My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.
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HOLY AND GREAT THURSDAY: THE HOLY EUCHARIST (MYSTICAL SUPPER)
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On Holy and Great Thursday four events are celebrated: the washing of the Disciple's feet by Christ, the institution of the Mystery (Sacrament) of the Holy Eucharist at the Mystical (Last) Supper, the agony in the garden of Gethsemane (but the liturgical texts do not dwell much on this), and the betrayal of Christ by Judas. In certain cathedrals and monasteries, there is a special ceremony of feet-washing at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, with the Bishop or Egoumenos (Abbot) taking the part of Christ and twelve priests representing the holy Apostles. At the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, and at the centers of other Patriarchates and Autocephalous Churches, the Holy Chrism is blessed during the Divine Liturgy on this day; but the Rite does not take place in every year. The meaning of Holy and Great Thursday is summed up in a text of singular beauty, repeated many times at the Divine Liturgy, which combines the themes of Eucharistic Communion, Judas' treachery, and the confession of the Good Thief:
"At Thy Mystical Supper, Son of God, Today receive me as a communicant: For I will not speak of the mystery to Thine enemies; I will not give Thee a kiss like Judas; But as the thief I confess Thee: Remember me, Lord, when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom."
THE MYSTERY (SACRAMENT) OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST
The Holy Eucharist (literally "thanksgiving") is the Mystery (Sacrament) in which the bread and wine of offering are changed by the Holy Spirit into the true Body and true Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and then the believers receive communion of them for a most intimate union with Christ and eternal life. This Mystery is composed, thus of two separate moments: (1) the changing or transformation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord, and (2) the Communion of these Holy Gifts. It is called "the Eucharist," "the Lord's Supper," "the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ." The Body and Blood of Christ in this Mystery (Sacrament) are called the "Bread of heaven and the Cup of Life" or the "Cup of salvation"; they are called the "Holy Mysteries" (Mysteria) "the Bloodless Sacrifice." The Holy Eucharist is the greatest Christian Mystery (Sacrament).
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The Savior's Words before the Establishment of the Mystery (Sacrament)
Before the first performance of this Holy Mystery (Sacrament) at the Mystical Supper (the Last Supper), Christ promised it in His conversation concerning the Bread of Life on the occasion of the feeding of the five thousand men with five loaves. The Lord taught, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (St. John 6:51). The Jews evidently understood the words of Christ literally. They began to say to each other, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" (St. John 6:52). And the Lord did not tell the Jews that they had understood Him incorrectly, but only with greater force and clarity He continued to speak with the same meaning: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me, and I in him" (Saint John 6:53-56).
His disciples also understood the words of Christ literally: "This is a hard saying; who can hear it" (St. John 6:60), the said. The Savior, so as to convince them of the possibility of such a miraculous eating, indicated another miracle, the miracle of His future Ascension into Heaven: "Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascending where He was before: (St. John 6:61-62). Further Christ adds, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life" (St. John 6:63). By this remark Christ does not ask that His words about the Bread of Life be understood in any "metaphorical" meaning. "There are some of you that believe not," He added immediately (St. John 6:64). By these words the Savior Himself indicates that His words are difficult for faith: How is it that believers will eat His Body and drink His Blood? But He confirms that He speaks of His actual Body. His words concerning His Body and Blood are "spirit and life." They testify that a) he who partakes of them will have eternal life, and will be resurrected for the Kingdom of Glory in the Last Day; and b) that he who partakes of them will enter into the most intimate communion with Christ. His words speak not of life in the flesh, but of life in the Spirit. "The Bread of Heaven and the Cup of Life, taste and see that the Lord is good"--these are words we hear at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. This Communion of His Body and Blood is important not for the quenching of physical hunger, as was the feeding with manna in the desert, or the feeding of the five thousand -- but it is important for eternal life...
The changing of the Bread and Wine in the Mystery (Sacrament) of the Holy Eucharist
"... In the Mystery of the Eucharist, at the time when the priest, invoking the Holy Spirit upon the offered Gifts, blesses them with the prayer to God the Father: "Make this bread the precious Body of Thy Christ; and that which is this cup, the precious Blood of Thy Christ; changing them by Thy Holy Spirit"--the bread and wine actually are changed into the Body and Blood by the coming down of the Holy Spirit. After this moment, although our eyes see bread and wine on the Holy Table, in their very essence, invisibly for sensual eyes, this is the true Body and true Blood of the Lord Jesus, only under the "forms" of bread and wine.
Thus the sanctified Gifts 1) are not signs or symbols, reminding the faithful of the redemption, as the reformed Protestant Zwingli taught; and likewise, 2) it is not only by His "activity and power" ("dynamically") that Jesus Chris is present in them as Calvin (another Protestant) taught; and finally, 3) He is not present in the meaning only of "penetration," as the Protestant Lutherans teach (who recognize the co-presence of Christ "with the bread, under the form of bread, in the bread"; but the sanctified Gifts in the Mystery are changed or (a later term) "transubstantiated" in the True Body and Blood of Christ, as the Savior said, "For My flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed" (St. John 6:55).
This Truth is expressed in the Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs in the following words: "We believe that in this sacred rite our Lord Jesus Christ is present not symbolically (typikos), not figuratively (eikonikos), not by an abundance of grace, as in the other Mysteries, not by a simple descent, as certain Fathers say about Baptism, and not through a "penetration" of the bread, so that the Divinity of the Logos/Word should "enter" into the bread offered for the Eucharist, as the followers of Luther (Protestant) explain it rather awkwardly and unworthily--but truly and actually, so that after the sanctification of the bread and wine, the bread is changed, converted, transformed, into the actual true Body of the Lord, which was born in Bethlehem of the Ever-Virgin, was baptized in the Jordan, suffered, was buried, resurrected, ascended, sits at the right hand of God the Father, and is to appear in the clouds of heaven; and the wine is changed into the actual true Blood of the Lord, which at the time of His suffering on the Cross was shed for the life of the world. Yet again, we believe that after the sanctification of the bread and wine there remains no longer the bread and wine themselves, but the very Body and Blood of the Lord, under the appearance and form of bread and wine." (Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Father Michael Pomazansky)
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KALI ANASTASI! GLORIOUS RESURRECTION TO ALL!
"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom
With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George