{"id":29584,"date":"2020-04-14T08:03:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T08:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/?p=29584"},"modified":"2020-04-14T08:03:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T08:03:17","slug":"holy-tuesday-evening-holy-wednesday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/holy-tuesday-evening-holy-wednesday-morning","title":{"rendered":"Holy Tuesday Evening, Holy Wednesday Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo from instagram.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Holy Tuesday evening Bridegroom Matins\u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Before we get into the Gospel story \u2026<\/p>\n

Tonight we hear the Hymn of\u00a0Kassiane, a ninth century nun and hymnographer. She was Irish, but her family moved to Constantinople, where she was one of several young women interviewed by Emperor Theophilus as his prospective bride. The story says he was so flummoxed by Kassiane\u2019s beauty that he said something stupid (as men have been known to do): \u201cFrom a woman came forth the baser instincts\u201d, that is from Eve. Not very romantic, you say? Kassiane who was bright and quick retorted, \u201cYes, and from a woman came forth the best thing of all\u201d, that is, Christ. Theophilus was embarrassed at his ineptitude and chose someone else, but it was said he always regretted it.<\/p>\n

Kassiane became a nun, founded a monastery near Constantinople, and wrote many hymns, including tonight\u2019s about the sinful woman who anointed Christ. It is said that late in life the Emperor went to the monastery hoping to see Kassiane once more. She hid, leaving her unfinished hymn, her love song to Christ, on the table, and when the Emperor had left she found he had completed it. Perhaps a legend, but it\u2019s a lovely story, and a very lovely hymn \u2013 sung here by the Boston Byzantine Choir.<\/p>\n

\u201cO Lord God, the woman who had fallen into many sins, having perceived Thy divinity, received the rank of ointment-bearer, offering Thee spices before Thy burial wailing and crying: \u201cWoe is me, for the love of adultery and sin hath given me a dark and lightless night; accept the fountains of my tears. O Thou Who drawest the waters of the sea by the clouds, incline to the sigh of my heart. O Thou Who didst bend the heavens by Thine inapprehendible condescension, I will kiss Thy pure feet and I will wipe them with my tresses. I will kiss Thy feet Whose tread when it fell on the ears of Eve in Paradise dismayed her so that she hid herself for of fear. Who then shall examine the multitude of my sin and the depth of Thy judgment? Wherefore, O my Saviour and the Deliverer of my soul, turn not away from Thy handmaiden, O Thou of boundless mercy\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gospel reading:John 12:17-50<\/p>\n

Last night we heard Saint Matthew\u2019s account of the end of Jesus\u2019 public ministry. Now we hear John\u2019s version\u00a0which is quite different. I see no discrepancy. Far more happened than could be written down, so all four Gospels are \u201ccondensed versions\u201d from different perspectives. Young John had been Jesus\u2019 closest friend and confidante and no doubt got the \u201cinside story\u201d. Also I think John, writing after the others, was adding stories omitted by Matthew, Mark and Luke which he felt were too good to be lost.<\/p>\n

All John tells us of the Holy Week confrontations is the final complaint of the Pharisees: \u201cWe\u2019re getting nowhere. The world has gone after him\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world\u201d: Now some Greeks (Greek speaking Jews? Greeks sympathetic to Judaism?) who were in the city for the feast came saying, \u201cWe want to see Jesus\u201d. They went to Philip (a Greek name) who went to Andrew (Andreas, also a Greek name) who told Jesus.<\/p>\n

The Lord took this as a sign that his ministry to the Jews was over. Now it was time\u00a0<\/span>to move on and give his life for the life of the whole world. \u201cThe hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.\u201d He will be a grain of\u00a0<\/span>wheat that falls to the ground, so it may produce a great harvest.<\/p>\n

Kolyva (\u039a\u03bf\u03bb\u03bb\u03c5\u03b2\u03b1\u00a0<\/span>in Greek), the wheat which we use at memorials for the\u00a0\"\"dead (shown here surrounded by flowers with a picture of the departed loved one) was originally a pagan symbol, but Christ gave it new meaning: He is the seed planted in the earth from which new and greater life springs up \u2013 his Death and Resurrection. So shall we be in our death and resurrection.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cShall I say, Father, save me from this hour? No\u201d, he said almost to himself, \u201cThis is why I came to this hour. Father glorify thy name.\u201d A voice was heard: \u201cI have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.\u201d Thunder? the voice of an angel? Jesus said, \u201cThis voice has come for your sake\u2026Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the ruler of this world [Satan] be cast out, and I when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all the world to myself.\u201d\u00a0And<\/span>\u00a0here we are, brothers and sisters, thousands of miles away and twenty centuries later, still drawn to him by his love lifted up on the Cross.<\/p>\n

