Every Divine Liturgy is Theophany by Elder Sophrony of Essex
We Orthodox live Christ in the Divine
Liturgy, or better yet, Christ lives within us in through the
duration of the Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy is a work of God.
We say: “It is the time for the Lord to act” (Psalm 119:126).
Among other things, this means that now is the time for God to work.
Christ liturgizes, we live together with Christ.
The Divine Liturgy is the way that we
come to know God, and the way that God comes to know us.
Christ accomplished the Divine Liturgy
once, and this has passed unto eternity. He overcame corrupted human
nature in the Divine Liturgy. We come to know Christ specifically in
the Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy that we celebrate is the same
Divine Liturgy which Christ worked on Holy Thursday at the Mystical
Supper.
Chapters 14-17 of the Gospel of St.
John are a Divine Liturgy. Thus we understand the Holy Scriptures in
the Divine Liturgy.
The first Church lived without the New
Testament, however, not without the Divine Liturgy. The first forms,
hymns, scriptures exist within the Divine Liturgy.
In the Divine Liturgy we live Christ,
and we understand His word.
As Christ cleansed His Disciples with
His work and told them: “Now you are clean by the word that I have
spoken to you” (John 15:3), and He cleansed the feet of the
Disciples with water during the Holy Niptir, thus the first part of
the Divine Liturgy cleanses us that we might later sit at the Table
of love. The purpose of the Divine Liturgy is for us to partake of
Christ.
The Divine Liturgy teaches us an ethos,
the ethos of humility. As Christ was sacrificed, thus we must
sacrifice. The form of the Divine Liturgy is the form of He Who
became poor for us. In the Divine Liturgy we try to humble ourselves,
because we have the sense that there exists a humble God.
Every Divine Liturgy is Theophany [The
Revealing of God]. The Body of Christ is revealed. Every member of
the Church is an icon of the Kingdom of God.
After the Divine Liturgy we must try to
continue to depict the Kingdom of God, keeping His commandments. The
glory of Christ is that every one of His members might bear fruit.
Thus His word explains: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you
bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John
15:8)
http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.ca/2012/08/every-divine-liturgy-is-theophany.html
http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.ca/2012/08/every-divine-liturgy-is-theophany.html
