Readings For The Holy Pascha
These readings reveal the richness of divine love, the divine arrangement for salvation, and the passage from death to life. That is, it explains what the Trinity has done for our salvation and how we can embrace this love and salvation in our lives.
The divine dispensation for salvation.
The readings for Holy Pascha are about the great love and salvation declared by God proclaimed through His death and resurrection, from the Captain of their salvation (Hebrews 2: 10), our Lord Jesus Christ, be glory. The readings do not reflect an event that took place in a week, but reveal to us the divine love and salvation in these points: His everlasting dispensation (such as the providence of the Trinity in salvation explained in the readings for Good Friday evening), in its preparation (as in the prophets, the symbols from the Old Testament, and what is referred to in St. Paul’s letter, in the Catholicikon, and in the Acts of the Apostles in all the readings for Pascha), in its occurrence (incarnation, cross, resurrection, ascension and filling with the Spirit in the Gospels) and in the life of the Church (in the Pauline Epistle, the Catholicon and the Acts of the Apostles, in addition to the Prophets) and the glory of his eternal inheritance (in the Gospels and the Revelation).
The many readings in the Holy Church bring us to the time when we realize what divine love has done for us. Thus we have discovered that we must return to eternity to recognize the divine order of salvation (Acts 15: 1, Romans 16: 25, 2. Thessalonians 1: 9), that we must return to the Old Testament to understand the meaning of the words of the prophets and to recognize His divine plan (Hebrews 1: 1, 2 Peter 1: 21), brings us to the time of His incarnation, suffering, death and resurrection to realize how much He loved us to the end (Jeremiah 31: 3, John 13: 1), lives out his salvation through his Holy Spirit in his holy Church (Ephesians 3: 10), and finally reads us into eternity (in Revelation) to see the prepared inheritance for all who have loved God and accepted his salvation.
In other words, the reading journey is a forward and backward journey, a journey to heaven that takes us in and out of time and brings us to earth to see the events and takes us above the earth to see our salvation therein.
The reading journey, then, is neither biblical information nor psychological emotion of hymns, but a journey to and in Christ, to be sure that we die and rise in Him, are filled with His Holy Spirit, and know His love and divine dispensation for our salvation. As in this week, we take in the power of his death, passion, and resurrection so that we see his presence not only in the joys, sadness, and simple acts of our lives (1 Corinthians 10: 31), but also in the difficulties and perplexities that count on the road to salvation (2 Corinthians 4: 8). In the Passover, including the readings and hymns, we are filled with the richness and glory of His presence, so that we can examine how we live and move and have our being in Him (Acts 17: 28).
Readings for Pascha divided into three stages:
- (The first stage) the first part of the readings is a preface to the Holy Pascha, Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, which point the way to salvation. Both mention the Savior who frees man from all sin and how he declared his love through the cross. The readings on Lazarus Saturday are about the Prince and Life-giver who raised Lazarus. Palm Sunday is about the king who willingly entered Jerusalem with Passover lambs to be sacrificed, proclaiming a kingdom of the new covenant.
- (The second stage) the second part of the readings is scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to explain the dispensation for salvation, the history of the Fall, mankind’s need for a Savior after the corruption of human nature, man’s inability to save himself, and the invalidity of all human ways and means to obtain salvation and free himself from the bondage and power of Satan. On these three days in Jerusalem, the Passover lambs were to be offered as sacrifices as part of the Passover feast. Thus, after entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he did not leave Jerusalem and the surrounding small villages until he offered himself as a Passover sacrifice. Therefore, the divine dispensation from the beginning for the redemption of man should be explained in the ecclesiastical ritual in the readings for these three days, like the necessity of the existence of the Lamb in the liturgy from the psalm to the time of the offertory.
The Gregorian liturgy tells the story of divine love in creation, after the Fall and until the Redemption, in order to live this divine love in every liturgy we pray.
- (The third stage)The third part (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) concluded with the proclamation and completing salvation, the human transition from death to life, the revelation of the riches of divine love through the cross and the resurrection (John 3: 16). In these four days, God reveals Himself as the Passover of the new covenant (Thursday), offering Himself for the salvation of the world (Friday), And the Church shall have the right to enter Paradise and pass from death to life in Christ (Saturday night) and finally enjoy the glory of His resurrection.
The transition from death to life (the role of man).
The readings for Pascha draw a path and a temporary approach from death to life, how we can die to the world at any moment and how we accept, live and have the new world after the revelation of the riches of divine love. The reading offered by the Church for the Holy Pascha is a way of life in Christ, a daily constant transition from death to life, how the death of the world living in sins, lust, conflicts, ego, unbelief and animus, how freely we have received the life in Christ, which consists in his love, divine justice, joy, peace, giving, hope, victory over death, Satan and sin.
How our days on earth pass from the taste of death disappearing from our limbs and inner unity to a glow of life that enlightens our spirit, soul and body until all that has to do with the world in us comes to an end (for the prince of this world comes and has nothing in me) John 14: 30 and our inner unity is filled with God’s life (that you may be filled with all the fullness of God) Ephesians 3: 19. As St. Clement of Alexandria (Eklemondos El Sakandary) said (when man was snatched from perdition and ascended to heaven, implanting mortals in immortality and transforming the earth into heaven).
Source: book of “The Apostle Paul” for Father Tadros Yaacoub Malaty, page no. 41
So we willingly chose to die to the world and to ourselves (I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I) in order to be filled with the life of Christ and to have his light shine in us (Christ lives in me) Galatians 2: 20.
The readings for Holy Pascha point to a way and approach that is not to live in such readings and rituals for a week each year, but to renew the act of death to the world and life in Christ to be our way of life, our daily conduct, and our ceaseless struggle to receive the prize (1 Corinthians 9: 24, Colossians 2: 18)
In other words, the transition from death to life is always necessary:
Let God rule our life, our heart and our whole being (Palm Sunday).
Reject the falsehood of life and appearances without receiving the fruit of the Spirit (Paschamon Day)
Watch and let our lamps be full of oil (Pascha Tuesday)
Make our life and love a vial of perfume with a sweet taste everywhere (Pascha Wednesday)
Bow the head to wash the feet and pray until the blood to be united with him (Pascha Thursday)
Walk with him to come to Golgotha and be crucified with him until death (Good Friday)
So we go with him to the light, to the joy and to the resurrection (Bright Saturday and Easter Sunday)
The readings inform us who Christ the Redeemer is:
- Sunday (the King – he rules over all) between cleansing, healing, praise and loss the goal of worship.
- Monday (the HolyOne – always purifies) between our fruits and leaves – between renewal and our body
- Tuesday (the Judge – he will prove himself) between vigilance and suddenness
- Wednesday (the Bridegroom – love sacrifice) between the love ladder and the hell of transgression
- Thursday (the clergyman – foot washing and blood prayer) between foot washing that touches the doors of heaven and pride and idleness
- Friday (the silent lamb – sacrifice and total submission of the will) between total submission of the will, revelation of love and dispersion from the cross).
- Saturday (the passerby – the invisible) between the passing of the scene and the recognition of the invisible.