Lenten Saturdays & Sundays

SATURDAY OF THE SOULS

Introduction: The Saturday and Sundays of Lent serve as "stop-overs" along our journey to Pascha. They serve as foretastes of the kingdom which "is to come" and "already in our midst."

I. Saturday is a Day of Feasting and Death

The Sabbath is a feast: "God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he had rested after all his work of creating" (Gen. 2:3 Jerusalem Bible).

Before the Christ event: "Keeping the Sabbath" meant enjoying the fruit of our labor on that day creation and life was to be celebrated as being "very good."

After the Christ event: Saturday for the Christians became the "day of expectation" of Christ’s rising from the dead. On this Day, Christ rested after destroying death and establishing his Kingdom! Sunday, then, becomes the first day of new creation, the "Day of the Lord." Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday: "And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen" (Mark 16:2).

*Note: In 321, Emperor Constantine made Sunday a civil day of rest. The common interpretation from this is that Sunday replaced the Sabbath. The liturgical tradition reminds us of the forgotten significance of Saturday as the Day of expectation of the resurrection and the establishment of the Kingdom.

The Sabbath is a Day of Death: The Saturday of Lazarus assures us of a common resurrection, and Holy Saturday is the day upon which death is transformed into life. On Holy Saturday, death becomes a "Passover" into "New Life" through Christ. The priests wear white vestments. It is not a day of mourning but a day of hope in the resurrection. On the Saturday of Lazarus, he (Lazarus) is resurrected assuring us of our future hope.

During Lent the meaning of "Saturday" acquires a special intensity. The purpose of Lent is precisely to recover the Christian meaning of time as preparation; pilgrimage; and of the status of the Christian as "alien" and "exile" in this world" (Fr. Schmemann, Great Lent. p. 69).

II. The "Keys" are provided in Scripture: the Book of Hebrews and the Gospel of Mark

The book of Hebrews provides us with a "history of salvation" in the life of the Hebrews. This history is marked by being one of pilgrimage, promise, and faith in a "homeland."

First Saturday:

  • Epistle: II Tim. 2:1-10
  • Theme: Pilgrimage—Examples of receiving salvation in Christ as a soldier, an athlete, or a farmer.
  • Gospel: Mark 2:23-3:5

Theme: Sabbath—Creation is revealed as "good" through Jesus. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. "so the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

"Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill it."

The Healing of the man with the withered hand.

Second Saturday:

  • Epistle: Heb. 3:12-16
  • Theme: Pilgrimage—"Today" (Saturday) is the part of time within which our salvation must be worked out.
  • "Exhort one another as lone as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ only if we hold our first confidence firm to the end."
  • Gospel: Mark 1:35-44 Theme: Sabbath--Creation is restored as "good" (physical). The Healing of the Leper.

Third Saturday:

  • Epistle: Heb. 10:32-38
  • Theme: Pilgrimage—faith in a promise.
  • "For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and received what is promised."
  • Mark 2:14-17 Theme: Spiritual Restoration—very good.
  • "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came to call not the righteous but sinners."

Fourth Saturday:

  • Epistle: Heb. 6:9-12
  • Theme: Pilgrimage—steadfastness in the journey.
  • "Show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you might not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise."
  • Gospel: Mark 7:31-37
  • Theme: Sabbath—a complete restoration. He is the Lord.

"He has done all things well: he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak." "Behold your God will come...Then the... ears of the deaf shall be unstopped...and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy" (Isaiah 35:5).

Fifth Saturday:

  • Epistle: Heb. 9:1-7
  • Theme: Christ as the mediator of the New Covenant.
  • Gospel: Luke 1:39-49, 56 Theme: Incarnation makes our restoration possible.
  • "For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name."

The Sixth Saturday:

  • The Saturday of Lazarus

The Seventh Saturday:

  • Holy Saturday

THE FIRST TWO SUNDAYS OF LENT

I. Cheese-Fare Sunday (Last Sunday before Lent)

Two themes:

  1. The Expulsion of Adam from Paradise: Man was created for Paradise. Through Christ, paradise is now opened again.
  2. Forgiveness Sunday: Sin creates division, opposition, and hatred. Forgiveness returns us to unity, mutuality, and love.

II. The Sunday of Orthodoxy

First Theme: The Sunday of Orthodoxy (Historically linked) The Triumph of Orthodoxy.
On this day the Church commemorates the ending of the Iconoclastic controversy. The Icons were restored to the Churches by Empress Theodora on the first Sunday of Lent. The focus is on icons and devotion.

"For behold, the Church is clothed in a beauty that surpasses all things earthly through the icon of the incarnate Christ...This is the safeguard of the Orthodox faith, for if we hold fast to the icon of the Savior whom we worship, we shall not go astray" (Vespers: Sunday of Orthodoxy).

Second Theme: Epistle Lesson: Heb. 11:24-26, 32-40 A home land promised to the converts!
"By faith Moses,...choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered abuse suffered for the Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked foreword to the reward..." Gospel: John 1:43-51 Seeking the Messiah. Nathaniel's confession of faith:

"Rabbi, you are the Son of God! ...You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

"This means you who believe in Christ; you who want to be baptized; who are preparing yourselves for Pascha; you shall see the inauguration of the Kingdom. But you shall see it only if you believe and repent, if you change your mind, if you have the desire, if you accept the effort." (Fr. Schmemann, Great Lent p. 74-75).

III. The Sunday of Gregory Palamas

Gregory Palamas was born in 1296. He was originally from Asia Minor but later was driven by the Turks to Constantinople. In 1316, Gregory decided to become a monk. He went to Mt. Athos for the next twenty years. In the 14th C. Mt. Athos was the center of all Orthodox monasticism. From 1368, this Sunday has been designated to the memory of St. Gregory of Palamas, Archbishop of Thesolonica (1296-1359).

Meditation from St. Gregory: His defense of hesychasm

  1. In Christ man is given the power to become spirit.
    "When spiritual joy comes into the body from the mind...it transfigures the body, spiritualizing it. For then rejecting all the evil desires of the flesh, it no longer weighs down the soul but rises up with it, the whole man becomes spirit, as it is written, 'He who is born of the spirit is spirit' (John 3:6,8).
  2. "Knowledge of God" (i.e. Transfiguration) is experienced inwardly.
    "This knowledge is the common possession of all those who believe in Christ...Christ will come in the glory of the Father and ...in that glory "the just will shine as the Sun" (Matt. 13:43). They will be light and they will see light, a blessed and sacred vision, that is the portion of the purified heart alone.
  3. The spiritual life is Christ centered.
    "God reveals himself 'face to face'...he unites himself to those who are worthy as to his own members, as soul is united to body; he unites himself coming to dwell in his wholeness in the whole of their being, so that they may in turn dwell in him; through the Son, the spirit is poured out abundantly upon us."