Archimandrite
Savva (Mazhuko) about what the Eucharist is and how it is difficult to explain
to other people the truth about this Sacrament.
For some people
the Holy Communion is an inconceivable feat. What am I saying? Not for some
people. For many people. Maybe even for most people. Moreover, I am
personally among them.
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| Archimandrite Savva (Mazhuko) |
It sounds
impossible, but it is true. How can it happen like this? How could it become
possible? How could I survive that? We can talk much about this. But there is
nothing to listen to, if you have not experienced it by yourself. And if you
did, you would prefer to remain silent.
Eucharist makes
you feel holy awe from touching the true relic. This holy awe almost burns you
to ashes. At the same time, you can see something completely different around
you – peaceful children’s joy, inexpressible silence, the joy of being,
praying, running, praising, the joy of being alive forever and being surrounded
with those who are alive.
The symbol of
the holy awe is a priest standing near the holy table and saying as if from the
bottom of despair, “O God, cleanse me a sinner!” The symbol of peaceful joy is
a child eating a prosphora. Did you also notice that? It is fun to see a small
child holding a prosphora with two hands and eating it greedily with a straight
face.
Indeed, there
is something eternally peaceful in the sight of the holy bread and wine. How
peaceful it becomes in your heart when you look at prosphoras. A peaceful
offering indeed!
How can both of these incredible feelings of the peaceful joy and the holy awe combine? It is
quite simple. During the Eucharist, we face neither severe cosmic powers, nor any
faceless sacred thing. The Living God is going towards us, our true loving Father.
He touches us, His Blood renovates our souls, His spirit enlivens our bodies.
It is scaring. But it is joyful too.
The Gospel
story about the feeding the multitude is a true icon of Eucharist. The story is
described in all the four Gospels. A very old story. Christ was preaching for
the whole day in a deserted place. People got tired, it was far for their homes,
and there was nothing to give them. The apostles had only five pieces of bread and two
fish. How could they feed so many people?
The Lord just prayed,
blessed the food and filled everyone. A regular miracle – this is how we, Christians,
think about this episode when we forget that a miracle cannot be regular at all. We
even wonder about it without any enthusiasm: yes, God performed a miracle, when
He filled 5,000 people. But does it take much effort for him to do this? He is
God, the almighty Creator. It must be easy for Him to heal, resurrect and
multiply breads.
However, even
during the ancient times people understood that the story about the breads is a
unique one. Evangelist John, of whom it is not typical to repeat in his Gospel
what other evangelists have said before him, decided to include that episode in
his mysterious message. He mentioned that in Chapter 6, in which he retold
Christ’s speech about the Heavenly Bread, about Eucharist. The miracle with
five breads was used as an illustration for explaining the theology of
Eucharist. It was not just a miracle, but a sign, a living icon of the Eternal
Liturgy.
By the way,
what is Eucharist exactly? It is hard to explain with a few words, especially
to those people who do not live a church life. You can hardly find suitable
words. They resist and demand clarifications. It is hard even for a theologian.
Nevertheless, the
Lord gave us that gift, which is available to all of us – scientists, illiterates,
theologians, laymen – and if you cannot comprehend this mystery with your mind then
just look at the icon of Eucharist, the miracle of the feeding of the
multitude. Do not come with pride, but come humbly to the stunned apostles, handing out
bread among the people, and join the sacrament of the Communion with God. Let
Christ enter your life, your blood and flesh. Let Him reach the deepest end of your
soul and ask Him to bring the light of His love there, to enliven you, to feed
you with the true life because this is exactly what the aim of the Eucharist is –
to bring the dead back, to fill our souls and bodies with the true Divine life.
This is a true,
personal and intimate meeting with the Living God. Not with an idea, not with a
teaching or philosophical system, not with a mysterious energy. He, the Creator
of the world, Who created both me and my history, meets with me in the depth of
my soul, in such abyss of my being about which I did not even know before.
Once, a friend
of mine, a person with a sad smile and kind eyes, told me how he became a
faithful person, when he experienced the meeting with God during the Eucharist.
He was living in a typical soviet family and did not know neither God, nor the
Church. There was nothing special in his life. A typical soviet childhood, school troubles,
boxing lessons – a clear life without any mystical secrets and metaphysical
worries.
Suddenly the
authorities gave permission to open churches. In our native city Gomel the
church of Ss. Peter and Paul was returned to the faithful people. That was
unusual. It turned out that there was a different world, a very ancient and
traditional. And there were people, there was an entirly different and fulfilling life! He began
to come to that church. He understood nothing. He knew no one. He just gazed. It
was interesting, unusual. He got acquainted with a nun, who took notes in the
church. At first they just got to know each other, but later they begin to
discuss.
- Have you ever
partaken of the Holy Communion?
- No. How?
- I’ll tell
you.
And she told
him about the Holy Communion. She told him neither a theological theory, nor
catechism with references to the Scripture and the Holy Fathers. She just
taught him how to prepare. To the horror of his parents, a soviet schoolchild was
courageously fasting for a week. He was patiently reading the “Prayerbook”
without even hoping to understand what was written in the ancient language. On
the eve of his Communion, he was watching a foolish film on TV as usual. The next day
he went to liturgy. He did not understand what he was doing, why
he came there and what to expect. I am supposed to partake of the Holy
Communion – I will. Are you a faithful person? We will see.
He came to
confession. He remained standing for the duration of the entire liturgy. He came to the chalice. His hands are
crossed on his chest. He pronounced his name loudly. The priest gave a little
spoon with a piece of bread and wine. Strange taste. Unusual. This is it. Nothing
more to say. This is how it happened. This is how he became a faithful person. There,
before the chalice, he met Christ. How can one talk about this? You will hardly
manage to explain.
There was no
visions. There were no voices, strange miracles or prophecies. He did not lose
the ground under his feet. There were no hurricanes chipping off the plaster
from the walls. However, it was the touch of something true and holy. Of someone.
No one was waiting for him. No one called him to come. The boy did not think
that something like that could happen to him. He did not know about Eucharist,
he did not read the Scripture, he did not study the history of the Church and
the life stories of saints.
He had heard something before. He had read a bit before that, but he did not expect it would be like that. They just met. He just came. And then he just stayed. Christ told his disciples and wisemen about the Heavenly Bread. They did not understand Him and did not hear him. At the same time, a shy and silent disciple John remembered everything because he had a feeling that it was very important and that later we would understand everything.
He had heard something before. He had read a bit before that, but he did not expect it would be like that. They just met. He just came. And then he just stayed. Christ told his disciples and wisemen about the Heavenly Bread. They did not understand Him and did not hear him. At the same time, a shy and silent disciple John remembered everything because he had a feeling that it was very important and that later we would understand everything.
And he was
right, as the Apostle of Love. Because at first we experience and then we understand.
Faith comes after the meeting, which no one is waiting for, which cannot be
planned or booked. Only this way we become faithful people – after a personal
meeting with God, when we are caught off guard by Him.
This is why it
is so joyful and anxious to come to the Holy Communion, the meeting with God.
You understand Whom you are going to see, with Whom you are going to commune
and Who will stay with you forever.
Source: http://www.pravmir.ru/zapah-hleba-ili-kak-rasskazat-o-prichastii/
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