Forgive me, a Sinner
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Today is the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women. On this day, we not only honor the women who went to the tomb on the first Pascha, we also honor the holy and righteous Joseph of Arimathea, who buried the body of our Lord and Master.
And as we commemorate all these folks, we can also learn from them. We can learn how to be Liturgical People. A Liturgical Person is someone who centers her life on the Holy Eucharist. Of course, the Eucharist is the very presence of the Risen and Ascended Christ Jesus. But our culture wants us to focus on other things. That’s not a new problem; down through the centuries, it’s often been necessary for Christians to stand apart from their culture. But in this day and age, media and technology make that sort of resistance a real challenge.
We’ve been talking about all this at the Pascha Book Study. On Wednesday nights, we’re discussing a book by Dr. Jean Claude Larchet; the book is called The New Media Epidemic. One of the summarizing points Dr. Larchet makes in his book is that our use of media and technology is making us into new people. This new humanity has been described as connected man and communicating man, and those don’t sound like terrible things—especially when we have to be so far apart from each other. But we will only be fully human if we are Liturgical People. And this morning, the Myrrh-bearing Women and Joseph of Arimathea show us what Liturgical People are like.
For example, in this morning’s gospel lesson, Joseph of Arimathea prepares the body of Christ Jesus for burial. Now that’s hands-on, physical work. In the hymns for this day, we listen as Joseph respectfully and tenderly approaches the body of our Lord and Master, but what this holy and righteous man is doing is very, very tangible; it’s very, very concrete.
That is also how we approach the Risen and Glorified Christ Jesus in the Holy Eucharist: the moment we partake of the Holy Gifts is the most solemn and holy moment of the week, so we enter into that moment with great respect and genuine tenderness.
But it’s also a very, very physical experience: when we are present in the temple during a normal liturgy, we hear the music; we smell the incense; we see the icons; we kiss the chalice; we taste the bread and the wine. And that’s just not an experience that you can put online—which is why we are not streaming the liturgy on Sunday mornings.
Of course, lots of congregations are broadcasting their services in various ways, and they all have good motives: they just want to provide their folks with access to worship. However, while you can hear and see what is happening on a screen, you can’t touch it; you can’t smell it; you can’t taste it. And unless all of our senses are engaged, unless the experience is fully physical, our interaction with what is happening on the screen may be compelling and profound and even beautiful, but it’s not Orthodox worship.
That is why we will continue to offer the Typika in our homes until we are able to be present together in the Divine Liturgy. We are not able to partake of the Holy Eucharist during a home Typika, but, if we offer the service properly, with respect and tenderness—if we read it out loud in our icon corner with flowers and incense—then it’s going to be a concrete and tangible experience; it’s going to be genuine Orthodox worship, and we are going to be Liturgical People.
But, when we are able to return to our temple, we will need to take steps to reinforce that identity. Which is why, for example, we should always—always—put something in the offering bowl when we enter the nave for the Divine Liturgy. That’s why we should always give our children something to put in the offering bowl. Because what we do in the Holy Eucharist is to offer ourselves to Christ Jesus even as He offers Himself to God the Father through the Holy Spirit. And, since it is part of our worship, our offering needs to be tangible; it needs to be concrete.
That is why, right up until about two weeks ago, we had never used direct deposit or PayPal in our community. We do have a lot of people who were using check writing services, and those checks are mailed to the parish, but when those checks arrive, they are always put in the offering bowl and blessed over the altar. Because of the quarantine, our Finance Folks thought it would be wise and prudent to install a PayPal button on our website, and I’m completely on board with that decision. But since we haven’t yet figured out how to bless funds that are traveling through cyber-space, your parish clergy and I have been on the road each day for the last week and a half. There are many other reasons why we have undertaken this extended Pascha Procession, but one of the main reasons is that we want to provide each family in the parish with the opportunity to make their offering in a way that is tangible and concrete.
As Liturgical People, our approach to worship and the Holy Eucharist has to be hands-on, and an important way we can reinforce that principle is by always putting something in the offering bowl. Even if we use the PayPal button or send a check in through the mail, even if what we put in the bowl is small and symbolic, when we come before our Risen and Ascended Lord and Master, we need to follow the example of Joseph of Arimathea: what we do must be tender and respectful, but it also has to be concrete and tangible.
But in this morning’s gospel lesson, the Myrrh-Bearing Women also teach us how to be Liturgical People. And more than anything, those women are focused: On Great and Holy Friday, they watch as Joseph of Arimathea buries the body of Christ Jesus; on Great and Holy Saturday, they gather all the supplies and equipment they are going to need, and, then, early on the morning of the first Pascha, they head to the tomb.
These women know how to concentrate on a goal, and that’s also what Liturgical People do: They focus. So, just as the Myrrh-bearers are focused on the Body of our Lord and Master, we need to be focused on the Holy Eucharist. Since it’s been a few weeks since most of us have participated in the Eucharist, right now, we are zeroed in on that Holy Mystery. We are eagerly awaiting the announcement that we can, once again, join together in the Divine Liturgy. But how long will we be able to maintain that focus when we are granted access to our temple?
It’s a good question. But the Church provides us with absolutely everything we need, and that’s also true in this case. The Canon of Preparation and the Pre-Communion Prayers are specifically designed to help us get ready to participate in the Holy Eucharist. If you have never used that canon and those prayers—or if you have never been able to use them consistently—this period of enforced leisure would be a great time to figure out how to make that happen.
You can add one or two of the Pre-Communion Prayers to your daily devotions, and that way you can keep your focus on the Holy Eucharist throughout the week. You can read the Canon of Preparation on Wednesday night and that can be your mid-week reminder. There are all sorts of ways that we can use these resources of the Church to concentrate on the presence of Christ Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.
But it’s also true that media and technology are making it harder to us to focus. There’s no question that the way we use media is shortening our attention span; there’s no doubt that our technology is making us more and more distracted. And all that stuff is here to stay, so it’s no use pretending we can do without it. But we can adopt some very strict rules in regards to media and technology.
Those rules are going to be different for each person and every family. That’s one of the subjects that is being discussed at the Pascha Book Study, so you can get some good ideas there. But we have to do something, because we are steadily losing our ability to be like the Myrrh-bearing Women. We are losing our ability to concentrate and focus.
In fact, while you were reading through this homily, a lot of you paused to check your text messages. Some of you are reading this while also chatting on another device; many of you only made it this far through the homily after you stopped several times to watch some short videos or to check on the situation at work.
And, sure, we chuckle about that, but if we can’t focus, if we can’t concentrate, then we can’t be Liturgical People. And if we can’t be Liturgical People, then our Risen and Ascended Lord and Master will no longer be at the center of our lives.
Mothers and Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, that’s not something any of us want. So as we turn together to our Typika on this Second Sunday of Pascha, let’s thank the Holy Myrrh-bearers; let’s thank Joseph of Arimathea, and let’s resolve to follow their example. Because that is how Christ Jesus will be at the center of our lives through the Holy Eucharist, that is how we will all be Liturgical People, and that is how we will all be able, with one mouth and one heart, to praise and glorify the all honorable and majestic Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.