His hearers didn\u2019t understand \u2013 little wonder. \u201cBut isn\u2019t the Christ supposed to remain forever?\u00a0<\/span>Who is this Son of Man? What is this \u2018being lifted up’\u201d? He gives no answer. He is done with words. Now he will show them. He says only, \u201cA little while longer the light is with you. Walk in the light while you have the light, that you may become sons of light.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Then he departed and \u201cwas hidden from them\u201d. His public ministry was over.<\/p>\n

Then John adds his own commentary written many years later when it had become clear that the Jews as a people were not going to believe in Jesus Christ \u2013 though he had given them so many signs that he\u00a0was their Messiah. John says this fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: God has \u201cblinded their eyes, hardened their hearts lest they should see and understand\u201d. But that was no explanation for their unbelief. John had no explanation. Though he adds that even some of the rulers did believe but didn\u2019t admit it lest they be cast out of the synagog, for \u201cthey loved the praise of men more than the praise of God\u201d \u2013 and that was even worse.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then John returns to the story \u2013 and this is so poignant: Jesus cried out. This was in private. I wonder if only his beloved John was there to hear it. He\u00a0cried out\u00a0<\/em>in grief. He had known from the beginning he\u00a0<\/span>would be rejected, but that didn\u2019t mean it didn\u2019t hurt. Even if we know something terrible is going to happen, it still hurts, indeed all the worse for knowing it is coming. But it wasn\u2019t only the Jews who caused him to cry out, was it? It was all who would turn away from him and his love, and that\u2019s all of us sometimes, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Jesus looked back and summed up his ministry and his \u201cidentity\u201d: \u201cHe who believes in me believes in him who sent me\u201d. \u201cHe who sees me sees him who sent me\u201d. \u201cI have come as light to the world, so people might not walk in darkness\u201d. \u201cIf anyone does not believe in me I do not judge him.\u201d I came not to judge but to save. But what\u00a0\"\"have spoken will judge him on the last day.\u201d \u201cFor I have not spoken on my own authority. I have said only what the Father told me to say, and I know that in it is everlasting life.\u201d<\/p>\n

To reject Christ, to consciously reject his word is to \u201creject everlasting life\u201d. For Christ is God and God is life and only in God is life. \u201cI am the resurrection, I am life\u201d, he had said. Then he repeats: \u201cI have spoken only what the Father told me to say.\u201d As if, even though he knew what would happen, he couldn\u2019t accept it, couldn\u2019t believe it. How was it possible that they could reject something so beautiful, so life-giving, so true, so obvious? Yet there it was. And it was breaking his heart.<\/p>\n

I think this is Jesus at his most \u201chuman\u201d, and the most heart-wrenching passage in the Gospels.<\/p>\n

It was now Tuesday night. Tomorrow Judas will go to the authorities and ask, \u201cWhat will you give me if I deliver him to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Holy Wednesday morning Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts<\/h3>\n

Gospel:\u00a0Matthew 26:6-16<\/p>\n

A short Gospel reading in Holy Week!<\/p>\n

Matthew repeats the story we heard Sunday from John, about Christ being anointed with fragrant oil. John said Mary sister of Martha did the anointing. Matthew says only that it was \u201ca woman\u201d. Luke places this earlier in Jesus\u2019 ministry and says it was done by a sinful woman. (How to harmonize these? I don\u2019t know.)<\/p>\n

Then Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, \u201cWhat will you give me if I deliver him to you?\u201d They gave him thirty pieces of silver, and \u201cfrom that time he sought opportunity to betray him.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>This is why we keep Wednesdays as a fast day \u2013 for the betrayal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Judas is the most perplexing figure in the Holy Week story. Why did he do this? The only explanation the Gospels give is for money. \u00a0Beginning Tuesday evening through Thursday evening we hear hymns about the greed of Judas that caused him to betray the Lord.<\/p>\n

People have speculated that surely Judas couldn\u2019t have betrayed him\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0for money, and the Gospel accounts leave openings for additional possibilities.<\/p>\n

John says at the Last Supper, after Jesus gave Judas a piece of bread (a traditional sign of friendship, affection \u2013 imagine!), then \u201cSatan entered into him\u201d, and Jesus said to him, \u201cWhat you do, do quickly.\u201d John, sitting close to Jesus, must have heard this. It sounds almost as if the betrayal had been arranged between Jesus and Judas. Or did Judas take this as a secret sign that Jesus wanted him to betray him in time for the Passover?\u00a0Or was Jesus just tell telling Judas that he knew what he was up to?<\/p>\n

