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Passion vs passions

4/21/2020

By your Passion we were set free from our
passions, O Christ, and by your resurrection
we were redeemed from corruption. O Lord,
glory to you.

Sung at the Vesperal Liturgy on Holy Saturday Morning
Used by permission of AGES Initiatives: https://www.agesinitiatives.com/dcs/public/dcs/dcs.html

During our Holy Week and Pascha worship, we rightly emphasize Jesus’s victory over death. Death is the end of our life in this realm, and we usually think of it as the worst disaster of all. In the American religious environment, it can seem that Christianity is only about taking care of the business of surviving death and getting to heaven. The hymn above, however, speaks not only of being saved from the corruption of death, but of being saved from our passions.

It contrasts the Passion (uppercase p) of Christ with our passions (lowercase p). This sounds odd to us, because in current English, passions are usually considered to be the most positive and laudable characteristics in a person’s life! In the liturgical language of the hymn, however, the first Passion refers to Christ’s death and resurrection; and the second, to tendencies within us that lead to sin, to patterns of sin, and even to destruction. Passions are rooted in the soul; our sins usually involve our bodies. If we have a sin in our lives that we repeat, more than likely, we are suffering from a passion. The two words are related in Greek, with a core meaning related to suffering.

So, when we sing that Christ’s Passion set us free from our passions, what does it mean? It means that we can receive substantial spiritual healing in this life. We can bring our sins, thoughts, and passions to Him, and He will help us escape from the chains that bind our inner and outer lives.

God loves us, and has nothing against everyday enthusiasm, interest, and even commitment to most activities that we enjoy; but because He loves us, he wants to save us from our passions.

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The right clothing for the wedding

4/14/2020

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Behold, the Bridegroom is coming in the middle of the night; and blessed is the servant He shall find awake and watching; unworthy is the other He shall find being lazy. So beware, O soul of mine, be not overcome by sleep, so that you not be handed over to death and be shut out from the Kingdom. Come to your senses and cry aloud: Holy, holy, holy are You our God.

O my Savior, now I see * Your wedding hall decorated, * and I have not the garment * needed for me to enter it. * Make this raiment of my soul brightly shine, * O Giver-of-Light, and save me.

hymn texts from https://www.agesinitiatives.com/dcs/public/dcs/dcs.html

These two hymns are from the Bridegroom Matins services that we are praying this week. All four of these services are exhortations to prepare, to rise from sleepy ignorance and wake up to the life around us and the miracle that we witness to on Pascha. The term “bridegroom” here comes from Matthew 25 and the parable of the wise and foolish virgins: “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’” (Mt 25:6).

In these services, we prepare to meet the bridegroom, which we celebrate at Pascha. The imagery of life being a wedding runs throughout our hymns. For example, during the Divine Liturgy, in the pre-communion prayer, we say, “How shall I, who am unworthy, enter into the splendor of Your saints? If I should dare to enter into the bridal chamber, my clothing will accuse me, since it is not a wedding garment; and being bound up, I shall be cast out by the angels.”
We start our Christian life with baptism, where we sing, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

The question for us is, “How do I get the right clothing for the wedding?”
We use the eyes of our soul to drink in the beauty of God in all the life-giving worship of this week, and we wash our spiritual clothing until the light of Christ that we put on at baptism can shine through.

We pray and we worship and we repent. This does not mean “feeling bad for our sins,” although that may be part of it. It means turning over everything to Christ, including our sins, our lives, and our inappropriate inner clothing.

Then He will make the raiment of our souls brightly shine.

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Hymn from Triodion Sunday Matins

4/9/2020

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Open to me the gates of repentance, O Giver of Life, for early in the morning my spirit hastens to Your holy temple, bringing the temple of my body all defiled. But as one compassionate, cleanse me, I pray, by Your loving-kindness and mercy. (text used by permission of AGES Initiatives https://www.agesinitiatives.com/dcs/public/dcs/dcs.html)

We sing this hymn during matins every Sunday from the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee through Holy Week. The first verse echoes Psalm 117:19: “Open to me the gates of righteousness.”

What is the gateway of repentance? It’s an opening to a world of repentance, a life that is not simply feeling sorry for specific sins that we have committed, but a life of prayer that is aware that all life and all people suffer from the results of the sins of all-time (including the specific sins we have done).

We are called to repent continuously, to turn from our sins, but also to pray for all who suffer from the effects of sin in our world. This is why the saints continue to repent, even though they may have achieved theosis in this life—they, and we, are called to serve the world by passing through the gates of repentance.

We are called to turn from self-adoration as we walk through the gates into the love of Christ and the easy yoke (Mt 11:30) that He offers us.

This Great Lent, most of us have been faced with a literal wall against worship, prayer, and repentance. The coronavirus sheltering orders have kept us from church, from worship, and from our brothers and sisters. Like Mary of Egypt, who felt an invisible force stopping her from entering the church due to her sin, we have been prevented from entering our church.

But the gates of repentance are still open to us! We can enter by praying, Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. The love of Christ, who cherishes each of us and our lives, is here with us, inviting us to walk through the gates!

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Passion vs passions

The right clothing for the wedding

Hymn from Triodion Sunday Matins

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