“Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” (Matthew 22:9).
[This is Jerusalem: the city of our God: and all the saints rejoice in it] (Wednesday Theotokia).
[If the Lord loves you, He will glorify you, be careful not to be proud, and always be humble so that you may remain in the glory that God has given you, be alert and vigilant, for blessed is he who is found vigilant, because:
He will be set over his master’s possessions (Matthew 24:45-47)
And he will enter the kingdom with joy (Matthew 25:21-23)
And the friends of the bridegroom will love him because they found him guarding his vineyard] (St. Pachomius)
The explanation of the readings
The readings of this night talk about:
✞The divine wedding between the invited and the deserving,
✞And the heavenly groom who invites everyone to the feast of love and joy, which the Jews disregarded and was given to all nations. (First hour).
✞Who are the deserving and who are not. (Third hour).
✞The reason for their deserving or undeserving. (Sixth and ninth hours).
✞The glory of those who accept the groom and the falsehood of others seeking Him. (Eleventh hour).
And the words groom, bride, and wedding are repeated in the readings of this night:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son ” (Gospel of the first hour).
“And there was no sound of joy, no sound of the groom, no sound of the bride” (Prophecy of the sixth hour).
“They took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom “(Gospel of the sixth hour).
The heavenly bridegroom is the One who gives meaning and value to our feasts, temples, and altars, without His presence, joy disappears from the celebration, and the temple and altar become form without essence. Therefore, we see in the readings of this night the rejected altar and temple, and the feast where conspiracies are woven and the meaning of celebrating with the heavenly bridegroom is lost.
The first hour of Wednesday Eve
The readings of this hour explains:
⚫How the Jews underestimated God’s gifts, choices, and care for them in the past (Prophecies).
⚫And how the call of love was revealed to those who declared their need (Psalms).
⚫And those who accepted the call of His servants and shepherds from sinners and the distant (Gospel).
The prophecies
The two prophecies come from Ezekiel 22
The first one is from (22:17-22),
And the second one complements it from (22:23-29).
And the two prophecies speak about:
✞The people’s disregard for God’s choice, call, and love, and they became like counterfeit metals needing fire to purify them (the first prophecy).
✞Their disregard and deviation in life became evident through the prevalence of injustice and bribery (the second prophecy).
Psalm (Psalm 58:17, 18)
The psalm reveals those who declare their need and longing for His mercies and love:
“For You are my protector and my refuge in the day of my affliction. You are my helper; I will sing to You; for You O God, are my protector; You are my mercy, O my God.”
The link between the psalm and the Gospel (Fr. Louka Sidarous)
For You are my protector and my refuge in the day of my affliction…
The psalm is the voice of those who accepted the call, echoing their joy and praise for salvation and the baptismal garment, which is the wedding garment, and the banquet that gives eternal life and the bosom of the Lord inside His church saying:
” For You are my protector and my refuge in the day of my affliction. You are my helper; I will sing to You.”
For You O God, are my protector; You are my mercy…
The Savior triumphed for us over the flesh, the world, death, fear, and all the forces of darkness… and became a strong tower to which the righteous run and are safe, and whoever comes to Him is not cast out, for He accepts the wrongdoer and the lost son, and became a source of help and guidance to enter into God at all times.
The Gospel (Matthew 22:1-14)
The Gospel proclaims the divine love invitation to all humanity, Jews and Gentiles, and perhaps tells the parable of the invitation first coming to the Jews through the fathers and prophets:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding.”
And how they disregarded and rejected it:
“But they were not willing to come.”
And they brought the anger of God upon them and upon their city Jerusalem:
“ But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.”
Then the invitation extended to all nations after the crucifixion:
“ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. ”
And whoever believed and accepted the righteousness of Christ put on the robe of righteousness and deserved to be present at the heavenly wedding on the Day of Judgment, and whoever did not accept it became naked of His grace and was cast into the outer darkness:
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment….Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness;”
The third hour of Wednesday Eve
The readings of this hour explain:
☞Who are not deserving of the wedding (prophecy).
☞And who are the deserving ones (Psalms).
☞And how responsibility leads with integrity to being worthy or with negligence to being unworthy (Gospel).
Top of Form
Prophecy (Amos 5:18)
The prophecy refers to the rejection of festivals, burnt offerings, offerings, sacrifices, worship, and praise if they lack the fulfillment of justice and righteousness and if they are mixed with strange worship. Therefore, their great festivals fade away, and they do not have the light of God in them but darkness and fog without any brightness.
“It will be darkness, and not light. “I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream. “Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? You also carried Sikkuth your king And Chiun, your idols, The star of your gods, Which you made for yourselves.”
Psalm (Psalm 64:4-5)
The psalm explains how the temple, altar, and offering are for the chosen and accepted by God.
The temple here is a place of holiness and righteousness, where they find the Father’s righteousness and love, and worship Him with reverence and holiness:
“Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. Holy is Your temple, wondrous in righteousness.”
