Our Venerable Father and Confessor Michael, Bishop of Synada (826); Venerable Euphrosyne of Polotsk, Hegumena of the Monastery of the Holy Saviour (1173)
Read
Acts 20:7-12; John 14:10-21
What are we to make of this short epistle and its intimate picture of the Church in Troas? This vignette of the young man Eutychus surviving a fall out a window after falling asleep during the Apostle Paul’s extended preaching has a humorous character to it. Is this a cautionary tale about what can happen if we doze off during the homily? Well, we should certainly always strive to be attentive during the Divine Liturgy. We must be prayerfully present by engaging not only the homily but the rest of the Liturgy of the Word that precedes it and the Liturgy of the Eucharist that follows. Today’s epistle does tell us something very important about the Church of Troas: they came together on the first day of the week to break bread. From the earliest days of the Church, as the holy apostles spread out from Jerusalem after Pentecost proclaiming the Gospel, they fulfilled Jesus’ commandment to celebrate the Eucharist as a living memorial of His Passion, Death, and Glorious Resurrection. It is the Eucharist that sustains the Church. In both the Word and the Eucharist, we are receiving Our Risen Lord. Both are nourishing to our souls and bodies.
What then are we to make of this present time of quarantine in which for most of us our access to Our Lord’s saving body and precious blood in the Most Holy Eucharist has been restricted? There have been many times and places when the Church’s ability to celebrate the Eucharist with the full participation of the clergy and faithful has been impeded. Our own Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has clear memories of the grave challenges posed during the Soviet period to celebrating the Eucharist. In our own days, many of our fellow Eastern Christians of the churches of the Middle East in fleeing persecution were unable to come together to celebrate the sacred liturgy. So, in these times of trial let us remember their witness and ask for the intercession of the new martyrs and confessors of Rus’-Ukraine that Our Lord may lead us through this desert. Secondly, let us dedicate ourselves to the daily reading of the Holy Scriptures and spend time in meditation on the Word of God that Our Risen Lord may be present in us through them. Let us join with the Holy and Glorious Apostle Peter and say “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)