Eighteen
weeks, or more than one third of the annual cycle, is the ecclesiastical
liturgical cycle that revolves around the celebration of the Resurrection.
This is
from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee until the Sunday of All
Saints. It is a liturgical journey rich in religious and spiritual experiences.
It is a
sweet joyful-sorrow. Grief according to God which leads through the Cross to
the Resurrection.
And, as
in all the liturgical traditions of our Holy Church, so also with this festal
cycle, the wisdom of our Holy Fathers who set it in order is revealed.
Not to
follow the formalism provisions but to get to the depth of the essence, which
is none other than the eternal plan of the divine economy.
In this
direction, this text summarizes the events of Holy and Great Week as a noetic
and spiritual ladder, which leads the faithful to venerate the revered Passion
and glorious Resurrection of the Savior.
The
Saturday of Lazarus can be considered the prologue - the first step - and the
resurrection of Lazarus the friend of Christ shortly before the Passion of the
Lord prefigures His own glorious Resurrection.
Jesus,
who wept as He went to the tomb, where His friend was buried, says to the one
who was four days dead and commands with the familiar words: "Lazarus,
come forth!"
At that
moment and with those words of His, who Himself is the Resurrection and the
Life, Lazarus immediately resurrected. He who breathed the breath of life into
Adam has life in Himself.
This is
how His own Resurrection from the dead is theologically interpreted after His
descent into Hades, and it ensures our own expectation of the resurrection of
the dead and the life of the age to come.
With the
expectation of the Resurrection, therefore, we enter Holy and Great Week, that
we may journey together and be crucified together, as well as be resurrected
together, and finally be united with our Lord.
On Palm
Sunday we celebrate the bright and glorious festival of the entrance of the
Lord into the Holy City of Jerusalem.
He comes
exactly as it was prophesied by Zechariah in the Old Testament: "Behold,
your king is coming to you; he is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and
mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
Meekly He
sits on the donkey, just and endowed with salvation, to suffer the perfect
injustice and extreme humiliation, by His Passion, and especially the Cross, to
grant salvation to fallen humanity.
He
fulfills the plan of Divine Providence and reopens the door of Paradise as a
compassionate Father, who never ceases to love His children.
On Holy
and Great Monday the Church remembers blessed Joseph the All-Comely. He was the
son of Jacob, whom his brothers wanted to kill and repeat the horrible
fratricide of Cain because of their envy.
He
suffered horrible bullying by his own brothers. God, however, protected him
from death, and so was sold to traders and led as a captive to Egypt, where
Potiphar purchased him, and after he refused to sin with his master's wife, he
was unjustly slandered and imprisoned.
Still
even there, the grace of God acted on his behalf, and not only was he
liberated, but he became the closest confidant and collaborator of Pharaoh.
In the
sufferings of the all-comely Joseph and in his love, by which he forgave his
brothers, the Church saw the Passion of the Lord and His perfect love
prefigured, which is why it has been set to honor his memory on Holy and Great
Monday.
On the
same day we also remember the event of the withered fig tree, which reveals the
holy will of God that we are to struggle, and multiply our talents entrusted to
us and increase our inheritance of grace, that we may bear spiritual fruit.
Otherwise,
as our Lord said at the Sermon on the Mount, "Every tree that does not
bear good fruit, is cut down and thrown into the fire." This is what
happened with the withered fig tree.
On Holy
and Great Tuesday we remember the Parable of the Ten Virgins. With this parable
we are called to cultivate watchfulness, alertness, as we do not know the day
or hour when we will be called to the heavenly marriage of the Bridegroom
Christ, and risk not having oil in our lamps.
Let our
hands not be empty, because we have no mercy and love, because we are perhaps
unmerciful and hard-hearted before the needs of our neighbors.
On Holy
and Great Wednesday we remember the harlot woman, who anointed the Lord with
myrrh prior to His salvific Passion. One act and one person who will probably
even scandalize us!
How dare
such a woman approach Jesus! Yet our Lord loves all His children. He does not
exclude any of His children from salvation and teaches us not to judge, so that
we will not be judged.
And,
indeed, this harlot woman was saved by repentance, just as the thief who was
crucified with the Lord, and like Zacchaeus along with countless other examples
in the history of the Church.
So also
are we invited if we are sunk in our sins and in despair over our actions, and
we are encouraged by the all-loving mercy of God to offer Him our broken and
contrite hearts, to be healed and to have a clean heart created within us.
On Holy
and Great Thursday the Church celebrates the washing of the disciples feet in
the sacred Basin, the Secret Supper, the supernatural prayer and the betrayal.
It is a
practical teaching of extreme humility, the tradition of the Mystery of the
Divine Eucharist, the amazing High Priestly Prayer of Gethsemene, as well as
the false betrayal of Judas by a kiss.
Jesus
desired to eat with His disciples, and even prepares the details of the supper,
and He welcomes them as a servant, washing their feet on His knees, and serving
them at the table.
There He
delivers the mystery of mysteries and seals the New Testament with His Blood.
He also
gives Judas an opportunity at repentance by foretelling who it would be that
would betray Him, but the lawless Judas was unwilling to change his mind.
On Holy
and Great Friday we commemorate the salvific and horrible Passion, especially
the Cross and Death of the Lord, as well as the salvific confession of the
grateful thief on the cross.
He was
crucified for us and He suffered and was buried and became obedient even unto
death, death by a cross.
On Holy
and Great Saturday all flesh is silent, as we celebrate the entombment of the
Body of God and the Savior's descent into Hades. But already the tomb cannot
contain the Lord of Glory. And we have a foretaste of the joy of the
Resurrection. At the Vespers of the Resurrection, which is chanted on the
morning of Holy and Great Saturday, we proclaim once again while spreading out
bay leaves: "Arise O Lord and judge the earth, for to You belong all the
nations."
Through
this journey and ladder and our conscious participation in the wonderful life
of worship in the Church this year is completed, just as in every year, Holy
and Great Week and the spiritual struggle of the faithful.
Since,
then, we will hopefully arrive at Pascha Sunday, may we be made worthy of
Divine Grace to venerate once again this year, the glorious and life-bearing
Resurrection.
By Fr. George Economou
Translated by John Sanidopoulos
Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2016/04/the-spiritual-ladder-of-holy-week.html
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