The Holy and Glorious Great-Martyr, Victory-bearer and Wonderworker George
Acts 8:40-9:19; Acts 12:1-11; John 6:48-54; John 15:17-16:2
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. A day when the faithful are highly encouraged to participate in the Divine Liturgy.
Read John 6:48-54
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Today’s Gospel Our Lord prefigures His passion, death, and resurrection, what we call the Paschal mystery, and gives us the essentials of our belief in the Eucharist. The Eucharist and our partaking of it are bound up in Pascha and in the salvation we have gained through this most radiant and glorious festival of festivals. These words of Our Lord’s are not metaphorical. Our Lord means what He says. We need the Eucharist, this greatest of gifts. Why? Well, because the Eucharistic is salvific; through it we participate in the Paschal mystery, we are joined with Christ and are sustained in our journey towards union with Him. This is the goal of the Christian life. If we truly profess this mystery, we will approach the Eucharist both with confidence in its salvific nature and in fear and trembling at the awesomeness of what we are participating in. There is a beautiful Eucharistic hymn from the Roman rite, Pange Lingua, that captures this mystery beautifully:
Sing, my tongue, the Saviour’s glory,
Of His Flesh, the mystery sing;
Of the Blood, all price exceeding,
Shed by our Immortal King,
Destined, for the world’s redemption,
From a noble Womb to spring.
Of a pure and spotless Virgin
Born for us on earth below,
He, as Man, with man conversing,
Stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
Then He closed in solemn order
Wondrously His Life of woe.
On the night of that Last Supper,
Seated with His chosen band,
He, the Paschal Victim eating,
First fulfils the Law’s command;
Then as Food to all his brethren
Gives Himself with His own Hand.
Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature
By His Word to Flesh He turns;
Wine into His Blood He changes:
What through sense no change discerns.
Only by the heart in earnest,
Faith her lesson quickly learns.