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Holy Week in the Greek Orthodox Church is an experience rooted in practices from Holy Scripture, Church History, and Patristic Tradition. Every day, from Saturday of Lazarus to the Great and Holy Resurrection service calls the faithful to participate in the final days of ’s earthly life so that, “We may be united in a resurrection like His”. Day by day, we will look at, in detail, the practices, history, and traditions as outlined by the and as is customary of the Greek Orthodox Churches in America.

Efstratios “Yianni” Magoulias

Pastoral Assistant Greek Orthodox Church of the Sacramento, CA

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Holy Week in the Christian Orthodox Church officially begins with Christ’s most amazing miracle, raising His friend Lazarus, who was dead for four days, from the dead. , by raising someone from the dead, pushed His enemies to the limit, to the point where they wanted to crucify Him. At the same time, this event shows Christ

Himself prophesying His own resurrection. In addition to foretelling His own

Resurrection, Christ is warning us about the Parousia, or the in which we all will be joined in the general resurrection.

Looking at the scriptures for this great feast day, Christ’s two natures are revealed to us. The is taken from Hebrews 12: 28-29 and 13:1-8, while the is according to :1-45. In the Gospel, we find the shortest line in scripture, “”1 (John 11:35). This short and simple line, by itself, shows Christ’s human nature, that even he, the creator of all creation, weeps for His friend who had died. However, seconds later, Christ commands the people to roll away the stone and says, “Lazarus, come out!”2 and at the moment, Lazarus walked out of the tomb still wrapped in his burial clothes (John 11:43). By raising Lazarus from the dead, Christ shows the people present His divine nature, being the Son of God.

1 (John 11:35) 2 (John 11:43) Magoulias 3

Thus, the theme of the resurrection is very practical on the Saturday of Lazarus.

Raising Lazarus from the dead gives more credence to our Lord’s Resurrection in that it is not impossible for Him to come back to life with His resurrected body. By resurrecting in His own body, Christ was disproving the accusations that His body could be stolen.

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“Blessed is He who comes in the name of , the King of Israel!” rings through the streets as the Lord, Jesus Christ, rides into the city of on the colt of a donkey. The people, having heard of Jesus’s most recent miracle, were eager to see for themselves. Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem marks His divine authority on Earth. The donkey, a common mode of transportation during the time of Christ, is an untamed beast, symbolic of the , who were an untamed people. Christ is the kingdom.

We are reminded of this in scripture, which says, “The kingdom is not only at hand (Mt

3.2;4.17), it is within us (Lk 17.21). The kingdom is a present reality as well as a future realization (Mt 6.10)”. The life of the Holy Trinity in the world is an example of the kingdom of God, which can be seen in holiness, goodness, truth, beauty, love, peace, and joy.

The hymns for speak of the event. We hear Christ sitting on a throne in Heaven, but humbling himself to sitting on a donkey on Earth. Throughout the Matins for the , specifically in the prokeimenon, we hear the verse,

“From the mouths of babes and sucklings comes perfect praise”. The verse is referring to the chants heard as Christ entered the city, “, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel”!

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The mood of Holy Week begins to come out on the evening of Palm Sunday. The lights are dimmed, and the of Christ’s extreme humility is processed around the church. The icon used only during the services for the next few days is unlike any other depiction of Christ. Instead of being depicted as King, he is looked upon in mockery.

Christ is stripped of His clothing wearing only a purple tunic, and has His hands tied together with a grass reed in place of a scepter. This is Christ’s warning to us, the faithful, of what is to come.

The services from Palm Sunday night until Wednesday night are titled, “The

Bridegroom Service”. Christ is compared to the bridegroom, with His bride being the

Church. Christ, in His love for mankind, has come to Earth to take the Church, and us with it, to heaven. He did this for us through His voluntary passion. While the bridegroom services mention this, they focus mainly on the Parousia, or second coming of our Lord. The hymns chanted tonight proclaim that Christ truly is the Bridegroom.

He is the most important guest at the upcoming feast, God’s Eternal Kingdom.