Matthew, Mark and Luke all quote the Lord saying, \u201cThe Son of Man goes as it is written\u00a0\"\"of him, but woe to the man by whom he is betrayed.\u201d\u00a0But Judas couldn\u2019t have been \u201cfated\u201d to do this. Christ who loves all mankind does not set anyone up for woe, for hell, not even Judas. And Satan does not enter into anyone unless they let him in. So this explanation still leaves us hanging.<\/p>\n

Or maybe it was because Judas lost faith in Jesus. He had believed, but then they came to Jerusalem and Jesus didn\u2019t cast out the Romans and bring in the Jewish kingdom and showed no sign of doing it. Judas concluded: I was wrong, he\u2019s not the Messiah, and quickly to save his skin he changed sides and went to the authorities. Perhaps.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some speculate that Judas never had faith in him as Son of God. \u201cJesus Christ Superstar\u201d (that peculiar but occasionally profound musical from the 70s) theorized that Judas saw him only as a beneficent \u201cgood samaritan\u201d, as indeed he was. But as time went on it had become less about helping people and more about Jesus himself: Who do men say that I am? Distressed at this Judas turned on him. At the end of \u201cSuperstar\u201d Judas is dead and Christ is risen, and Judas sings: Did you know what you were doing all along? were you really the Messiah? Perhaps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Gospel accounts and the Church\u2019s hymns suggest only that greed was behind it. Was greed\u00a0<\/span>Judas\u2019 \u201cpassion\u201d, as we Orthodox call it? Remember how John wrote that Judas used to steal from the common moneybag. We know, we see how greed \u2013 lust for money, for things \u2013 can cause people, financiers, CEOs and ordinary folks who must have everything\u00a0now,<\/em>\u00a0to do irrational things, and how they can destroy themselves and others in the process. You know that at critical moments our passions often come at us in force \u2013 and we lose our tempers again or fall again into despair or turn to drink or drugs or food or sex or shopping \u2013 or to money.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/i>Imagine Judas, now utterly confused: Nothing is going the way he thought. Is he wrong about Jesus? Is he right? He has no idea and he\u2019s had no sleep all week, tossing and turning, at his wits\u2019 end. So now at\u00a0<\/span>this most critical moment the devil attacks: Judas\u2019 besetting sin comes at him. His mind goes dark. He has no idea what to do next \u2013 but maybe money will help me cope, money will feel so good, nice familiar comforting soothing money. Was that it?<\/p>\n

Listen to the words of a Holy Thursday hymn:\u00a0Judas darkened by the disease of greed delivered thee, the righteous Judge to lawless judges. You who love money, see how for money\u2019s sake he hanged himself. Flee from the greed which made him do such things against his Master.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And we know he betrayed the Lord and took money for it, thirty pieces of silver \u2013 and that after the Crucifixion Judas tried to give the money back. Apparently all he could think to do to try to get out from under this horrible burden of guilt was: Get rid of the money. The chief priests piously refused it: \u201cIt\u2019s illegal to take back blood money.\u201d Lord, have mercy \u2013 as if it had been legal for them to give a bribe to betray this innocent man. That hadn\u2019t troubled them, had it? And we know\u00a0\"\"Judas threw the money down and ran away: he had to get rid of that money! He left and soon was dead. Matthew says he hanged himself. The Book of Acts says he fell and ripped himself open on a rock \u201cand all his bowels gushed out\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Judas betrayed Jesus, lost all hope, turned away and died in despair. The hymns today compare Judas with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus\u2019 feet with her hair, who repented and was forgiven. Hers was a simple story: She was a sinner and she knew it. So she turned to Christ and repented. No complex motivations as with Judas, and hers was a happy ending. \u201cThere is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.\u201d Likewise Simon Peter denied Christ three times, but returned in repentance and was forgiven. We honor him as Saint Peter.<\/p>\n

What if, like the sinful woman, like Peter, Judas had repented? What if he had come to the risen Christ asking\u00a0<\/span>forgiveness? Hanging in our churches, would we now have icons of Saint Judas?<\/p>\n

We will never know, for Judas did not repent.<\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/frbill\/118-holy-tuesday-evening-bridegroom-matins-holy-wednesday-morning-liturgy-of-the-presanctified-gifts\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holy Tuesday evening Bridegroom Matins\u00a0\u00a0 Before we get into the Gospel story \u2026 Tonight we hear the Hymn of\u00a0Kassiane, a ninth century nun and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56],"tags":[43,30],"class_list":["post-29584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-life-issues","tag-great-lent","tag-introduction-to-liturgics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/2-11-1-2-13-3.jpeg","views":{"total":166,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1768413669},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPyw9-7Ha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29584"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29587,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29584\/revisions\/29587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}