Categories: hymns, prayer, feast-days
Date: 21 April 2009 11:31:01
In addition to the smashing of the gates of Hades and the death of Death, another theme in Orthodox hymnography for Great and Holy Saturday is that of the Sabbath: the day when God, in Jesus Christ, rested on the seventh day in the tomb:
The great Moses mystically foreshadowed this day saying, "And God blessed the seventh day." For this is the blessed Sabbath; it is the day of rest, in which the Only-Begotten Son of God rested from all His works, and through the dispensation of death in body He rested. And having returned to it again through the Resurrection, He granted us Life eternal, as the only Good and Merciful Lord.
The service held on Friday evening, the Burial of Christ and the Lamentations, also has this theme of the Sabbath, among many others:
You have sanctified the seventh day, which You blessed before You rested from Your labours; for You create everything, and You renew them, observing the Sabbath and restoring Yourself.
... "Behold this is the most blessed Sabbath, in which Christ having fallen asleep, will rise on the third day."
What is the sight, which is now beheld? What is the present rest? The King of the ages having completed the dispensation with His Passion takes His Sabbath rest in the tomb, granting us a new Sabbath. To Him let us cry out, "Arise, O God, and judge the earth, for You reign to the ages, Who is boundless in Your great mercy."
On Holy Saturday the usual Cherubic Hymn is replaced by a special hymn, taken from the Liturgy of St James, and one which may be familiar, in a different translation, to many readers:
Let all mortal flesh keep silent, and stand in fear and trembling, giving no thought to the things of the earth.
For the King of kings and Lord of lords comes forth to be sacrificed, and given as food to the faithful.
Before Him go the choirs of Angels, with all the Principalities and Powers.
I am used to the Western hymn of the translation, with its glorious words and even more glorious melody, and thus perhaps have a preference for it, but the chanting of the hymn above as part of this service is a very powerful hymn to chant, as the gifts of Bread and Wine offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, are carried in procession through the church. The hymn ends with, after the procession and prayers:
The many-eyed Cherubim and the six-winged Seraphim covering their faces and chanting their hymn: Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.