Encompassing Endearing, Meaningful, and Unchanging Rituals

Follow us on the web

Subscribe to the Diocese's Email List

Join to receive messages from His Grace and event reminders or update your information.

home › resources › literature › Encompassing Endearing, Meaningful, and Unchanging Rituals

During these 50 Holy days we celebrate the Glorious Feast of Resurrection. In the Divine Liturgy, during the Glorious Feast of Resurrection, we do the Enactment of the Resurrection. In the Enactment, we close the curtains to the altar and turn the light off. Two deacons stand the outside of the altar and the priest is inside the altar. Then, a dialog is begun. The deacons on the outside start by saying, 'Christ is Risen' and this is repeated three times. The priest responding, 'Christ is Truly Risen', follows this. Then the deacons on the outside say, 'Be lift up O Everlasting Gates so the King of Glory enters.' The priest inside says, 'Who is the King of Glory?' The deacons outside answer by saying, 'The Lord Might in battle is the King of Glory.' The lights are then turned on and the procession starts.

What is the meaning of this dialogue during the Glorious Feast of Resurrection?

Every single ritual in the Church during the Divine Liturgy has meaning. It is important that when you attend Church to comprehend her historical rituals, and the meaning behind them. It is not enough to attend and to enjoy observing the rituals without truly understanding the meaning. When we understand the actual meaning behind every ritual, we gain more depth in our spiritual relationship with God.

What does the Altar represent?

The Altar represents Paradise (not Heaven). As you remember, after the fall of Adam and Eve, the gates of Paradise were shut. This is why worship in the Old Testament was conducted towards the West. This represented the enmity between God and mankind. After the Crucifixion, His soul descended into Hades. He took Adam and all his descendants, who passed away with the hope of the resurrection, back to Paradise. He opened the doors of Paradise and the Lord of Glory entered with all those who departed with the hope of resurrection.

Who does the Priest represent?

After the fall of Adam and Eve, God appointed the Cherubim to guard the way to the Tree of Life. So the priest represents the Cherubim who are guarding the Tree of Life, which is what we have on the altar. The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Who do the deacons outside represent?

The deacons outside represent the angels who were serving the Lord Jesus Christ during His ministry on earth. It should be noted that the icon of the Glorious Resurrection should be outside during the Enactment of the Glorious Resurrection, because the Lord did not yet enter into Paradise. When the angels say, 'Christ is Risen', they are preaching the good news of the Glorious Resurrection and inside the Cherubim says, 'Truly He is Risen.' Here the Lord our God is approaching the Gates of Paradise with all the souls that have departed. The deacons outside repeat the verses from the Holy Book of Psalm 24:7, 'Lift up your heads, O you Gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting Doors! And the King of Glory shall come in'. The angels here speak about the Gates of Paradise that were opened after the Crucifixion and the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why do we chant and call our Lord the King of Glory?

Because the Lord reigned on the wood of the Holy Cross, we call Him the King of Glory. Before Crucifixion, Satan was the ruler of the world, but after Crucifixion and the Glorious Resurrection our Lord Jesus Christ became our King. That is why we say our Lord, our God, our Savior and King of us all. That is why during the Holy 50 Days Coptic sing, 'Alleluia, Alleluia Jesus Christ, King of Glory'.

When the priest, representing the Cherubim, on the inside says, 'Who is the King of Glory?' It is not through ignorance, but he asks this question, so that it would be declared to the entire world that Jesus Christ is the King of Glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is He who defeated the devil. The Lord Jesus Christ is He who trampled death by His death. He became our King. That is why the response by the deacons on the outside is, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle is the King of Glory" (Psalm 24:8).

Following this, we open the altar curtains, symbolizing that the opening of the doors of Paradise. The lights are then turned on, because as it was mentioned in the Holy Book of Isaiah, in the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew and in the Divine Liturgy, 'We were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death'. But now, after the Glorious Resurrection, we moved from darkness into light. That it why the lights are turned on and open the curtains of the altar are opened. Then, the icon of the Glorious Resurrection and the deacons enter into the altar. This represents the Lord Jesus Christ with all the departed, on the hope of resurrection, entering Paradise. Then, the procession continues into the Church. For if the altar represents Paradise then the Church represents earth.

As you know, our Lord Jesus Christ, during the 40 days after His Glorious Resurrection, appeared several times before His Ascension. That is why after the Feast of Ascension we do not do the procession. The deacons in the procession represent the departed, who appeared in Jerusalem. This was mentioned in the Holy Gospel of St. Matthew, that many of the departed rose from the date at the time of His Resurrection and entered the Holy City of Jerusalem and appeared to many to proclaim and preach the Good News of the Glorious Resurrection.

