Page 38 - The Priest, Summer 2015

imitate the angels in their interior disposi- tion (purity of heart) and in her exterior gestures. Witnesses from the Patristic Age demonstrate that indea informed the conscience of the universal Church, from Rome and Carthage to Jerusalem, Anti- och and Constantinople. The heavenly liturgy of the angels consequently became an indispensable and constant measure of the authentic liturgical tradition.
St John Chrysostom: Doctor Eucharisticus
The Byzantine Tradition attributes au- thorship of its liturgy or anaphora to Saint John Chrysostom, also known by the title “doctor eucharisticus.” In his sermons this saint repeatedly stresses the presence of the angels in the earthly liturgy and in- vites the faithful to worship God in spir- itual union with them. St John names the angels “co-servants” (syndouloi — an expression found in Revelation 19:10 and Revelation 22:9) of the faithful, who joy- fully celebrate the paschal Eucharistic lit- urgy.1
In his homilies on Isaiah the doctor eu- charisticus describes the spiritual union of the worshipping faithful with the angels in such a way that there would be no differ- ence between the voice of the faithful and the voice of the angels, as if they would sing with one identical voice the hymn of the Sanctus. The source of this union is Christ himself through his sacri ce of the Cross. It is thanks to the Incarnation of the Son of God that the Sanctus, which be- fore was sung only by the angels in heaven, is now also sung by the faithful on earth. Christ Himself brought the angelic hymn down to earth, and therefore the church on earth is able to sing this hymn in her liturgy in union with the angels.
The Second Vatican Council’s Con- stitution on Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, refers the same thought in the following af rmation:
Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the New and everlasting Covenant assuming the human nature brought to this earthly exile the hymn, which is sung for all eter- nity in the heavenly dwellings. He gath-
1 Cf. Sermo adversus ebrios et de resurrectione, 2: PG 50, 435.
ers around Himself the universal human community in order to sing together with her this Divine song of praise.2
St John Chrysostom exhorts the faith- ful, giving us concrete indications on how to spiritually imitate the worshipping an- gels. I will try to paraphrase his words in this way: ‘Just as the angels sing, we can sing together with them. Just as the an- gels stand upright, we can stand rever- ently with them. Just as the angels extend their wings, we can extend the wings of our souls. Just as the angels y around the throne of God, in our thoughts we can cir- cle around God.
Let us contemplate his words:
Do you recognise this voice? Is this voice our voice or the voice of the seraphim? This voice is at the same time our voice and the voice of the seraphim thanks to Christ who has broken down the di- viding wall, who has reconciled heaven and earth, making two become one. In- deed this hymn was sung before only in heaven. But at the moment the Lord has deigned to descend to earth, He brought this song also to us. Therefore the great pontiff standing at this sacred table to of- fer the spiritual worship [logiken latreian], to offer the bloodless sacri ce, does not invite us only to listen devotedly, but hav- ing remembered rst the cherubim and then the seraphim, he exhorts all of us to send up to heaven this tremendous song as we belong to their choir [synchoreuón- ton]. Then he invites us to lift up our thought from the earth and raises up eve- ry one with these or similar words: sing together with the seraphim, stand up to- gether with the seraphim, together with them extend the wings of your mind, to- gether with them encircle the throne of the King.3
The concrete and fundamental cause of the sacred, transcendent and tremen- dous character of the liturgy is not an el- evated idea or a religious feeling, but the gift of the love of God which is visibly laid down on the altar of the sacri ce. That is: the Eucharistic body of Jesus Christ, lled with the re of the Holy Spirit. In the same homily on Isaiah, St John Chrys- ostom invokes the “gift of love” (charis tes philanthropias) and the “ re of the Spirit”
(pyr pneumatikon). This visible gift of the love of God which the faithful see and receive during the Eucharistic liturgy demands from the faithful an attitude of awe and of veneration, in accord with the example of the seraphim described by the prophet Isaiah. In itself, the holiness of God is inaccessible and invisible to the human eye. But God admits the angels to adore His immense holiness in heaven. In heaven, in the presence of the unfathom- able holiness of God, there is the model and the example (typos) of all holy realities and of all holy gestures, which the Church on earth possesses and practices.
This most holy reality in the Church on earth is the Eucharistic Body and Blood of Christ. After Him then is the altar, upon which His Body and Blood become really and substantially present through the act of the Eucharistic sacri ce. The Eucharis- tic Body and Blood of Christ are united to the Divine Godhead in the person of the Eternal Son of God. This Divine person is therefore the ultimate source and founda- tion of the holiness of the eucharistic spe- cies.
Christ’s redemptive sacri ce on the cross is the revelation of the immense and unending love of God to men, of His philanthrophia, and this is symbolized in the Bible by re. Therefore the ultimate model and example (typos) of the altar of the cross and of the altar of the Eucharist is the re of Divine love blazing in eter- nity, in heaven. In the sacri ce of the altar and in the Eucharistic gift of the Body of Christ, this eternal, heavenly and Divine re becomes visible and really present, and even touchable. No angels – even the highest seraphim – dare to touch the Di- vine re of the Eucharistic Body of Christ.
The prophet Isaiah explains this be- havior using the symbol of the tongs, with which the angel took the burning coal from the altar. (Is 6:6) It is astonish- ing that weak and sinful men can take the burning coal of the Eucharistic Body of Christ directly into their hands, with- out tongs. This aspect refers rstly to the priest, because his hands had been conse- crated in order to be objectively more suit- able to touch and to distribute the most holy sacrament, the sancta sanctorum, the
2 3
Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 83. John Chrysostom. Homily on Isaiah, 6, 3.
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