With this service, we personally become involved, physically, spiritually, and emotionally with the events, being called to walk in the footsteps of Christ both in the precession the priest makes around church and in our lives. It is important for us to prepare so that we can enter the bridal hall with Him. Magoulias 8

Palm Sunday evening portrays Joseph as the prototype of Christ. We hear about the story of Joseph in Genesis, a man whose brothers sold him into slavery. But his story shows us the mystery of God’s providence, promise, and redemption. We also remember on Palm Sunday evening, the cursing of the fig tree in the gospel according to Matthew. This parable, similar to Christ destroying the temple, relates itself to the

Jewish people and their faithlessness and foolishness. The fig tree not bearing fruit is parallel to Israel not accepting and following Christ’s teachings.

All three themes are tied together when we evaluate ourselves for the upcoming feast. Conflict, judgement, and authority are the key themes that Palm Sunday evening focuses on. The relentless hostility the Jews punished Jesus with is seen in the icon and is foretold in the gospel and parables we hear in the Bridegroom Service. However, the

Church remembers Christ’s voluntary passion for our sake, rather than condemning the events and the culprits.

We have seen in the hymns, , and scripture a changing of mood, that this week is different than all other weeks of the year. Christ, the Son of God, has come to save mankind through the most terrifying form of execution known during the time of the Roman Empire. We are reminded that we do not focus on mourning Christ as a fallen hero, but to reflect on Christ’s for mankind and His love for His creation.

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We reenter the church on Monday evening to see Christ and the icon of His extreme humility still on the soleas and to pray the matins for Tuesday morning. Once again, the service of the Bridegroom is celebrated with a similar structure to the previous night. The hymn to the Bridegroom is still sung three times, without the precession. The same structure is followed, but the hymns now tell about two new parables, the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the talents. Both of the parables are important because they are given to us from Christ Himself as written down by His Apostles and Disciples.

The parable of the ten virgins is quite simple. It speaks of ten virgins, five of whom were wise and five of who were foolish. They were anxiously awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom in order to enter into the marriage feast. However, the

Bridegroom delayed his arrival and the five foolish virgins were caught without enough oil for their lamps. They travel back into the city to purchase more oil, however, while they were away, the Bridegroom arrived, let the prepared guests enter, and shut the doors. When the foolish virgins finally returned, it was too late for them to be included in the feast.

The second parable speaks about a master who gives three of his servants, three different shares of his wealth. The first receives ten talents, the second, five, and the Magoulias 10 last, one. As we already know, the first two invest their share and increase the wealth entrusted to them by the master. The third however, buries his talent. When the day comes and the master calls the three servants back to his house, they bring their shares.

The first two, having increased the master’s wealth, are welcomed into the feast, while the third, who hid his talent and ignored the master, is cast out from the presence of the feast.

Both of these parables bring to us prophecies of the Parousia, or the Second

Coming of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both the Bridegroom and the master represent Jesus Christ and the unknown hour in which he will return. The virgins and the servants, represent ourselves and the entity of mankind.

We have been entrusted with both an invitation to a feast and a gift from the

Master. Our invitation, as we have chosen to accept by being baptized in the Orthodox

Church, is to prepare for the feast. The oil lamps that we carry with us are the virtues in which we ought to live our lives. Our gifts are the talents that God has given to us. In the last hymn chanted before the Trisagion (Doxastikon of the Aposticha), the hymnographer speaks to our own soul about this gift, saying to increase what God has given us and to share with others so that we can, “Gain the Lord as a Friend” (pg. 69).

The attitude of the five unprepared virgins who went to get more oil and the servant who buried his talent is one of slothfulness and laziness. However, those who were Magoulias 11 welcomed into the feast and the good servants who multiplied the talent given to them, had the mindset of constantly striving to be better.

The Kingdom of God is at hand, the battle with evil has already been defeated. It is our duty to constantly strive to be like the wise virgins and the good servants so that at that hour we will be accepted into the feast, the eternal kingdom of God.

For a third and final time, the faithful gather for the Bridegroom Service, this time remembering two figures who play a specific part in of Christ. In the gospel lesson according to Matthew, we hear of the sinful woman who anointed Jesus before His passion and Judas’s response to the event. Beautifully, the entire theme of the service is captured in the hymn of St. Kassiani. St. Kassiani, a nun in the ninth century, with love wrote this hymn from the viewpoint of the woman who anointed

Jesus’s feet. “Woe to me!” she cries out in the hymn, asking for repentance by the act of purchasing expensive oil, mixed with her sorrowful tears. Jesus admires this act of repentance and thanks her, but Judas has doubts in his mind.

