In the last issue of the article, I tried to introduce a concept that, I hope, my readers discerned. That idea was that all the things that we do in church, and even how we use the church building, has a symbolic meaning that conveys the truths of our faith. The actions of the Liturgy and other services convey as much meaning, many times, as the words that we use as we pray. I would truly encourage my readers to take time “looking” at what we do as well as “paying attention to the words that we use.” I am frequently taken aback when I take time during our services to look at the regular members of our community and what they are doing. I suspect that if you are a regular attendee, for example, at our Divine Liturgy, you pretty much know the responses. Most of them are not complicated. And yet I find that so many people have their heads buried in our Liturgy books and miss some of the actions that might also convey a message from God.
The only exception to this is, and I am very proud of my congregations for this, most people tend to follow the Gospel Book when it is brought through our worship space at the Little Entrance. Think about this Little Entrance. It begins in the altar area, which is symbolic of heaven, and goes through the community space (an area for believers here on earth), to lead us back to the altar area – the Kingdom to come. The symbolism is that if we follow the teachings of Jesus as contained in the Gospels, we will find ourselves eventually in the heavenly kingdom of God. The message: follow the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. (An aside: hopefully everyone knows that the Gospel Book only contains the texts of the four Gospels. It is not the complete New Testament).
SO….the clue is that as we follow the Gospel Book in the Little Entrance we also say to ourselves: O God, help me in this life to follow Your teachings as presented in Your Gospels about how to live my life. The Little Entrance is a wonderful opportunity to make a true profession of faith and also find a way to make your personal commitment to imitating Jesus Christ.
The Little Entrance provides us with a very concrete experience of what we believe: God came from heaven in the Person of Jesus (Incarnation) in order to model for us how we must learn how to live in order to eventually enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Little Entrance ends with the priest going through the iconastasis to place the Gospel on the Throne of God. The Gospels help us penetrate the barrier of death and transformation.