The Meaning of the Eucharistic Liturgy – Father Gavril Galev
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After the God-Man Jesus Christ fulfilled the Dispensation for the salvation of mankind, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the holy disciples (apostles) and by doing so founded the Church; ever since then the main event in Church is the Eucharist, that is the Holy Liturgy itself.
The Eucharist has become the purpose and the reason for the gathering of the ancient Christians. Through the Eucharist, the Church identifies itself. Therefore, the Church cannot exist without the Eucharist and at same time there is no Eucharist without the Church. The Liturgy occupies a central and irreplaceable place in the Church, it is a spring, strength, meaning, and fullness of the pious (spiritual) life. Outside the Eucharist there is no healing and salvation, there is no deification, there is no true faith and proper asceticism, there is no resurrection and there is no eternal life.
The Liturgy is a sacrament through which, as it from a spring, all other Holy Mysteries spring up into the Church. The Liturgy is the most holy mystery of the New Testament, it is the mystery of Unity and Love.
The Liturgy means common work (service), It is people’s (public) work, common work or service of the chosen, of the so-called people of God. The Liturgy is a service of people performed for the people themselves, performed before God and in His name. It is God’s Service, in which we serve on behalf of God, and in fact God Himself serves in it. In this Holy Mystery God unites us and creates a new being, He creates the very body of Christ – He creates the Church itself.
The Eucharist was established by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who took the bread at the time of the supper, blessed it, broke it, and after giving it to His holy apostles, said, “Take, eat, this is My Body” then He took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, “drink from it, all of you this is My blood of the New Testament” (Matt 26: 26-28).
The Eucharist also means thanksgiving, a common deed of expressing gratitude to God (i.e. the Eucharist), we remember and thank God for all that He Has done for us. The Holy Eucharist is served (performed) in the memory of Christ, and of His Last Supper and, as an obedience to His commandment: “Do this in remembrance of Me,” said Christ (Luke 22:19)! But that is not just a memory. The famous contemporary theologian Fr. Georgi Florovski explains: “People remember what has happened and what has passed, something that happened and no longer exist. The Last Supper on the other hand is not served (performed) only once, but continues mysteriously until the end of the ages – “until He comes. It continues, and does not repeat itself.“ [i]
On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles, and then they served (performed) the first Holy Liturgy, which in fact is not new, but It is the same Liturgy from the Paschal Last Supper, and which is only actualized and continues to be served in the Church until the end of the ages.
Christ is the perfect sacrifice, and therefore there is no need to repeat or add anything. Christ is the One Who offers the Holy Gifts (He offers Himself) during the Holy Liturgy, at the moment when the priest prays before offering the gifts saying: “For you are the One Who offers and sacrifices Yourself, Who receives and gives everything.” All of this is also witnessed by St. John Chrysostom, who explains even more precisely. “For One is the sacrifice, One is the offering, and One is the Priest, “He is the One, Who brings and Who is offered”…
And this is the same Christ Who commanded thus; “He who serves (performs) this supper is the same One to Whom this super is offered at present.” And He adds: “That (first) supper, at which the Holy Sacrament (Communion) was established, is no more important than any other served following the first one. Because even today, just the same as then, He is the One Who does everything and gives everything.”
The great interpreter of the Holy Liturgy from the 14th century St. Nicholas Cabasilas adds: “This sacrifice is not performed through the sacrifice of the Lamb at that hour, but through the transfiguration of the bread into the slain lamb.” [ii] and “He did not cease to be a Priest after once (and for all) He offered and sacrificed Himself, but also He continues to serve this constant (unbroken) Liturgy for us.”
The Liturgy is not a composition of symbolic actions that oblige us to remind ourselves of Christ and His salvific sacrifice (Providence). It is the biggest and deepest existential, ontological thing and reality of (in) the Church. The Liturgy is the peak of the realism of the God-Man which is happening here and now. We are not observers, but participants, and therefore all the prayers we say during the Liturgy are in the first person plural, the present (continuous) tense.
Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, at the moment of the “Small Entrance” we, mystically, step in and stand before the throne of God. At the moment of the “Great Entrance” we offer ourselves to Him.
At the time of “The Epiclesis” (Call of the Holy Spirit), the offered gifts are changed (transformed) into the Body and Blood of Christ and we participate in the same Paschal, Last Supper and Eschatologically we are in the Kingdom of God. At the same time, we partake in the Holy Communion, we become deified and one with Christ, we become His collaborators, we become the Body of Christ, i.e. we become the Church.
The Divine Liturgy is a mystical re-experiencing of the Divine Providence. “ In every Holy Liturgy of the Church”, writes Metropolitan Nahum of Strumica, “we celebrate every moment of the life of Christ… This does not mean that at every Liturgy Christ’s Dispensation for our salvation is repeated,but it means that to those who participate in the Liturgical time and space of the Church’s Eucharist (Thanksgiving Sacrifice) again and again is given to them the opportunity to a full-of-grace and real participation in the life of Christ, by partaking (Holy Communion) of Him.”
During the Holy Liturgy, through the gifts we offer to God, we in fact offer all of His creation: “Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee, for all and for everything.” In this and through this, everything is offered to Him and everything is sanctified by Him. The Holy Liturgy, which, as we said before, is associated with the Church, It is the new creation, “a new heaven and a new earth.” (Rev 21:1, 5) Assembly of the heaven and of the earth. Here are the Holy Angels, here also are the Saints and all those previously reposed, whom we mention in our prayers together with us… And especially the Most-Holy, Most-Pure, Most-Blessed, our Glorious Sovereign Lady Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary.
“The Divine Liturgy is the foretaste of the Kingdom of God, and more than that: It is the door of the Beginning as well as of the Supper of the Kingdom of God Itself.”[1] Behold, that is why the Divine Liturgy is our identity. In the Eucharistic mentioning (of people), the boundaries of the time and of the space cross. The past, the present and the future, as well as the Dispensation of our salvation, (“already is and still not yet”) are fully completed and therefore we pray as an act of something already fulfilled: “Remembering, therefore, this salvific commandment and all those things that have come to pass for us: The Cross, the tomb, the descent into hades, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and the second and glorious coming of Christ”
Through the Eucharist, the Church introduces eschatological time and space here on earth. The blessing of the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is nothing else, but our foretaste and participation in His Kingdom, which is not from this world and age. In this way, we proclaim the Kingdom of God in the world. That is way the Holy Liturgy does not end with the final supplication “Amen” in the prayer, but continues to live even after that.
With the exclamation: “let us go forth in peace,“ being enlightened by the heavenly grace of the Holy Spirit, we go out into the world. Filled with light, joy and peace we return and bear witness (announce) to the world, by continuing to live the Holy Liturgy even after the Liturgy, devoting (transfiguring) our entire life to the service of God and the Holy Liturgy. Amen.
Father Gavril Galev
Abbot of the Monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
[1] Archpriest Georgi Florovski, Eucharist and Catholicity, Orthodoxy (magazine for Orthodox Faith, Culture and Education) No.2, Australian-Sydney Diocese at the MOC – OA, 2017
2 Hieromonk Gregory Agiorit, Divine Liturgy, Liturgy (textbook), Library “Trojeručica”, Belgrade, 1997
3Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum, Only One Thing is Needed, Library Vovedenie, Veljusa, 2013
4. Bishop Atanasij (Jeftic) for the Church and the Liturgy “(selection of articles) – published by the monastery Tvrdo and the Brotherhoods of St. Simeon Mitofag – Vrnci, 2007
