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

February: Day 2: Teaching 2:
The Reception of the Lord
 
(Explanation of the Rite of Churching an Infant)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. What has now happened to our Lord and Savior in the Temple in Jerusalem, something similar, my brethren, was once done to each of us. And we, like Him, were brought into the temple, placed before the Lord, churched, and dedicated to Him for eternal service. All this was done to us at such an age when we, like infants, had no idea of ourselves, and therefore we did not know what was happening to us. But the Holy Church could neither occupy itself, nor occupy us with idle rites; what was done to us had an important meaning. Together with our being brought to the temple and churched, we received many rights and promises; just as at the same time important and sacred duties were imposed on us.

II. The present day, as the day of the Reception of our Lord at the Temple, in whose image our reception at the temple was also accomplished, is therefore the most appropriate for such recollections and reflections. Therefore, my brethren, let us transfer our thoughts to our infancy, and let us see what happened to us on the fortieth day of our existence.

a) What kind of woman is this, who with a baby at her breast approaches the threshold of the church with trembling feet, apparently hurrying to the church for some holy matter, but, approaching the doors of the church, stops, and as if held back by some invisible force, does not dare to go further?

This is your mother, beloved listener! And you yourself are her baby! The fortieth day after your birth has come, and behold, according to the law of the Holy Church, your mother carries you to the temple for your churching. Why does she linger at the threshold of the church and not enter the temple? Who stopped her? It is the same law of the Church, which forbids a woman who has given birth, until forty days after birth, to enter the house of God. Why this prohibition? Let us understand by this that we are all conceived in sins and are born in iniquities and through this very thing we become unworthy of appearing before the face of God, as inaccessible to sinners by His holiness.

b) But let us not be ashamed: we will not be forced to stand outside the temple for long, because, thanks to Divine love, we all have an all-powerful Mediator and Advocate. Covered by His merits, purified by His grace, adorned with His name, we, despite our innate corruption and imperfection, will be received into the house of God, presented before the very face of the King, even joined to the ranks of His friends and confidants.

c) Indeed, the minister of the altar appears, receives into his arms, like Symeon, the infant, that is, you and me, beloved listener, lifts him up before the gates of the church, forms a cross with him in the air, and exclaims: "The servant of God is churched, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!" When, following this, the doors of the temple, as if yielding to the sign of the cross, open, the priest enters with the infant, speaking on his behalf with the words of Righteous David: "I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; in fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple" (Psalm 5:7).

Having reached the middle of the temple, he stops, again lifts the infant up and, forming a cross with him, proclaims: "The servant of God is churched, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit;" and then adds: "In the midst of the church I will sing to You!"

Then he comes to the Royal Doors of the Altar, again raises the child in the form of a cross, and for the third time proclaims: "The servant of God is churched, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

d) Thus, the child born is already dedicated to God, already brought into the King's house. This could have ended the sacred rite. But the Christian, as a joint-heir of Christ, is granted greater rights; to him, as to the royal priesthood, it is granted to enter into the innermost veil (Heb. 10-19); and so the priest, according to the same ecclesiastical rite, carries the infant through the southern door into the sanctuary itself, walks with him around the throne, and, leaving the altar by the opposite path, that is, through the northern door, places him on the ground before the Royal Doors, from where the mother herself must receive him, as if from the Lord.

III. What could be more significant and at the same time more touching than these sacred rites!

a) The cross signifies that if we now have access both to the earthly temple and to the heavenly Eden, it is through the sufferings of the Son of God on the cross for us, by which paradise was opened for all of us, which was closed for all of us by the crime of our forefather and our own sins. And meanwhile, this same cross makes it known to the one born for the rest of his life that he, as a Christian, must be a cross-bearer, that his lot is not to please the senses, but to crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts.

b) The bringing of the infant into the sanctuary, not by the mother or the father, but by the priest, shows that the powers of nature are sufficient only to grant him natural life alone, but are not sufficient to introduce him into spiritual and grace-filled life; and the walking around the throne clearly indicates the high destiny of the Christian to contemplate the glory of God openly, to be a partaker of the mysteries of eternal life while still on earth, to prepare himself for blessed cohabitation with the archangels and angels surrounding the throne of God - in the place of the dwelling of the glory of God itself.

c) Finally, the position of the infant on the ground before the Royal Doors makes it clear that, despite the many spiritual rights that have now been acquired by him, he, as a Christian, must remain in humility of spirit and heart all his life, consider himself as nothing before the Lord; look upon himself as a sacrifice that is once and for all dedicated to the Lord, so that from now on he no longer lives for himself and no longer dies for himself, but for the Savior who died and rose for him.

IV. Remember, then, brought and taken, what a sign the gates of the house of God have opened to you! Remember the throne around which you were carried, and which was destined for you, and the land on which you were laid, and to which you will go! Remember that you will again and also by strange hands be brought one day to the church with a cross in your hands! Oh, if only you could once assimilate the words of Righteous Symeon: "Now let Your servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Your word. For my eyes have seen Your salvation!" But they will be assimilated to you and you will rest in peace until the day of the General Resurrection, if you do not forget your churching throughout your life. Amen.  

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