The procession ends in the altar because these people died once more and they are waiting in Paradise until the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Also, the icon of the Glorious Resurrection ends in the altar because the Lord Jesus Christ after His Resurrection ascended into Heaven and sits at the Right Hand of the Father. The Holy Book of Psalm 24 is referred to as "The Psalm of The Feast of Ascension", because the same meaning can be applied when the Lord ascended into the Heaven of the Heavens.

Through the Cross

Many people ask the following important question, 'Does the Holy Bible support that the Lord Jesus descended into Hades?' Here are three references to support this:

First, there is a prophecy in the Holy Book of Psalms about the Lord descending into Hades. St. Peter quoted this prophecy in his sermon during the days of Pentecost. He says in the Holy Book of Acts 2:25-31, "For David says concerning Him, 'I foresaw the Lord always before my face. For He is at my right hand, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.' Men and brethren let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to Patriarch David that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would d raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, stating that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption." This means that David was prophesying concerning the Lord Jesus Christ's Resurrection and said that His soul was not left in Hades nor did His flesh see corruption.

The second reference is in the Holy Book of Ephesians 4:7-10, "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says, 'When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.' Now this, 'He ascended' what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things." Here the lower parts of earth refer to Hades.

Third, in the Holy Book of 1 Peter 3:19, "By whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison." In this verse, 'the prison' also refers to Hades.

Now, who entered Paradise with the Lord Jesus Christ?

They were the righteous who overcame sin in their life. When we celebrate the Glorious Feast of Resurrection, we speak about our victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we speak about victory, many people think that it is a difficult task to sustain victory. Sometimes we say that we are doing a certain sin for so long that we tend to be hopeless because we could not vision victory in our life. This will make us wonder how can we be victorious in our lives. That is why today while we are celebrating these Holy 50 Days of Resurrection, we would like to discuss practical steps, which will lead us to victory. For the real celebration of the Glorious Feast of the Resurrection is to be victorious in our lives. In other words, we want to be victorious in the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

Victory over Death (Sin)

In order to understand the way to victory, we first have to be aware of how sin develops. Then it will be easy to know how to defeat it (sin). Thanks to our teacher St. James (1:13-15), who explained to us the development of sin for this saint said, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God;' for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." This means that evil cannot tempt God and God doesn't tempt anyone. However, when someone is enticed and tempted by desire sin is conceived. This is the first step in the development of sin.

What is temptation composed of?

Temptation has two elements. The first is the desire within the heart. St. James mentioned the words enticed, desire, and opportunity, as the product of temptation. For example, if someone is fasting though has a desire within his heart to break his fast. During the time of desire to break his fast, he is invited to dine on delicious (manifesting) food. This shows us a desire accompanied by opportunity and together will create the temptation to break the fast.

Another example is lust from within the heart. This will turn into temptation when an opportunity develops. But if there is no desire and there are plenty of opportunities, then there will be no temptation. An example from the Holy Bible is the story of Joseph (Genesis 39). Joseph did not have a bad desire in his heart. That is why when the opportunity was there it did not force any temptation on him. Often our youth encounter peer pressure. In general, we acknowledge that our children and our youth are under a tremendous amount of pressure from the world outside the Church. Often people exclaim that with all worldly turns there is pressure and temptation to sin. This cannot be pressure or temptation unless it is preceded by desire. If there is no bad desire present in our hearts, we will not be discomforted by any pressure from outside. Therefore, when we feel this pressure, then it means that our own desires must be checked and evaluated and are not holy as they should and must be. No one lives in complete utopia, where ones parents are virtuous in front of God. No one argues that evil abounds, but this does not cause temptation if the desires are holy.

Once again, contemplate that temptation equals bad desire and opportunity. So we can say that temptation is generated from within, that is why our Lord Jesus said to cleanse first the inside of the cup (Matthew 23:26 and Luke 11:39). If we purify our hearts, then our environment will become more irrelevant and will cause no temptation. This will subdue sin from developing, for a person who is tempted to commit sin. At this stage, an individual can simply either say yes or no to temptation. If the answer is yes, then this is the fulfillment of sin, but if it is no, then this is temptation, where sin has not been committed. That is why St. James says that when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin.

How does desire conceive? It is through the action. When the action itself takes place, then it gives birth to sin. Once more, we can say that sin equals temptation plus action

(SIN = TEMPTATION + ACTION).

Therefore we can also say that sin is equal to bad desire plus opportunity plus action

(SIN = BAD DESIRE + OPPORTUNITY + ACTION).

Many are tempted but they do not fall into temptation. We, knowing our humanity and our weakness as well as some of our desires, are not holy. That is why we ask God, in our Lord's Prayer, 'But lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' Furthermore, St. James speaks about a further step. He said that when sin is full-grown, it brings forth death. So there is sin and there is a full-grown sin.

