Great and Holy Monday. Synaxis of the Holy Archangel Gabriel
Great and Holy Week. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Matins – Matthew 21:18-43
Sixth Hour – Ezekiel 1:1-20
Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts – Exodus 1:1-20; Job 1:1-12; Matthew 24:3-35
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
What does this reading have to do with the passion of Christ? Why are we reading about Israelite slaves and Hebrew midwives – isn’t Holy Week is about Christ’s death and resurrection?
Perhaps the key to this passage is how it describes the vitality of the Israelites. When Joseph and his brothers die, the Israelites “increase greatly” and fill the land. Pharaoh oppresses them, “lest they multiply,” but his effort to stifle this growth is futile – the more the Egyptians oppress the Israelites, the more they increase. The midwives refuse to kill the Israelite children, and God continues to form his chosen people into a great nation. Faced with the forces of death and destruction, God sustains amazing life.
It’s this power of God to overcome death with life that is at the heart of Holy Week. On Great Friday, we see the worst suffering that a human can experience, and get a glimpse of the confusion and despair that the disciples experienced as they saw their leader crucified. But out of that undeserved death, and in the midst of the disciples’ shame, God reveals Jesus as the Divine Messiah. In the midst of sin, God remains righteous; in the midst of betrayal, God is faithful. Let’s begin Holy Week like the Hebrew midwives, guided by fear of the Lord in the face of evil; then we can end it with the myrrh-bearing women, whose loyalty to Christ despite all evidence to the contrary was rewarded beyond measure on Pascha morning.