise, and did not love Christ, and did not see Him in the faces of his beloved — let us not be astonished at the Lord's word to him, "I do not know you," for he had never in the first place entered into true communion with Him, nor beheld His glory within himself.
Broummana — Great Tuesday 2018 — Fr. Rami Wannous