In the hymns following the Ainoi, or the lauds, the hymnographer writes, “O misery of Judas! He saw the harlot kissing the feet, and with guile he meditated the kiss of betrayal” (pg. 99). The hymnographer continues to compare the two back and forth Magoulias 12 saying, “She unloosed her tresses, and he bound himself with fury,” and, “instead of myrrh, his foul wickedness”. We are reminded of the freedom that God gave mankind; the freedom to accept, like the woman, or reject, like Judas. The comparison is extremely powerful. We hear in the hymn that the woman was a harlot, or a woman who sells her body for sexual pleasures. Judas, on the other hand, is a of Christ who witnessed, first-hand, the power of God through the miracles performed by Christ.

Certainly, if someone who witnessed God’s glory can reject Him, then someone who neglected Him, can repent.

This message is given to us in the last Bridegroom service as a warning, but as hope. All three services remind us of the Parousia, or second coming, and it is important not to forget this very real event. Sin is much more than breaking the rules, it is missing the mark. Sin is the failure, “To realize one’s vocation and destiny”. Repentance, on the other hand, is to fully accept and follow God. This is why the Church gives us confession, so that we can repent. No one is perfect, but the realization and the constant struggle to become one with Christ through His teachings is what we aim for.

Yes, we will miss the mark, but we must repent and prepare for that awesome and unknown day of the glorious second coming.

It is because of this theme that on Wednesday (the Tuesday evening Bridegroom service is the Matins for Wednesday morning) we have the last scheduled pre-sanctified Magoulias 13 liturgy of the as well as the service of Efchelaion, or Holy Unction, in order to prepare for the Resurrection of our Lord. The process of being anointed has parallels with both the harlot anointing Jesus with oil and Jesus washing the feet of His disciples, which will be discussed in the next section.

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In preparation for the of Holy Unction, Efchelaion, we pray the final

Divine Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts. On evening, matins for

Thursday morning is celebrated in anticipation for the Mystical Supper. Structurally, it is similar to the Bridegroom service offered on Sunday night, including a , however the hymns and icon placed on the soleas revolve around the Mystical Supper.

The focus of Holy Wednesday is the service of Holy Unction, or Efchelaion. In the service, in addition to the hymns chanted, seven and seven prayers are read over the offering. The offering is more than just oil. Contained in the bowl placed on a table on the soleas are oil, , water, and flour. Holy Unction is administered for healing of both physical and spiritual ailments. These ingredients are tied to the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the story, a Samaritan stops and helps a man from

Jerusalem who had been beaten up by thieves. The parable says, “So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine,” thus why we mix the two, with the addition of water to keep the sacrament cool. The flour that holds the cup containing the oil, wine, and water is taken after the service and is used to bake prosfora to be used for the Proti-Anastasi and Anastasi services. At the end of the service, the remaining sacrament is carefully poured into the center candle that stays lit on the table so that throughout the year, if someone needs Holy Unction, the priest readily has the sacrament available. Magoulias 16

It is because Christ took our infirmities and bore our diseases (Mt. 817) that this sacrament is possible. Through Him, we are able to overcome all ailments and diseases, according to His will. Ultimately, this sacrament helps us in our Lenten journey of repentance, cleansing, watchfulness, and preparation. It is important to focus on the importance of this sacrament and the rarity that it is performed. The hymns and prayers serve as a final preparation for us, having traveled through , to walk with

Christ to His passion and His glorious Resurrection.

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Everything that happens liturgically in Holy Week happens in anticipation of what is to come. On Holy morning, the Divine Liturgy commemorates the

Last Supper, the feast that Jesus celebrated with His disciples. The entire services is focused around the hymn, “Receive me today, O Son of God, as a partaker of

Your Mystical Feast; for I will not speak of the Mystery to Your enemies; I will not kiss

You as did Judas, but as the thief will I confess: ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom’.” The Matins also reminds us of the shameful deeds of Judas

Iscariot, how he went to the high priests, and betrayed the Lord.

This Divine Liturgy is especially relevant because verses from scripture like,

“Take eat this is my Body,” and, “Drink of it, all of you, this is my ,” are repeated in the hymns in the Matins. They connect us, physically, at the event with our Lord and the Disciples. The laity’s participation is extremely important during all services, especially the Divine Liturgy. It is for this reason most of the Mystical Supper feature an open seat for people viewing the icon. This open seat is filled by us every time we participate in the sacrament. However, at that same table sits , reminding us that we can participate in the Body and , and still fall if we take His love and mercy for granted.

