The Eucharist as a Mystery Play.

The entire complex of mysteries of the Orthodox Church revolves around the prime mystery: the death and resurrection of Christ.

Since it stands at the heart of all the mysteries of the Church, the Eucharistic liturgy can be properly understood only within the organism of the other mysteries. We can, therefore, hope to offer only a brief introduction to the mystery of the Eucharist. A word of warning: it is important not to make any hasty identification of the Eucharist with the Roman Mass. The present-day Roman Mass represents a later stage of liturgical development. Basic elements of the liturgy of the early Church have been dropped, above all the separation between a special service for catechumens and the Eucharist for believers. The procedure of the Roman Mass is therefore simpler than the procedure of the Eucharist. Spiritually and theologically, too, it proceeds from a different conception of the nature of the sacrament.

Jewish forms of worship found their way into the liturgy of the Eastern Church. The traditions of the late Jewish synagogue worship was reinterpreted in a characteristically Christian sense. The Eucharist in its present Orthodox form differs very little from the Eucharistic celebration used in the primitive Church.

The liturgy, first of all, is divided into two parts, one for the catechumens and one for the believers. This feature is a survival from a time when the Church was still a missionary Church and was filling its ranks mostly with adults who had first to be instructed in Christian doctrine as catechumens. Only after this were they inducted into the Christian mysteries and entitled to participate in the first part of the services. They were still excluded from the central mystery of the Eucharist because they had not yet undergone baptism. During this period of preparation the catechumens were admitted only to that part of the Eucharistic service which consisted mainly of sermon and prayer. They had to leave after the sermon, when the time came for the enactment of the Eucharistic mystery itself.

It was therefore assumed that the congregation contained a large number of the as yet unbaptized adult catechumens. The architecture of the early churches took account of this, for the end of the nave was partitioned off as a special, separated anteroom for the catechumens. As a preliminary to full membership in the Church the former pagan was introduced into the anteroom of the church and allowed to attend the first part of the mystery service. Accordingly the first part of the Eucharistic liturgy ends with a thrice repeated cry: “Ye catechumens, go out. No catechumens!”

Then the initiates, the baptized believers, are left among themselves, and the Eucharist begins. Again and again, stress is laid upon its peculiar nature as a mystery. Before the singing of the Creed, the priest calls out: “The doors, the doors!” Originally these words were directed to the doorkeepers who were required to close the doors before recitation of the Creed, so that no un-initiate could hear. That is to say, the Creed was regarded as a secret formula, not to be taught to the catechumens until just before their baptism. The mystery is again stressed in the call, “Holiness to the holy!” which the priest addresses to the congregation just before breaking the bread, as a last warning to receive the mystery worthily. There is also this passage in the communion prayer: “As partaker in Thy mysterious communion take me up today, O Son of God, for I will not betray Thy secret to Thine enemies, nor give Thee a kiss like that of Judas.” Before receiving communion the believer renews his vow not to betray the mystery to God's enemies. Although the congregation is no longer broken up into a large group of adult catechumens and a presumably smaller group of baptized believers, the Orthodox Church still follows all the procedures that arose out of this missionary situation.

There is another striking difference between the Orthodox Eucharist and the Roman Mass. The Roman Mass reaches its climax, both in structure and in theological significance, when, at the recitation of the prescribed words by the priest, the elements of the bread and the wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. These two moments are dramatized to the congregation by the ringing of the sacring bell and the elevation and adoration of the transformed elements.

The Eucharistic liturgy of the Orthodox Church follows quite another pattern. No bell is rung at any time to announce the climax of the ceremony. The whole ritual is a mystery drama reenacting the entire history of redemption, the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Logos, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Orthodox Church too lays great stress upon the fact that in the course of the mystery an actual transformation of the Eucharistic elements of bread and wine takes place. For an Orthodox believer the central event of the Eucharist is the descent, the appearance, the divine presence of the resurrected Christ. And the full import of this event colors every moment of the liturgy. The believer's partaking of Communion, and his attitude toward the mystery of the Communion, are governed by the thought that he is actually encountering the living person of the Lord who enters the congregation as “King of the universe borne invisibly over their spears by the angelic hosts.”

The congregation is, in fact, frequently reminded of this matter. After the great Eucharistic prayer, the priest cries: “Christ is in the midst of us!” And the assisting priest answers, after receiving the kiss of peace: “He is with us and will be.” This cry is repeated in the same form immediately after the priests' communion. The assertion is made again while the Communion is being dispensed, for the choir bursts out in highly dramatic fashion with the chant: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. God is the Lord and has appeared to us.” And after the distribution the choir sings:

“ We have seen the true light; We have received the Holy Spirit; We have found the true faith. Let us worship the inseparable Trinity, for it has redeemed us. ”

The personal presence of Christ brings about the transformation of the elements. Since this is so, preservation and display of the consecrated Host after the Eucharistic liturgy is unknown in the Orthodox Church. The Messianic meal is so completely bound up with the immediate presence of the resurrected Lord that the consecrated elements actualize their mystical content only during the Eucharist itself; at any other time adoration of the elements is impossible. This alone shows how far apart this dynamic, spiritual, personalized conception of the Eucharist is from the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation. In the Orthodox ritual the transformation does not take place during the recitation of the introductory words. Rather, there follows an additional liturgical act, the epiklesis, in which priest and deacon stand before the altar with arms outspread and hands raised, imploring the Holy Spirit to descend upon the Eucharistic elements. Immediately thereafter the deacon fans the “air” above the elements, using a special liturgical cloth for the purpose. In this way he represents the movement of the descending Holy Spirit. [In some versions of the liturgy the epiklesis includes the words “transubstantiating by Thy Holy Spirit,” but there is no such phrase in the liturgy of St. Basil.]

By the same token the character of the Eucharist as a sacrifice is not so strongly emphasized in the Orthodox Church as it is in the Roman Mass and the Roman doctrine of the sacraments. To be sure, the Eucharist represents the bloodless sacrifice wherein the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is repeated in mystical fashion, but this idea is overshadowed by the larger concept of the Eucharist as a mystery presenting the whole story of redemption, the incarnation of the divine Logos as well as his suffering, death and resurrection. To the mind of the Orthodox believer, the real significance of the Eucharist lies not so much in the repetition of the sacrifice of Golgotha, but in the encounter with the living, resurrected Lord.

Just as veneration of the Eucharistic elements is not separated from the Eucharistic liturgy, so also consecration is not performed without a congregation. Celebration of the Eucharist by a priest without a congregation present is unthinkable in an Orthodox church. The congregation plays a vital part in the Eucharistic liturgy. It makes the mystery possible. It is invited to the meal and takes part in it. Christ comes down into its midst. The meaning of the mystery is the union of the earthly and the celestial congregations brought about by the descent of the resurrected Christ. This is why the priest elevates the Eucharistic elements and cries out: “We bring Thee what is Thine from those who are Thine, to all and for all.” Since the Orthodox Church has always adhered to this fundamental interpretation, its ritual never underwent that degeneration which overcame the Mass during the Middle Ages and which called forth the wrath of the Reformers.

Correspondingly the Orthodox Church has also adhered to the original form of communion “under both kinds,” that is, partaking of the Bread and the Wine. The Latin manner of dispensing the sacrament seems to the Orthodox believer a violation of the form of the Eucharist as it was instituted by Christ himself. It seems to him also a sin against brotherly love, since the priest is elevated above the layman by receiving preferential treatment in the partaking of the Wine. The Orthodox Church generously admits even small children to communion after their baptism and chrismation, thus making them table companions of the resurrected Lord.

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