PASCHAL EPISTLE

OF ARCHBISHOP LAZAR (PUHALO)

PASCHA, 2005.
 

This year, I would like to invite you to look at Holy Pascha through the lens of the Presanctified Liturgy. I am not speaking of a theological discourse or historical examination of this special divine service; rather let us engage in a meditation on it.

The name "Presanctified Liturgy" invites us to depart from a mere awareness that Communion has been consecrated on the previous Sunday. Let us rather perceive something greater. Let our hearts be caught up in the great wonder that God the Word had presanctified Himself for our redemption even before the creation of the world. The awesome and ineffable love of God gave the gift even before the recipients had come into being. He provided so great a salvation even though He knew how many would reject it and despise both the gift and the One Who gave it. Pascha is this eternal feast, which is outside time and space. It proclaims to us the eternal co-suffering love of God for humanity.
A special feature of the Presanctified Liturgy is the opening and closing of the curtain during the service. Let us put aside the mechanics of the typikon for a moment and notice the pattern of these actions.

Aside from the litanies, almost the entire content of the Presanctified Liturgy is from the Old Testament. The curtain is opened during the litanies, but closed during the chanting of the Old Testament verses, for there was a veil of unknowing throughout the whole of the Old Testament.

During the time of the Old Covenant even the righteous saw God through a veil of ignorance, as Apostle Paul says, "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament" (2Cor.3:14a) For if even now, when God has dwelt amongst us in the flesh, and revealed Himself to us as Saviour, we still see only "darkly as in a mirror" (1Cor.13:12), how much more did those of old see only through that veil of ignorance. Scripture is a blend of divine revelation and human interpretation. The Old Testament interpretation of God, which presents Him with an all too human personality, comprises a vision seen through the lens of our own societal imperfections, hardness of heart and lack of understanding. Together with this, however, we find God's own continuous, dynamic refinement of our knowledge of Him. This unfolds almost imperceptibly in events, words and passages throughout the earliest books. It takes on a new vital dynamism in the great prophets who vividly proclaim that the true justice of God manifests itself not in punishments, but in the care of the poor, the alienated and the dispossessed. The holy prophets progressively draw back the veil, or rather shine a light through it. Little by little, the veil becomes more diaphanous, "thinner" as God prepares us for the supreme revelation. But the veil is drawn aside, like a curtain of the royal doors in the Presanctified Liturgy, only when God appears in the flesh to testify of Himself, as the Apostle says, "...which veil is done away in Christ" (2Cor.3:14b).

Jesus Christ radically transforms our understanding of God, and of man's relationship with Him. As the veil of ignorance fades before the progressive revelation, it is torn asunder by the power of the glory of God which shone forth on the Cross, for "Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away (2Cor.3:16). Suddenly we become aware that the true glory and nature of God is to be seen in His own meekness, humility and boundless co-suffering love of mankind. Every coarse and juridical image of the Creator vanishes like a morning fog before our eyes when we begin to chant the Lamentations of Great, Holy Friday. The all too human interpretations of God in the Old Testament evaporate and the God of love is truly revealed to us in Christ Jesus. Nowhere is it seen so vividly as on the Cross when we behold the King of Glory making the supreme sacrifice for us, for "...we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2Cor.3:18).

It is to a considerable degree, through the experiencing of the Presanctified Liturgy with the understanding imparted to us by its content and by the meaning of the opening and closing of the curtain of the royal doors, that we ourselves have the veil of ignorance drawn aside from our hearts. This helps to prepare us for the great revelations of Holy Week and above all, the fulness of the awesome mystery of Holy Pascha; the triumph of light over darkness and the victory of life over death.

And now, brothers and sisters, lest we draw again the veil of ignorance over our own hearts, let us reflect deeply upon the meaning of all that the Church has given us during the Great Fast and the lenten divine services. Let the veil of the Passions, which lead so many to deform and distort these divine services and their revelation, not cloud our understanding. For as Paul says, "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart" (2Cor.3:15).

Let the veil be cast aside so that we can perceive the God Who is the Lover of mankind, the man befriending God Who has created, nourished and redeemed us. Let us see, through the revelation of the risen Saviour, the Lord Who gave us being and again ransomed us from bondage into the glorious "freedom of God's children" (Rom.8:21; 2Cor.3:17) and from the power of death into everlasting life.

  

  Christ is Risen!
 
Truly He is Risen!

  
   

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