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On Thursday evening, we personally join Christ in the events of His passion. In one of the most moving services in the liturgical calendar, we hear twelve gospels pertaining to the betrayal, torture, and of Jesus Christ. During the service, at the appropriate hour, the priest carries the cross of our Lord around the church and places it on the soleas. For the remainder of the service, the faithful are present at the foot of the cross to witness His love for us and all of mankind. In the hymns, we hear the excruciating details of the tortures and scourgings, as well the events to come, the great Resurrection.

As the priest carries the cross around the church, he chants, “Today is hung upon a tree, He Who did hang the earth upon the waters. A wreath of thorns crowns Him,

Who is the King of Angels. A false purple is put around Him, Who encircled heaven in clouds. A slapping was received by Him, Who freed Adam in Jordan. The Bridegroom of the Church was fixed with nails; the Son of the Virgin was pierced by a lance. We worship Your Passion, O Christ; Show to us also Your Glorious Resurrection”. The hymnographer beautifully paints a comparison between who Christ is, with the tortures. And even though we witness the most humiliating form of death during the time of the Roman Empire, we are left with the reminder of, “Show to us also Your

Glorious Resurrection”. Magoulias 21

Not to be overlooked is the doxastikon of the matins, chanted just before the tenth gospel, which takes the view of Jesus Christ during these events. He says, “They stripped Me of My garments, and put on Me a scarlet robe; they set upon My Head a , and gave a reed into My right Hand, that I may shatter them in pieces like a potter’s vessels. I gave My back to scourgins, and turned not away My face from spittings; I stood before the judgement-seat of Pilate, and endured the Cross, for the salvation of the world”. This internal dialog, chanted slowly and in the disjunctive, hard chromatic, plagal of second mode, expresses the emotion and passion of the events that just happened. But just like in the hymn chanted during the procession, we are reminded that all these events had to happen in order to be united again with God the

Father.

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On Great Friday, we observe the holy, saving, and awesome Passion of our Lord, and God, and Savior Jesus Christ; the spittings, the scourgings, the buffetings, the scorn, the mocking, the purple robe, the reed, the sponge, the vinegar, the nails, the spear, and above all, the Cross and Death, which he willingly suffered for us. The synaxarion read for the day is the only way to encompass the event of Christ’s passion.

It is in this event we find the reason why the days of this special week bear the adjective, great. Great was the passion that Christ suffered for our sake. Great were the spittings, scourgings, buffetings, and mockings. Great was His trial. Great was His crucifixion.

But why was this necessary? God, in the creation, did not create death. Death was made by man through the fall of Adam and Eve. Death is created, by separating ourselves from Christ. Today we are placed, face to face, with the awesome mystery of the extreme humility of our suffering Lord. Christ, assumed flesh, and became completely man while remaining completely God. By Christ, becoming completely man also means that he would face death. However, St. Paul writes in his letter to the

Romans, “The death he died, he died to sin, once, for all”. His death was unlike the death of any man. The death he died was so great, that even Hades himself was in shocked of Who was entering into domain. Magoulias 24

St. Paul reminds us, “That all of us, who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death. We were buried with Him by into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”. We have all, through baptism, been united with Christ. But right now, the Church reminds us of this. Last night’s services, all of today’s services, and the remainder of the Holy Week services, call us to be not only spiritually, but physically, with Christ, just as the Apostle Paul had said.

The mood of today is sorrowful, but it is also watchful, watchful of what is to come. Great was Christ’s passion but great IS God’s love for us. So great that He gave

His only Son, not just to the world, but to death, so that through Him we could have eternal life.

After the Matins, the kouvouklion is decorated and placed on the soleas. This vesper service reminds us of and Nicodemus, the ones who buried

Christ’s body. On Thursday evening, the acolytes with the priest, carry the cross of

Christ around the church. Similarly today, they process Christ to His tomb. The priest carries the , which is an icon of Christ being laid in a tomb, from the altar, to the tomb.

The hymns of the day proclaim the great faith and courage shown by both

Joseph and Nicodemus. We as the faithful are called once again to physically Magoulias 25 participate, not simply by chanting hymns and responding to petitions, but by being present with Joseph and Nicodemus to bury our Lord.