Now, what is a full-grown sin? It is when an individual continues to sin without repentance. There is a difference between a person who sins and repents and another who sin without repentance. Everyone sins. There is no one without sin. St. John said that if we say that we are without sin, then we are liars. There is a difference between a person who sins, but repents and another who sins and continues to in sin. The latter is the full-grown sin. Then death is sin without repentance. As St. Isaac the Syrian said, 'There is no sin without forgiveness except the sin without repentance.'

So what is death? Death equals sin plus no repentance. If we want to break it down, then death equals bad desire plus opportunity plus action plus no repentance

(DEATH = BAD DESIRE + OPPORTUNITY + ACTION + NO REPENTANCE).

But we are speaking about resurrection, which is life from death. Resurrection is to move from death to life. So the way of victory (life) is to control these four components, the desire, the opportunity, the action and the repentance.

Let us take it in steps. The way to victory starts from the personal desire. What does this mean? The first step towards victory is to consecrate and sanctify one's desire. If a person has holy and Godly desire, he will not be tempted. Why is God not tempted with evil? God is holy. God told us in the Holy Book of 1 Peter 1:16, "Be holy, for I am holy." This was also mentioned in the Holy Book of Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7. So if we have holy desires and Godly desires, we could not be tempted, even if evil is surrounding us. So the first step towards the way to resurrection (life), which is victory, is to sanctify and consecrate one's desire. How can this be achieved? A simple example could be derived from computer language, as they say "GI and GO" (Garbage In and Garbage Out). This means that if the entire input is bad, then the output is all bad. This could be applied to our spiritual life. If one always has garbage in his heart, then his desires will be garbage. But when you allow holy to enter your heart, then it will result in a holy output.

How can we sanctify our desires? This is by allowing what is holy to enter through one's senses, because they are the pathways to ones spirit and soul. Hence, one has to guard his senses and allow only the passage of what is holy; this will make all the desires to be holy. Sometimes one does not value him appropriately. But we are the Temple of God. The Holy Bible says, "You are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you" (1 Corinthians 3:16). As an example, if you want to go to the White House, how many security guards do you have to go through? How many times will they search you? But as a pedestrian in the public, you can walk anywhere without any restrictions. Any one can throw away his garbage.

Sometimes we treat our souls as the street, or even worse than the street. We allow others to throw their garbage in our hearts, our souls and our senses. We allow the TV and all other media to enter into our hearts. If we value ourselves, we need to search every thought, every word and every sense before we allow it to enter into our heart. So if you really believe that you are the Temple of God, you should not allow any garbage to enter into your heart. How many times do we listen to irreverent music? How many times to we listen to immoral songs? How many times do we allow our eyes to watch disgraceful movies, disgusting talk shows or surf bad web sites on the Internet? How many times do we allow our eyes to read material not conducive to our spiritual life? Then we question, why are we tempted? It is because we have all these ungodly desires. How do we acquire these ungodly desires? It is because we allow the "garbage in".

So where does the way to victory start?

First, you need to stop allowing any more garbage to enter into your heart and into your senses. Only allow the Godly things to enter through your senses. The Holy Book of Song of Songs in the Old Testament says, "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed" (Song of Songs 4:12). This means that no one comes in unless he is first searched. Similarly you should not allow any thought any scene or any word to enter your heart unless it is first scrutinized. Now is our heart like an open dwelling place, where we allow anyone to throw their garbage in, or do we have our gates closed to scrutinize what goes in?

In the Compline Prayer, we say, "Praise the Lord O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For He has strengthened the bars of your gates" (Psalm 147:12-13). Her Jerusalem symbolizes the human soul. This means that Jerusalem is a close city and God will strengthen the bars of its gate, so no one could enter. Similarly we need to be like a closed city. We are the holy city of God. You are the Temple of God. Nothing should enter the Temple of God, unless it is holy. Therefore, you should not allow anything to enter into your heart unless it is holy. This is the first step in the way to victory.

Let us make a comparison between one who reads the Holy Scriptures and another who listens to all the garbage that is in the world. Now, what kind of desires does the latter have? Definitely there will be a drastic difference in desires between both. This will support the thought that 'Garbage in garbage out and holy in holy out'.

So the first step in the way to resurrection, the first step in the way to victory, is to consecrate your desires. First, you have to keep reading the Holy Scriptures. The Lord said, "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you" (John 15:3). The more you read in the Holy Scripture, the more you memorize the Holy Scripture, the more you are pure, because the Word of God will cleanse away and purify all the garbage of the world. Only then, will you have holy desires.

