February: Day 2: Teaching 1: The Reception of the Lord

February: Day 2: Teaching 1:
The Reception of the Lord
 
(On Decent Behavior in the Temple)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the Old Testament Temple of Jerusalem, prayers and sacrifices were performed according to the precise instructions of the ritual law. Therefore, the elder Joseph and Mary the Mother of God, having come there and brought the infant Jesus, on the fortieth day after His birth, did everything there as was prescribed in the law of the Lord.

Instead of the Jewish temple, we have Christian temples; instead of the ritual law of the Old Testament, we have our own ecclesiastical law, liturgical law.

We, children of the Orthodox Church, are obliged to coordinate all our actions in the Church with this ecclesiastical law.

Our ecclesiastical law is the law of Jesus Christ. He established His Church and the hierarchy in it. He said to the Apostles and their successors: "He who hears you hears Me" (Luke 10:16); and so that they could rule and legislate in the Church, He granted them the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Synods and God-bearing Fathers “all having been enlightened by the same one Spirit, have legislated what is useful” (Seventh Ecumenical Synod, Canon 1). Under their leadership and in their direction, the Church authority still operates today.

Every society has its own charter and undertakes not to deviate from it.

We, as members of the Orthodox Church, do we strictly follow its regulations; when we gather in church, do we observe the decorum it requires in everything?

II. To judge this more closely, let us take several examples.

a) In church one should not only not laugh (even if something suddenly appears that provokes laughter), but also not talk. Here a reverent silence is required. The Apostle gave a rebuke to those who allowed disorder in sacred assemblies, or despise the church of God (1 Cor. 11:22). Having quoted these words, Saint Chrysostom continues: “Allow me to say to those who are talking here: do you not have houses for idle talk? Or do you despise the church of God, and corrupt those who wish to maintain peace? The church is not a place for conversation.”

b) In ancient times, men, women, girls and children were placed separately during the service (Apostolic Constitutions, Bk. 2, Ch. 57). Although this is not observed everywhere today, church order absolutely requires that everyone remain in their place and not move to another. Meanwhile, for some it seems boring to stand in one place.

c) Isn't it the same boredom that leads some people away from the church before the end of the service? Perhaps they don't consider leaving the church a sin.

And what a strict rule was given by the Holy Apostles: “The faithful who enter the church but do not remain in prayer until the end, as those who cause disorder in the church, must be excommunicated from fellowship” (Canon 9).

d) There are even pious actions, however, not in accordance with the church order. On great feasts, kneeling in the church is abolished (First Ecumenical Synod, Canon 20). Despite this, some worshipers, in a feeling of repentance, even at Easter services, fall down and remain on their knees. Or again: kissing icons is a holy custom, but anyone who wants to venerate the icons during the service is forbidden. This must be done either before or after the service.

III. Reverent people do not behave in this way in church; in their outward behavior they preserve complete decorum, not forgetting for a single moment where they are. Saint Gregory the Theologian says of his mother Nonna: “She honored the holy things with silence, never turned her back to the venerable altar, did not spit on the floor in God’s temple.” Let us also beware of everything by which we could violate church decorum. In sacred assemblies, according to the apostolic commandment, “everything must be decently and orderly” (1 Cor. 14:40). Amen. 

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.