Orthodox Christian Holy Week — Holy Thursday Part I
On the eve of Holy Wednesday, Orthodox Christians throughout the world hold the service of Holy Unction. This is a healing service replete with psalms, chanted hymns, Epistle and Gospel readings, commemoration of the sick (we are all spiritually sick is the understanding of the Church), and prayers supplicating God’s mercy and healing. At the end the faithful are anointed with holy oil “unto healing of soul and body.”
One notices in the hymns the purposeful constant interplay between the words oil and mercy; as it was mentioned earlier, these are the same words in Greek.
“The whole earth is full of Thy mercy, O Master. Wherefore, we who today shall be mystically anointed with Thy divine and precious Oil faithfully beseech Thee that we be granted Thy mercy which passeth understanding.” (Canon, ode 1)
“O Christ, in Thy mercy do Thou make to shine Thy lamp divine on them that hasteneth in faith now to be anointed with Thy mercy’s oil.” (Canon, ode 3)
The Orthodox Christian understanding is that the Church is a hospital, and Holy Unction is just one way in which the Church provides beautiful healing services. Because God became man, it is understood that with the appropriate prayers and blessings, material things dedicated to God can also become sanctified by God’s uncreated energies (such as holy water and holy oil) and bestow blessings on those who participate.
After the service of Holy Unction and the anointing of the faithful, the service of Matins starts. No longer do we hear the hymn “Behold the Bridegroom cometh...” for as the time for our Saviour’s saving Passion draws near, and we walk with Him in the way, the hymns reflect what is going on during these days.
The matinal Gospel is St. Luke 22:1–39.
Holy Thursday has four “themes”:
The Mystical Supper (We don’t refer to it as the Last Supper, as “last” doesn’t make sense to us, since it is ongoing.)
The washing of the Disciples’ feet which took place at the Mystic Supper.
Christ’s Sublime Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The Betrayal.
This is the logical sequence in which these events happened, so “this is where we are” now. The church services are not “re-enactments” but rather a sublime entering into this present season which is alive in timeless time (kairos).
Regarding the Mystical Supper and the washing of the feet, time permitting, we will include them in a Part II on Holy Thursday. (If not this week, then God willing soon.)
On Christ’s sublime prayer in the Garden we include a quote from St. John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco (1896–1966) from the article What Did Christ Pray About in the Garden of Gethsemane? :
“By this suffering Christ redeemed man from sin and death, and reestablished the union of man with God. The sinless Saviour took upon Himself all human sin, so that He, Who had no sins of His own, should feel the weight of the sin of all humanity ands sorrow over it in such a way as was possible only for complete holiness, which clearly feels even the slightest deviation from the commandments and Will of God.”
In the Orthodox Christian understanding, the entire Incarnation (God becoming man while remaining God) was saving for humanity, not only Christ’s sufferings on the Cross. Here in the Garden of Gethsemane it is recorded that Christ’s sufferings, in His human nature, were so intense that He sweat blood. In His sorrowing over our sins — all the sins of humanity from Adam and Eve until the Second Coming — He once again did for us what we were not capable of doing on our own. Now we can join ourselves to this act of saving repentance whenever we sustain a fall away from God’s commands, knowing that Christ has already wept for us and joining our tears to His.
On the Betrayal — There are two hymns which particularly stand out because they underline how Christ was very aware and participatory in what was about to happen. Not that things had to go awry — Had old Israel welcomed its Messiah, that would have been the joy of the whole world. But God in His foreknowledge knew when He came to earth that He would be crucified, and was still willing to go through it.
The verse pertaining to the Betrayal:
What need is there of swords, and of clubs, O ye deceivers of the people, for Him that is eager to die for the world’s redemption? (Synaxarion)
And also this moving verse that we will hear chanted on Holy Friday:
Judas hastened to the lawless scribes saying: What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you? But in the midst of those who struck this agreement, didst Thou Thyself stand invisibly, agreeing thereunto. O Knower of hearts, spare our souls. (Antiphon Two)