The second point is opportunity. Until we sanctify and concentrate all our desires, we should avoid and escape any opportunity to sin. One needs to completely sanctify self-desires. So we have to sanctify our desires and follow it by avoiding any opportunity to sin. If one knows that he/she is weak and easily tempted because of his/her desires, then one should flee from any opportunity to sin. One should not choose those friends who will not spirituality encourage and enrich them, because if he/she does, then there is a great chance for temptation. For example, if one knows that he/she cannot resist drinking because of their weakness, he/she should avoid people who are drinking. If one just quit smoking, but the desire is still there, then he/she should avoid being around those smoking, because this will be the torment of temptation. So, in essence avoid opportunity.

Lot was slightly weak and St. Peter described him as, "Who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds" (2 Peter 2:7-8). But if Lot had avoided this company, then he would not have tortured himself. We sometimes do as Lot, we want to enjoy the pleasures of the world, and so we chose to torture ourselves. Lot had to leave Sodom and Gomorrah; with this departure Lot lost his wife and all his possessions. He might have also lost both of his daughters, because he slept with them. So sometime we do exactly like Lot because we want to enjoy the pleasures of the world and allow ourselves to be tortured, although we have been instructed, numerous times by God, to avoid any opportunity.

Do not think that you are strong, because sin is stronger, as it is said, "For she has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men" (Proverbs 7:26). All those slain by sin thought that they were strong. Another example from the Holy Bible is manifested in three great men. These three men were Samson, David and Solomon who all committed the sin of adultery. If we compare ourselves with them, we are not as strong as Samson, more righteous than David or wiser than Solomon. But if these three persons fell in this sin, then how cautious should we be? It is better to think of oneself as weak and in need of avoiding opportunities, than one strong and still fall in sin. Our strength comes from God and without Him we are very weak.

St. Anthony the Great used to tell to the devil, who was tempting him, 'I am weaker than a little child'. Through this humbleness, he was saved. One time St. Macarious was walking in the desert and saw the snares of the devils all around him. So he cried to the Lord and said, 'Who could be saved from all this?' And he heard a voice from Heaven reply, 'The humble!' If one is humble enough, then he/she will avoid any opportunity. That is why the Lord said, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation" (Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38). Accordingly, through reading the Holy Scripture we sanctify our desires and through prayer and being watchful we avoid any opportunity to commit sin. If our desires are consecrated through reading the Holy Scripture, then opportunity is avoided through the life of prayer and watchfulness.

The third point is action. Sometimes we have ungodly desires and we cannot avoid each and every opportunity. For an example, if you are walking down the street and there is someone who is not dressed appropriately, you cannot avoid seeing it. Then, we should develop self-control. We should learn how to say no. That is what we should do concerning action. Temptation means that the devil is trying to tempt you. But you do not actually commit the sin until you do the action. This is the opportunity and it is your choice to say yes or no. We need to teach ourselves how to say no to the temptation. This is what we call self-control, the ability to say no when there is strong temptation.

The best solution is through fasting. The main goal of fasting is to be disciplined and to develop self-control in order to be able to say no to temptations of the world. If you control your food in take by fasting, then you should be able to control the temptation to commit sin. Many people question the reason of fasting for two thirds of the year in the Coptic Orthodox Church. They say that perhaps this is too much fasting. But if we realize our needs to develop good self-control, then actually we might say that two thirds of the year might not be enough to discipline ourselves against the temptation of sin.

St. Paul said, "You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin" (Hebrews 12:4). So you need to resist and say no to the extent of bloodshed (it hurts). So we have to look at ourselves and see to what extreme we are disciplining ourselves and evaluate to what degree we are resisting temptation. Many youth are very venerable to sin and easily give in. They have no capability to resist. But the righteous person, the Children of God, resists to bloodshed striving against sin. When you read the stories of our Early Church Fathers, you will see how much they preferred to be tortured and be martyred rather than defiling their body. For example, Joseph preferred to be cast into jail him than defiling his body.

Many of the martyrs shed their blood because they refused and resisted the sin. There is a story about a very pretty girl and one youth had lust for her. He went to her house and asked her to allow him in. So she asked him what did he like in her. The youth answered that it was her eyes. She plucked her eye out and gave it to him. She preferred, as the Holy Bible says that it is preferable to go to Heaven with one eye rather than defile ones body and live with two eyes. If your eye offends you, then pluck it out and if your hand or leg causes you to stumble, then cut it off. It is better to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye, one leg or one arm rather to be thrown into the lake of fire with a complete body. This is the extent to which we should resist sin. We are descendants of the children of the martyrs who had the courage to shed their blood rather than to defile their lives.

Let us pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will bless us all with His strength at the Crucifixion to resist temptation and the power to deny sin (death) ever before us in the Glorious Resurrection.

H.G. Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States