Akathist Saturday; The Holy Martyrs Theodulus and Agathopedes and those with them.
Day 34 of the Great Fast.
Hebrews 9:24-28; Hebrews 9:1-7; Mark 8:27-31; Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28.
Read Hebrews 9:24-28
When you think of a priest, do you think about sacrifice? Perhaps in our day and age when we think of a priest, we can recognize that there are many sacrifices on his part that he must undertake if he is to serve his people, but something deeper is being explored and stated here by St. Paul. The centre of Christ’s High Priesthood is his own sacrifice, the sacrifice of Himself. In the Old Covenant, the priests would try to reconcile God and His people through the blood of animal sacrifices. All the Holy Things were covered by this blood which was sprinkled. Although this may be sufficient for the earthly Temple, Christ, Our High Priest, offers His own Body and Blood for our salvation and this was bought or won for us directly through His own sacrifice. As we prepare for Holy Communion, one of the important points we should meditate on is the cost of our salvation. This is at the very core of what (Whom) we are receiving and the how we have access not to an earthly temple, but to Heaven itself.
St. John Chrysostom writes:
What then? Do not we offer every day? We offer indeed, but making a remembrance of his death, and this remembrance is one and not many. How is it one, and not many? Inasmuch as that sacrifice was once for all offered and carried into the Holy of Holies. This is a figure of that sacrifice and a remembrance of it. For we always offer the same, not one sheep now and tomorrow another, but always the same thing, so that the sacrifice is one. And yet by this reasoning, since the offering is made in many places, are there many Christs? But Christ is one everywhere, being complete here and complete there also, one body. As then, while offered in many places, he is one body and not many bodies, so also he is one sacrifice. He is our high priest, who offered the sacrifice that cleanses us. That we offer now also, which was then offered, which cannot be exhausted. This is done in remembrance of what was then done. For he says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” It is not another sacrifice, as the high priest, but we offer always the same, or rather we perform a remembrance of a sacrifice. (On the Epistle to the Hebrews 17.6)