-Saint Nektarios
The Liturgy as Anaphora
The early Liturgy was also characterized by offering. This offering of course was manifest in the Bread and Wine. These elements were used because of the command of the Lord to, “do this in remembrance of Me.” However, they were also used because bread and wine are unique to us as persons; they are an expression of culture. They are also used for nourishment and are therefore an expression of life. This means that we are not merely offering “food” but are offering our very lives. They are an expression of man’s work; it is the fruit of labor, but a labor that is not in isolation, a labor that is a synergy-cooperation with God and with each other. We may till the ground and plant the seed, but it is God who sends the rain and sun. And finally it is an offering of all we have, a referral and orientation of all of creation to Him who alone can give it life and meaning.
In the preparations for the Divine Liturgy, that is in the cultivation of the earth which will provide the wheat and the grapes, and which in turn will become bread and wine through human labor and skill; in the elevation of poetry to hymns of praise, of painting to holy icons, of fragrance to liturgical incense, in the coming together and the being at peace which precede the offering of the Holy Gifts; in asceticism and prayer, that is, in all the labor of hands, mind and spirit, the faithful preserve the true orientation which God entrusted to them. (Nellas 125)
We can find nothing of our own to give Him… that is why we take everything that is His own and offer it with gratitude… this total liturgical offering given in return to the Lord who is eternally slaughtered-an act of thanksgiving and freedom- forms the center of the mystery… This offering strips us of everything: we are lost (Matt. 16:25). We cease to exist. We die. At the same time, this is the moment we are born into life…” (Vasileios 59)
I would like to end this section with a few concluding remarks on the giving a receiving of gifts. Within the Hymnography of the Church we come across the idea that Man’s gift to God was the person of the Virgin Mary who was herself a gift to Joachim and Anna. Here we can perhaps imagine Joachim bringing his 3 year old child to the temple and using the word’s of Chrysostom’s Liturgy, “Thine own of thine own we offer to Thee.” Another interesting parallel is encountered at the Annunciation where the Father sends the Holy Spirit upon the gift-Panagia and she is made Theotokos. In the Liturgy the Priest prays to the Father to send down the Holy Spirit upon the gifts changing them into the body and blood of His Son. The Body and Blood were themselves the gift that Christ was given by Man through the Theotokos. In a certain manner therefore Christ in offering us His body and blood is saying, “thine own of thine own I offer unto you.” We must remember that the gift we have freely given Him was itself a gift given to us. Here we see that the very Gospel is itself a Liturgy of Anaphora and Eucharistia.
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