Great and Holy Saturday
Categories: reading, hymns, music, holy-week
Date: 02 April 2010 12:03:25
Truly Hades rules the race of mortals, but not forever;
for You, O mighty One, when placed in the tomb,
demolished the bars of death with your Life-giving hand,
and preached to those, who slept there from ages of old,
the true redemption,
becoming, O Saviour, the First-born from the dead.
Today the grave holds Him Who holds creation in His palm.
A stone covers Him Who covers the Heavens with virtue.
Life sleeps, and Hades trembles;
and Adam is set free from his bonds.
Glory to Your dispensation, through which,
when all things were accomplished,
You presented to us an eternal Sabbath rest,
granting Your most Holy Resurrection from the dead.
Today Hades cries out groaning,
"My authority is dissolved;
I received a mortal as one of the mortals:
but this One I am powerless to contain;
with Him I lose all those over which I had ruled.
For ages I held the dead, but behold He raised all up."
Glory O Lord to Your Cross and Your Resurrection!
The hymns above are but a small sample from the Orthodox celebration of Great and Holy Saturday, which commenced this evening [Friday] with the Holy Saturday Matins [Burial of Christ and the Lamentations] and which will liturgically finish with the Holy Saturday Vesperal Liturgy tomorrow morning [and yes, Matins at night and Vespers in the morning; Holy Week is turned up-side down liturgically]. There is much that could be said about these services, but I think they are probably best experienced first-hand: though the previous link and this Wikipedia article give you some idea. Tonight, for me, the Lamentation verses [of which I believe there are over 300, but a small sample are usually taken in parishes] whose words and well as melody I find hard to get out of my head and the subsequent carrying of the decorated bier [an example; ours is slightly less decorated, covered with white carnations and red for the crosses and with leaves] containing the Epitaphios [an embroidered icon depicting Christ's body being prepared for burial] around and out of the Church in procession with lighted candles while the Lamentations are again chanted are particularly moving aspects of the service. Tomorrow morning, though we will not yet shout "Christ is Risen!" [which must wait for the PaschaL Service that evening], the atmosphere and mood indeed changes to joy from sorrow. As the hymns I've chosen above reflect, the emphasis of Great and Holy Saturday, while of course having an expression of sadness and loss at the death of Christ, is one where the expectation of the great joy Christ will bring with his Resurrection and conquering of the power of death is present. And, furthermore, the Orthodox teaching on the Harrowing of Hades is that Christ indeed descend to the dead, smashing the gates of Hades and Death and freeing those held captive by Death, which is depicted in the Orthodox icon of the Resurrection with Christ pulling up Adam and Eve from the grave and the binding of Death and/or [that icon shows both] the smashed bars and broken chains of Hades below. Some icons also show the smashed gates. On this teaching of Christ's descent to Hades, I am learning a great deal from Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective, by Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev, which I hope to read significantly more of in the time between the Holy Saturday Vesperal Liturgy tomorrow morning and the Paschal Service tomorrow evening. Looking, so far, at Scripture, non-Canonical texts, the writings of the early Church as well as later Church Fathers, theologians and poets, there is a great treasury of explanation in prose and poetry of Christ's defeat of the power of Death over us in his descent to Hades. I also am enjoying listening to a recording of Bach's St John Passion -- which is challenging my long-neglected German as well. A blessed Great and Holy Saturday to all. And, in expectation of Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, may your Paschal celebration be full of joy, light and peace in the knowledge and comfort of Christ's glorious Resurrection!