-Saint Nicholas Planas, Liturgical gratitude incarnate
The Liturgy as Eucharist
“Holding the gifts of his gratitude man ascends through the Divine Liturgy to the heights of God …the bread and the wine receives the blessing of the life-creating Spirit and becomes Eucharist. Man communes in the Eucharistic food, in Christ, and himself becomes a constant Eucharist, thanksgiving.” -Hiermonk Gregorios
Before the word “liturgy” was employed by the early Christians for the celebration of the mystery of Christ the word Εuχαριστiα: Eucharist (thanksgiving) was used. This “Thanksgiving” was an attitude which defined early Christian worship. It was a thanksgiving for every part of creation from the beauty of the stars to the bounty of the sea. First and foremost it was an act of gratitude for the revelation and presence of Christ. It is important to realize that this gratitude was not merely or even necessarily for Christ’s presence in the historical economia (Birth, ministry, last supper, death, and resurrection) but for His presence at and in the Eucharist itself by the Holy Spirit and as the unique revelation of the Father. Put more simply it is primarily a thanksgiving for God Himself. Metropolitan John Zizioulas says this when he writes;
The Eucharist is… an act of thanksgiving to God the Father ‘for your holy name’, which is a way of referring to God’s very identity, His personal existence revealed and made known to us through Jesus. The most important gift to us, therefore, is the fact of God’s existence, his ‘name’… He continues by saying, The essence of the Eucharistic Ethos, therefore, is the affirmation of the Other and of every Other as a gift to be appreciated and evoke gratitude.
Panayiotis Nellas takes this concept which is perhaps of a somewhat philosophical nature and expresses it in a simple yet infinitely profound manner when he writes that the,
…Eucharistic character [ethos] makes the faithful except life, their fellow human beings, the fruits of their labors, nature itself, as gifts that they then give to each other and that all offer up to God within the selflessness and joy of receiving and giving gifts.
This is seen in the earliest recorded prayer of ‘thanksgiving’ after the reception of the Eucharist in a text that is known as the Didache of the Twelve Apostles, a text that I would argue predates much of the New Testament canon.
We thank Thee, holy Father, for Thy holy name which You didst cause to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which You modest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory forever. Thou, Master almighty, didst create all things for Thy name's sake; You gavest food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to Thee; but to us You didst freely give spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Thy Servant. Before all things we thank Thee that You are mighty; to Thee be the glory forever.
We also see in the teaching of the 18th century Saint, Kosmas Aitolos that the primary gift of God is that He makes Himself know to us.
“Our Lord and God Jesus Christ, the sweetest master, the creator of angels, my brethren, moved by the compassion and great love which he has for our race, has granted us and continues to grant us each day his immeasurable gifts. Behold how he's made us worthy this evening to glorify and honor him and our Lady the Theotokos.”
Even the definitive virtue of the saint and that which is seen as a primary characteristic of Orthodox piety as described by Elder Paisios is permeated with this notion of gratitude, but a gratitude that leads to an active offering which will be discussed in the following section.
"the reverent distillation of goodness; the radiant love of the humble man bereft of himself, but with a heart full of gratitude to God and his fellow man; because of his spiritual sensitivity he tries to repay even the slightest good that others do to him."
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