The faithful return to church that evening greeted again by the Kouvouklion placed on the soleas. The canon is chanted proclaiming Christ’s passion, but the climax comes with the chanting of the lamentations around Christ’s tomb. We hear in scripture how Christ’s crucifixion was rushed because of the Passover. Likewise, His burial was also. Joseph and Nicodemus took His body to Joseph’s new tomb, just below the rock of Golgotha, where He was crucified. Christ was wrapped in a burial shroud, with the expectation of the myrrh-bearing women to return after the Passover to properly prepare His body…

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Scripture tells us that the myrrh-bearing women, who hastened to the tomb three days after the burial, thought of who would roll away the stone. On morning, the faithful enter the church in anticipation to again, be greeted by Christ’s tomb still in the center of the soleas. The pulpit, which year round is located on the soleas (in America), represents the stone that has been rolled away and the place where the angel announced the news to the women, giving a parallel to why the gospel is read from this place during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. Shortly after the service begins, the faithful chant, “Arise, O God, and judge the earth; for You shall inherit all the nations,” as the priest joyfully throws rose petals around the church representing the joy the myrrh-bearers experienced when they found the . Likewise, the priest is dressed in bright, white , representing the bright raiment of the angel.

The hymns sung in the vespers service recognize the Passion that Christ endured for our sake, but are linked with joy and the expectation of the full message. It is important to note the hymns from the Ninth Ode, especially the few that are written as a dialog between Christ and His mother.

After weeks of preparation, and Holy Week have almost come to an end. The anticipation and excitement for the Resurrection has never been more present.

Why after this service do we not greet our brethren with the exclamation of ‘Christ is Magoulias 28

Risen’? Saturday morning’s Divine Liturgy is the FIRST Resurrection, the announcement from the angel that the Lord is risen. The Disciples, Apostles, and other followers still had no clue of the announcement that the myrrh-bearers received, being both physically not present, and by blinded from Christ’s words.

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Being in the dark from the message of the Resurrection that was given to the myrrh-bearers, and physically in the darkness of the dimly lit church, the Orthros begins just before midnight. The same canon that was chanted on Friday evening is repeated once again, reminding us of the events that have taken place over the past few days; the parables of the second coming, the betrayal, the torture, the passion, the crucifixion, and the burial of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.

The priest, after concluding the first part of the Orthros, closes the curtain and changes into joyful, bright, and ornate vestments of gold or burgundy and chants,

“Δεύτε λάβετε φως, Come, receive the light” in the darkened church while giving the light3 to the faithful, illuminating the church with hundreds of personal candles4.

Following the reading from the Holy Gospel giving the account of the Resurrection and

Good News, the priest censes and joyously exclaims ‘Christ is Risen’ with the faithful.

The service is concluded with the chanting of the Resurrectional Doxastikon, “Today is the Day of Resurrection,” which ends with chanting again the hymn proclaiming Christ is Risen. Immediately after the hymn ends, the Divine Liturgy begins.

3 The light is taken from the center oil candle on the altar which is to remain lit all year long. This light was blessed during the Efchelaion service on Holy Wednesday and contains the Holy Unction to be used for healing year-round. 4 This practice arose out of Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where the Tomb of Christ is still preserved to this day. The patriarch of Jerusalem prays to receive the miracle of the and distributes it to the people in the same manner Magoulias 31

The announcement of the Resurrection can only be completed with the partaking of the . It is for this reason that every Sunday of the year we remember the

Resurrection. Fasting, prayer, and self-reflection for the past few weeks have led to this moment. We rejoice as did the disciples in celebration and jubilation. For the next forty days, we greet one another with the greeting that ‘Christ is Risen’ and ‘Truly He is

Risen’, constantly celebrating His passion and glorious resurrection. The celebration is continued with the Agapi Vespers, in which the gospel announcing the resurrection is read in multiple languages for all to understand.

The prophecies, theology, and tradition of the Church all come together in full cycle during this week. The services at the beginning of the week find their true meaning and completion with the celebration of the Resurrection. Their messages of warning, repentance, and unconditional love are all made perfect with the Lord’s resurrection on the third day. The of St. John Chrysostom perfectly sums of the season and captures our hearts, giving us strength after a period of fasting and weakness. St. John calls all faithful, no matter when they joined to prepare for the feast, to celebrate and enter into the joy of our Lord.

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“O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Christ IS Risen!” “The Angles rejoice, life is liberated, and the tomb is emptied of the dead, for Christ, having risen from the dead, has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep!”

The Catechetical Homily of Pascha by St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople