The Liturgy and the Old Testament
The Eucharist is the Word of God
Man's word, in its wide meaning, is separate from man himself, but it expresses his thoughts and reveals his inner life and has its effect on the listener's life. It is a bearer of the speaker's character.
We mean by the "word of man" the spoken and written words and gestures. The gestures are rich in declaring what language cannot express, like a careless shrug of the shoulders or a smile etc. Symbols are also part of the words of man, like eating a meal with another is a sign of their deep friendship.
Generally the word reveals the depth of man's inner life, and through it man gives himself to others, establishes friendships, and achieves union with them. The word is a means of self-giving. Without it we would remain completely isolated from one another, unable to enter any kind of relationship.
This is the effect of the word of man and its influence on the life of other. As for the Word of God, the Creator, it bears the Presence of God Himself and is not a separate entity acted, but still acts and will continue to act in our lives and would be acting on our behalf. The Word of God has created us, redeemed us and bestowed upon us eternal life!
Through the history of our salvation, God spoke to us in many and various ways. At times by creating the world for us, at others by declaring His providence; at times by visions, at others through events, and at others by the prophets. In the fullness of time He spoke to us in His Son, a practical speech, i.e. by giving His Only-Begotten Son for the life of the world.
On the Cross He bestowed upon us His Word, not graven upon
stone tablets, but by presenting His Living Eternal Son, i.e. the eternal living Word, as the mighty sacrifice, redeeming us, transforming us by His power into children of God, and bringing us into heaven.
By the Eucharist, i.e. the Mystery of the Cross, God bestows upon us His own Word that is present in His Church, completing the sacred history of our salvation, realizing every prophetic word bringing us to unite with God, His Father.
Thus, we see the eternal Word of God pronounced in its entire reality, effective in the lives of men across the ages. Not only do we hear the Word of God, but also receive Him, and become one in Him.
At the divine altar, we pass over the entire world, ascending with Moses to the mountain of divine love, to receive the Word Himself, enter into heaven with Him, and stand before the heavenly glory of God.
In brief the celebration of the Eucharist is a journey of the Word of God descending to us to raise us up in Him.
The Eucharist and the Old Testament
God Who spoke to us in ancient times, still continues to speak to us through the Body of His Son, i.e. the Church. He offers the sacrificial body and blood of His own Word, so that we might share the risen life with Christ.
His speech today is a continuation and fulfillment of His speech to mankind since the early ages. As an example, in the prayers of the Liturgy mentioned in the Apostolic Constitution 1, the priest gives thanks to God for the creation of the world, for His concern with mankind, for the sacrifice of Abel, the translation of Enoch, the deliverance of Noah, the covenant with Abraham and the sacrifice of Melchizedek etc. He who did these great works gave symbols of His wonderful work, which was fulfilled in the fullness of time, through the Messiah.
The liturgy of the Eucharist is the continuation and the fulfillment of the priestly action of the Old and the New Testaments. It fulfills the past, for it is the only acceptable sacrifice offered to God on behalf of all mankind, from Adam to the end of time. It fulfills the symbols of the ancient sacrifices. It is also the same sacrifice of the
New Testament, which was offered once on the Cross, without repetition.
- St. Augustine says that Christ came to bestow His own life on the world, announcing to us in the fullness of time what was hidden in the Old Testament.
- St. Irenaeus of Lyon says that the Patriarchs and the Prophets have planted the word concerning the Messiah, and the Church is reaping it.
The Symbols in the Old Testament
1 - the Pascha
The Pascha or Passover in the Old Testament is explained by the fact that God "visited" the land of bondage, on the night when the Paschal Meal was eaten, and "passed over" the houses of the believers. He joined them together with Himself to "pass" to the land of freedom.
On the day of the Paschal celebration, Christ, our "Passover" was immolated, offering to us His sacrificial Body and Blood, as the True Paschal Meal, why?
The True Pascha is the passage of Christ to heaven from this world, through His death. As we receive His sacrificial Body and Blood we also pass in Him and with Him to the new life, accepting His risen life.
In His "visiting" us, He joins us together with Him to pass from the power of darkness to the kingdom of Light, from the death of this world to the resurrection of the world to come. From the flesh, we pass with the Risen Christ to the Spirit. From the law of condemnation, we obtain access to the grace of infinite love.
This is the liturgy of Eucharist. It is a journey of the Church to heaven, our Father's House. It is a joyful journey, in which we participate with Christ in His own passage, preparing day after day to
Gavin: Some aspects of contemporary Greek Orthodox Thought.
Braso: Liturgy and Spirituality.
Hamman: The Paschal Mystery.
Bouyer: The Liturgy Revived.
live again the glory of the Risen Christ.
In other words, our paschal mystery depends on Christ's paschal mystery, for we walk with Him and in Him in His own way.
Our final passage will be the completion of the Pascha of the Risen Christ, since we are His heavenly body.
2 - the Manna
The Exodus achieved in the Old Testament was simply a model of the new one, for no work is undertaken without a model.
In the New Exodus, we leave the delights of the world looking on the heavenly Jerusalem; guided by Christ Whose staff is His Cross. The cloud overshadows us is the Holy Spirit. As for the miraculous Manna with which God nourishes His sons, it is the Eucharist that we receive after crossing the Red Sea, i.e. the passage through baptismal pool.
The Manna as a figure of the Eucharist is not only part of the common tradition of the Church, but is integral in the very teaching of Christ. He said, "Your fathers ate the Manna in the wilderness and died." He showed us that the Manna had no unusual effect, for their fathers ate it and died, but he who receives the True Manna, the Body and the Blood of the Messiah will have eternal life as a reward.
The Manna was taken as an aid against hunger, but it did not accompany them into the Promised Land, It only assisted and provided them in the wilderness, for a period of time. But the new Manna is the heavenly food, which helps us against death and sin, providing us with unity with Christ forever.
St. Ambrose says, "As the light is greater than the shadow, the truth is greater than the symbol, so the Body of the Creator is greater than the heavenly Manna."
3 - Melchizedek's Sacrifice
This was a single sacrifice and its nature and form were obscure (Gen. 14:18-19).
Melchizedek offered bread and wine, the consecrated food, as a
St. Clement of Alexandria: Comm. On St. John.
St. Chrysostom: Hom. 46 on John.
symbol of the Eucharist.
St. Clement of Alexandria
"You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Who is a priest of God, the Most High, more than our Lord Jesus Christ, He who offered to the Father the same offering as Melchizedek, i.e. the bread and wine, by offering His Body and His Blood?!
St. Cyprian
4 - the Bread of the Table
On the Sabbath day especially, does God bid the bread to be set out upon the Holy Table, that is He orders it to be put in the Church. It indicates the whole, i.e. the Church, which is represented by a part. For what is holier than the Holy Table of Christ?
5 - the Banquet of Wisdom
The Holy Spirit through Solomon, reveals the symbol of the sacrifice of the Lord, making mention of the Immolated Victim of the bread and wine offered on the altar. "Wisdom" he says, "has built a house and supported it with seven columns. She has slain her victims, mixed her wine in a chalice, and has set the table." She has sent out her servants calling in a loud voice and inviting the guests to come and drink from her chalice, saying, "Come and eat my bread and drink the wine which I have mixed for you." Solomon thus declares the wine is mixed, that is, he announces prophetically the chalice of the Lord in which water and wine are mingled.
Martyr Cyprian
In this house of the banquet all who come from the East and the West find their places together with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven...
Cf. Chrysostom: Hom 46 on Jn.
6 - the Messianic Banquet
The Prophet Isaiah called us to the Eucharistic Banquet. He said:
"Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you-- the sure mercies of David."
By the water he means the Holy Spirit and the spring of the baptistery. The wine and the bread stand for what was offered by the Jews in the past, and now for the immortal communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord.
St. Didymus the Blind
Isaiah invites all peoples - who are circumcised not in the flesh but by heart - to participate in the Messianic Meal, saying, "On the mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine... And He will destroy on this mountain and veil that conceals all people."
7 - Psalm 22: 23: The Psalm of the Shepherd, or The Psalm of the Paraclete
The Early Fathers of the Church were pleased to find the providence of the Good Shepherd towards His sheep in this psalm. They found His sacramental deeds prefigured in it. For this reason, they often used it as a part of the liturgy of Baptism. The newly baptized sang it. On Easter night after receiving Baptism and Chrism, and while they were clothed in white vestments and held candles, they were hastening with joy towards the Lord's altar, participating in the heavenly banquet.
Until today the Coptic Church chants this psalm daily as a part
Cf. St. Gregory of Nyssa: Cain and Abel 1:5.
of the hymn of the Terce (Third Hour). By it they remember the Holy Spirit (the Paraclete) Who was sent to the disciples, the same One Who is still working in the Church, especially in the sacraments.
A brief sacramental interpretation
"The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want."
As the catechumen accepts the Lord as His Shepherd, becoming one of His sheep, he participates in His Immolated Body and Blood; what would he need more?
This is the feeling of St. Ambrose 2 on seeing the Church on Paschal night as a heaven. The multitude of the newly-baptized receive the spirit of adoption, hasten together with the chorus of the faithful towards their divine altar, singing and glorifying God, receiving what the angels are eager to see.
What does the Shepherd offer to us?
1 - "He settles me in green pastures."
He leads the catechumens to the pastures where they breed as a preparation to Baptism. As they receive the spirit of adoption, they remain in need to be nourished daily with the permanently fresh and green pastures of the Word of God. This pasturage is the Gospel of our Salvation, which restores us to the paradise of Truth.
The place of pasture is the Paradise from which we fell, and to which Christ leads us and establishes us by the water of rest, that is to say by Baptism.
St. Cyril of Alexandria
2 - "And raise me on refreshing water."
The holy Baptism, without doubt, is the water of rest, by which the weight of sin is removed.
- St. Augustine says, "He raises, rears and feeds me on the water of baptism, which restores health and strength to those who have lost them."
- St. Gregory of Nyssa says that we find our rest in these waters as we are buried in death with Christ, "It is not death itself, but a shadow and an image of death.
3 - "For even Though I go through the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for You are with me."
We experience death with Christ without fear, as He is with us. And we continue to experience death with Christ, if we practice the sacrament of repentance and confession in its true notion, i.e., by trusting our souls in the hands of the Holy Spirit, who bestows upon us repentance, leading us to righteousness, for His Name's sake. The believer sings: "He restores my soul; he leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."
4 - "Your rod and Your staff comfort (paraklesis) me."
St. Ambrose 1 looks at the Good Shepherd guiding us with His rod and strengthening us with His staff, those (rod and staff) are the seal of His Cross, which we receive in the Chrism, bestowing upon us the seal (sphragis) of the Paraclete, which frightens demons away.
5 – "You have prepared a table before me in the face of those who trouble me."
When man says to God, "You have prepared a table, what else does he indicate but that mystical and spiritual Table, which God has prepared for us "over against," that is, contrary and in opposition to the evil spirit? And very truly; for that evil spirit had communion with devils, but this is spiritual table is communion with God.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
The sacramental Table is the Flesh of the Lord which fortifies us against our desires and the demons. Indeed Satan fears those who take part in the mysteries with piety.
St. Cyril of Alexandria
6 - "You have anointed my head with oil."
With oil He anointed your head upon your forehead, for the seal which you have of God, that you may be made, by the engraving of the sign, Holiness unto God."
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
7 - "Your chalice which inebriates me, how glorious it is?"
The Lord's chalice, indeed intoxicates us in such a way that it drives away our (earthly) thoughts, it leads our souls to spiritual wisdom... It sets the soul free and banishes all sorrow... It sets the
soul at ease, by placing the joy of divine goodness in the sad and gloomy hearts, which were weighed down, before, by the load of sin.
St. Cyprian
- 8 Finally, we receive these divine blessings and holy mysteries in the Lord's house, as the psalmist sings:
- "And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord through the length of my days."
8 - Song of Songs
The "Song of Songs" is the book of the spiritual marriage union between Christ and His Church, or between Him and the soul. For it is, as a whole, a true prophecy of the sacramental deed of God in His Church. Therefore, according to the old tradition, this book was used to be recited during the celebration of the Pascha.
Our early Fathers found in this book the following sacraments:
- 1 The Sacrament of Baptism, as the heavenly King Who is the Bridegroom, calls His Bride to His bride-chamber to enjoy eternal union with Him.
- 2 The Sacrament of Chrism, as the Bridegroom imprints His Bride's heart and hand with His seal. In that way, He prepares her by His Holy Spirit for the day of the eschatological feast.
- 3 The Sacrament of the Eucharist, as He offers the wedding feast to His Bride in order that she can be fed and calls others to participate with her in the Heavenly banquet.
- For those who know the hidden sense of the Scripture there is no difference between what is said in the Canticle "Eat, O friends, and drink, and inebriate, my dearly beloved" and the sacramental initiation (mystagogia) of the Apostles. Indeed, in both places the text says, "Eat and drink..." In the gospel text, there is no question of inebriation. But this is because this inebriation is Christ Himself Who raises us up out of inferior realities to those on high.
St. Gregory of Nyssa
The Church, seeing such great grace - the celebration of the wedding banquet of Christ - invites her sons, invites her neighbors to run to Sacraments, "Eat, O friends, drink and inebriate
9- Another Types
- a- St. Ephram the Syrian saw in the burning coal which touched Isaiah and sanctified His lips, the Body of Christ which sanctifies the believers.
- b- In Malachi (1:11) the New Pure Food which would be offered everywhere in the Name of God is the Eucharist.