Note that we’re still on our Holy Week “topsy-turvy” schedule, always “anticipating” the next appointed service. As I said, despite my not understanding this, somehow it feels just right for this Week when the whole world gets turned upside down.
Introduction
For most of our Orthodox history the Holy Wednesday night service was Matins/Orthros, which continues the Holy Week narrative. However, beginning a few hundred years ago in Greek and Antiochian churches, Matins began to be replaced by the long service of Holy Unction – which as written requires seven priests and seven deacons and I don’t remember what all. (They were actually able to do that at Agia Sophia in Constantinople.)
The Anointing was used as part of the preparation for Pascha Communion. In those days the Holy Eucharist was received rarely, for many only at Pascha, and there was extensive preparation – strict fasting all week, Confession and Holy Unction. This is still true in some places.
However, today Communions are far more frequent in many places, and Holy Unction is also used regularly during the year for healing those who have serious illness, as it was originally intended. Still the Holy Wednesday Anointing remains popular, at least in “Byzantine” Orthodoxy. (I think it’s not common in the Slavic tradition.) I know Greek churches especially are full to overflowing this evening.
Liturgical scholars now recommend that we have both Matins and Anointing services tonight – which is a whole lot! I mean, three or more hours worth. There are various ways of dealing with this for parish use. Some churches have both Matins and Holy Unction. Some have only Anointing. Others do it differently.
Bridegroom Matins Gospel: Luke 22:1-39
Jesus and the disciples are in the upper room at the house of John Mark’s mother – by tradition the Mark who later wrote the Gospel. Imagine having the Mystical Supper, the risen Lord’s Pascha night appearance and the descent of the Holy Spirit in your house!
Matthew, Mark and Luke all say this was the Passover meal. John says it was the night before the Passover – a mystery which I think has never been resolved.
In Luke Jesus says: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer….I shall not eat it again till it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God… I will not drink the fruit of the vine again till the Kingdom of God comes.” A shadow must have fallen over the meal which is usually a celebration. They knew what was coming so very soon, and they couldn’t face it.
The Institution of the Holy Eucharist
At the appointed time during the meal Jesus took the unleavened bread, and added puzzling words: “This is my Body given for you.” And at the end: “This is my Blood shed for you.”
What could this mean? Some Christians have given complex philosophical explanations. We Orthodox have not. Nor do we believe there is a chemical change in the Holy Gifts. Materially, they remain bread and wine. We just accept what He said: “This is my Body… this is my Blood…” (How odd that some Christians who try to take the entire Bible “literally” do not take this literally!)
“Do this in remembrance of me” is a terrible translation. It suggests that Christ said “Do this to remind yourselves of my Body… my Blood”. Far from it! The word “Remembrance” comes from the Greek “anamnesis” / “ανάμνηση”, which in the New Testament means to “re-call, call to be present again.”
The text of the Liturgy in my Archdiocese (again an inadequate translation) tells us that here we have “in remembrance, therefore, this saving commandment and all those things which have come to pass for us: the cross, the grave, the third-day resurrection, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand, and the second and glorious coming”. It means in fact that we call Christ to be present in all His fullness, in all He has done and is doing and ever will do for us.
The Holy Eucharist is the place our Lord Jesus Christ specifically appointed for us to meet Him and to feed on Him – gain Life from Him. “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.” John 5:50-51
Here is my own simple, non-philosophical non-dogmatic approach to the words “Body” and “Blood” – which I hope is not heretical – if it is please tell me, and I will recant. Our own bodies are the place where we are located, through which we act. Christ’s Body the Holy Eucharist is the place where He is, through which He acts for our salvation. Our blood is the source of our life, our strength. Just so, Christ’s Blood gives us His life, His strength for Eternal Life.
Christians, guided by the words of Saint Paul, would later emphasize that the Church also is the Body of Christ – that He meets us, comes to us, strengthens us through the holy People of God, both on earth and on high.
As indeed He does in all things if we only have eyes to see, for there is no place where Christ our God is not. This is why the Orthodox Church does not have “devotions to the Blessed Sacrament” as in traditional Western Christianity, focusing attention on the Eucharist itself. Let me try to say this carefully, so as not to mislead: In Orthodoxy we believe the Holy Eucharist exists to feed us with the Bread of Salvation, but not to draw us into the Sacrament itself. The Holy Eucharist is “outward directed”, so to speak. We find Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist, so that then He can begin to lead us out to find His Presence everywhere in all things – already waiting for us there.
Saint Symeon’s Orthodox Choir ( from “Orthodox Christian Chants” site)
The Narrative continues:
Judas now goes out to betray Him. Jesus again (lest they forget it) tells His apostles how to lead the Church – not by lording it over others but by serving them, leading them, just as He the Lord of all is servant of all, and will now lead our way through death into the Resurrection. He promises His Apostles that they will sit with Him at His table in His Kingdom on thrones judging the tribes of Israel. Tonight they will fail, but He looks beyond tonight. He knows they will again be faithful.
Simon Peter especially: Simon, Satan is out to get you. “No, Lord, I will go with you to prison and death”, as indeed He did in Rome 35 years later. But not tonight. Peter, before dawn you will deny me three times – and so discover how weak you are. (This is something we all need to discover.) Once I sent you all out with nothing, so you would learn to depend on God alone. But now you need provisions, a moneybag, a sword, “for now that which is written about Me comes to its conclusion”. He speaks in symbols. The disciples don’t understand: “Look, we have two swords.” Jesus said: “It is enough.”
Enough swords? No. That night Peter will use a sword, and Jesus will forbid it: “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword”.
Like all the others, they do not understand. So now He will show them. He leads them out to the Mount of Olives and into the Garden of Gethsemane.
In the next three days we will follow with Him, with them, through the final crucial events of Holy Week. (Do you know where the word “crucial” comes from?)
Holy Unction
I speak only for myself here: I have come to find Holy Wednesday Unction meaningful – not as preparation to receive the Eucharist, which normally I do once a week and more, but now to heal my sin-sick soul, to open my inner eyes, to clear my foggy mind – so that I can enter into the wonderful events of these next three days with my whole being at peace and open to God, and truly live them with my Lord Jesus.
I suggest that before you are anointed on Holy Wednesday night you pray something like this: “Lord, open my eyes, my ears, my heart, and enter into my soul. Focus my wandering mind. Let me walk with you, fully alert, through your Passion and Death and into your holy Resurrection.”
Next Post will arrive this afternoon for Holy Thursday Morning Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil.
Father Bill, I am enjoying thoroughly these Pascal posts. Regarding the unction service, I did not know that I should have been fasting from noon until the evening service. Maybe you can add that warning, in your post next year. Even though I and others had not been fasting, our priest did allow us to receive the unction. What a beautiful service. Thanks be to God.
Good morning, John. I had never heard of that, so I thought I should answer as quickly a possible, since others may be concerned. Here is what the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese says: “Fasting: Another way to prepare ourselves for Holy Unction is to fast. Though we normally associate fasting with the sacrament of Holy Communion it is quite appropriate to fast before participation in every sacrament of the Church. Certainly, those who are ailing and in need of physical nourishment or are on a special diet because of their illness are excused from fasting by the Church. They are asked only to receive the sacraments with thanksgiving and a sense of their own unworthiness of God’s love and mercy. But for those who can, fasting is an important means of preparation. How should we fast before Holy Unction? To the best of one’s ability. Those who are able may keep a strict fast from at least 6 hours before the service. Others should at least eat fasting foods being aware not to eat more than necessary.”
In other words, they say fasting before Holy Unction is a good thing to do, but is not required.
A blessed Pascha to you.
Father Bill