The Seventh Day of Pascha: Teaching 11 (What is the Meaning of the Artos?)

Paschal Artos, between services during Bright Week, in front of opened Royal Doors.

 

The Seventh Day of Pascha:
Teaching 11

(What is the Meaning of the Artos?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Among the many significant sacred rites with which the bright and luminous celebration of the Resurrection of Christ is accompanied, we also see that on the first day of the Lord's Resurrection, specially prepared bread, called Artos in Greek, is placed in the churches, sanctified by prayer and sprinkling with holy water. During the entire solemn week, this sanctified bread remains in the midst of the assembly of believers in the church. Finally, at the end of the bright days of the feast, after a second blessing, it is broken and given to the believers.*

What does such an institution mean? This, brethren, is done in remembrance of many very important events from the last days of the Risen Lord's stay on earth - it is done so that the desired image of the Risen One would be imprinted more vividly and deeply in our souls and hearts, according to the apostolic commandment: "Remember the Lord Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead" (2 Tim. 2:8).

Remember, brethren, that the Lord Jesus Christ, departing for His suffering on the cross, conversed for the last time with His disciples in the Upper Room of Zion at the Secret Supper, where, having received the bread, He blessed it, and having broken it, gave it to the disciples, and said to them: "Take, eat, this is My body; do this in remembrance of Me." It is also known that on the first day of His luminous Resurrection, before evening, He accompanied two of His disciples who were going to Emmaus, and, unrecognized by them, explained the Scriptures to them, entered the house with them and sat down at the table, and having received the bread, He blessed it, and having broken it, gave it to them, and was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. Finally, having appeared to His disciples on the Sea of Tiberias, the Lord Himself miraculously prepared a meal for them, and said to them: "Come, dine," and having received the bread, He gave it to them.

You can imagine, my brethren, how precious was the memory of these appearances and actions of the beloved Teacher and Lord for the Holy Apostles, at which their spirit was enraptured with inexpressible joy; of those consoling conversations, from which their hearts burned with holy rapture; of those lofty promises, from which their souls were immersed in a sea of bliss. Therefore, throughout their subsequent lives, they tried to preserve these precious memories and thus prolong, as it were, the blessed moments of the Lord’s visible presence with them. For this reason, among other things, every time they gathered for a common supper, they left the first place at the table empty and placed bread before it, as a sign that the Lord Himself was invisibly present among them, blessing their meal and giving them food and drink.

The Holy Church, having inherited from the Apostles their ardent love for their Lord, has retained and preserved forever their holy customs. For this reason, following the apostolic example, on the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, she places this bread in the midst of the assembly of the faithful - in remembrance of those consoling appearances of the Risen One, of which the Holy Apostles were eyewitnesses and witnesses, and in commemoration of the invisible presence of the Risen Lord Himself in the midst of the assembly of the faithful. For He Himself promised us: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them;" and, "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Through prayer and supplication, the oly church seeks that the Lord Himself bless this bread in remembrance of Him, as He blessed the meal for His disciples, and that He Himself – through the hands of His ministers – may offer it to the faithful, as He wished to impart to His disciples with His most pure and divine hands.

II. So many precious memories for the Christian heart, my brethren, are united with this consecrated bread, and so many blessings for the believing soul are contained in it! Receive it from our unworthy hands, as if from the most pure hands of the Risen Lord Himself. While partaking of this bread, be transported with reverent, prayerful thoughts to those sacred places where the Risen Lord Himself appeared to His disciples and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God.

a) At the Secret Supper we hear the Lord speaking of humility and brotherly love as the first and chief Christian virtue, as the surest sign of true disciples of Christ; we see how He, the Lord and Teacher, teaches this virtue not so much by word as by His own example - He Himself humbles Himself to the level of a slave before His disciples, washes their feet with His own most pure hands and wipes them with linen. Let us accept with an open and kind heart this most touching exhortation to humility and brotherly love; let us drive out of our hearts all malice and ill will, bitter envy and wickedness, all arrogance and contempt.

b) On the way to Emmaus we hear the Lord's discourse on His saving sufferings, which burned the hearts of His disciples. The Holy Evangelists did not convey this discourse to us in the words of the Lord Himself, but the word of the cross constituted an essential and main part of the entire message of the Holy Apostles. Reading their epistles, we can be convinced with all clarity and detail, from all the prophetic writings, that it was thus fitting for Christ to suffer and enter into His glory. Thus it was necessary, for the satisfaction of God's truth, for the restoration of the holiness of God's law, trampled upon by the fall of the man of God, for the Son of God to become incarnate and suffer, in order to deliver us from the curse and death; thus it was necessary for Him to enter into His glory by resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, in order to bring us up with Himself, to resurrect us with Him and seat us in the heavens. All the Prophets foretold this, the Holy Apostles preach about this. Therefore, my brethren, let us firmly and unequivocally believe their divinely inspired words, so as not to deserve rebuke from the Lord, like the disciples of Emmaus: "O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!"

c) But being carried in spirit in the footsteps of the Lord to the Sea of Tiberias, be prepared, my brethren, to answer the question of the Lord Himself: "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me? Do you love Me, whom I have redeemed at the price of My blood, from sin, damnation and death, from the bonds of hades and the devil? Show Me your love from your works: show Me your zeal by reverence for My temple, obedience to My word, fulfillment of My commandment, acceptance of My mysteries with fear and faith, purity and reverence." Oh, if each of us with a pure heart, with an impeccable conscience, from the fullness of a loving soul, could confess before our Savior and Lord: "Yes, Lord, You know all things, You know that I love You!" And not only confess with your lips, but also testify to this confession by deeds and life! Then we would feel in ourselves the fulfillment of the following highest promise: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to Him and make our abode with Him" (John 14:23). Amen. 

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

 

* This is specifically a Slavic custom not adopted by the Greeks.