In the last issue of this article I tried to encourage all of my readers to seriously consider, if they are not already doing it, to get into the practice of remembering both living and deceased people, by name, during the Divine Liturgy. There is a specific point in the Liturgy where this is done. This practice truly enhances one’s worship.

I would now like to briefly consider how worshippers understood the Liturgy during the time of John Chrysostom. I share this in an effort to have you, my readers, consider your understanding of the Divine Liturgy. Read the following and then ask yourself: What is my understanding of what transpires when I participate in the Divine Liturgy.

The understanding of the early church was first of all shaped by the prayers of the ritual, especially the Anaphora. If they listened attentively to the Anaphora of  Basil, or that of John, they knew that they were engaged in offering a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God for all His mighty acts in creation and redemption, and above all for the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and his coming again in glory. They knew, too, that these saving events were commemorated by the offering of the bread and wine, which through the invocation of the Holy Spirit on them, as well as on the worshippers, become the Body and Blood of Christ, which they received for the remission of sins and eternal life in God’s Kingdom. United with the Mother of God and all the saints they interceded for the living and the departed, and knew themselves to be partakers in the mystical banquet which anticipated the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation.

But, the prayers of the Liturgy were not the only formative influence on their understanding of the ritual. When they became Christians they attended a series of lectures on the rites of initiation (i.e., the Mysteries of Baptism, Chrismation and Holy Eucharist). Most of us were initiated into the Church as infants and, perhaps, have never had the experience of learning about the Liturgy (This is one of the reasons why I have included this article in my Bulletins).

Chrysostom regularly speaks of the Eucharist as a mystery. In Paul’s writings mystery meant the whole plan of God for our salvation. Following Origen, John Chrysostom calls that which we do a mystery when we see one thing and believe another. What is seen, heard and touched in the Eucharist can be seen but not understood by the senses. There is nothing that we can see that tells us the bread and wine we pray over is somehow transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. This is only something that we can know by faith.                        (More to follow)