The link between the psalm and the Gospel (Father Luke Sidarous) [3]
Blessed is the man You choose…
In His second coming, He calls the chosen of the world whom He had chosen before the foundation of the world. And He said to the disciples: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you” (John 15:16).
The distinctive mark between two in the truth is that one is chosen and the other is left. This reminds us of how the destroying angel distinguished between the firstborn of the Israelites and the firstborn of the Egyptians, saying “I see the blood and will pass over you.” Therefore, the choice is not due to the merit of the person, but because of the seal of the Spirit (chrism) and the wedding garments (baptism).
And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts..Bottom of Form
He accepted us because we were previously rejected… But in Christ we had a favor and a coming to the Father… And He accepts us every day when we repent, just as He accepted the repentant son, the sinful woman, and the thief on the right… And He accepts us to dwell in His abode (His church). And He will accept us to dwell in the eternal tabernacles forever when He comes.
Those who dwell in His abode (the church) in this world qualify to enter His inheritance, just as in the days of Noah when he entered the ark (the church) and was saved from destruction, so the church is for the salvation of her children through baptism (1 Peter 3).
Holy is Your temple, wondrous in righteousness…
The kingdom of God and the heavenly city is called “His holy temple,” for “nothing unclean enters it, nor anyone who practices falsehood.” “When we stand in the temple, we are considered as standing in heaven”.. So, what holy life should we lead in order to deserve to be found in His marvelous holy temple of Christ our God?
Gospel (Matthew 24: 4,5)
The Gospel explains how the coming of the bridegroom will be like what happened in the flood, and those who were ready escaped destruction.
And it explains that for humans in general, it doesn’t matter what kind of life or work they have, but their vigilance and conduct. That’s why it says two will be in the field (perhaps a simple life or field of service) and two women will be grinding at the mill (perhaps indicating a difficult life).
And it ends with the servants and their message, if it contains honesty and wisdom, then they will be rewarded. But if they ignore His coming and live in forgetfulness, and disrespect their brothers, then the surprise for them will be their destruction:
“ But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore.. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat his fellow servants,.. the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.”
The sixth hour on Wednesday Eve
The readings of this hour explain:
☞Why joy and celebration are absent from people. (Prophecy).
☞And how it can be present in us all the time. (Psalms).
☞So we do not fear His meeting and coming in the middle of the night. (Gospel).
Prophecy (Jermiah 13: 9-14)
The Lord mentions here the reason for the absence of joy and happiness: the pride and the abandonment of the Lord’s law and commandments, and the evil desires of their hearts:
“Thus says the Lord: ‘In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. Behold, before your eyes and in your days, I will bring to an end from this place the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride…..your fathers forsook Me and did not keep My law. for behold, you, each one of you, walk after the evil pleasures of your heart and do not obey Me.”
Psalm (Psalm 121: 4)
“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You. In the day when I call upon You hear me quickly”
How beautiful are the words of the Psalm that speaks of the cry of the day, which will come in the Gospel of the Holy liturgy, the cry of midnight on the day of judgment, and the difference between this day and that day is that:
The first (related to the Psalm) concerns man, and the second (related to the Gospel) concerns God.
The first is within the will of man, and the second is outside his will and within the divine will.
The first concerns our salvation, and the second will be the final judgment on our lives.
So when the psalmist cries out “Let my supplication come before You; Deliver me according to Your word” he means here the day of our salvation:
It is the day that Zacchaeus obtained with his simple longing to see the Lord Jesus, “and sought to see who Jesus was” (Luke 19),
It is the day we enter the church with a longing to hear His voice like St. Anthony, so we also hear “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 9).
And it is the day of our accepted repentance and the day of our salvation (Isaiah 8:49), (2 Corinthians 6:2).
Therefore, the psalmist calls us to prayer and crying out:
That our time and season may turn into:
A time of love (Ezekiel : 8).
And a time of salvation and longing (Luke 4:19).
And may our days and times be filled with His salvation (Psalm 2:96).
The link between the Psalm and the Gospel (Father Luke Sidarous)[4]
Hear my prayer, O Lord…
Do not reject me or humiliate me when I pray to you… Do not say to me “I do not know you”, and do not consider me among the foolish virgins.
The Psalm reveals to us that oil is prayer and crying out.
The Church has arranged for this Gospel chapter to be read in the midnight prayer throughout the year as a constant preparation to meet the bridegroom.
and let my cry come to You…
Prayer has turned into cries and tears.. and the psalm calls us to cry out before the door closes, the door of repentance and acceptance and the door of open arms for us on the cross.. He now hears my prayer and turns to my cry.
In the day when I call upon You hear me quickly…
The Lord said: “Stay awake, for you do not know the day“,
and the psalm speaks of the accepted day when we call upon the Lord and He answers,
and we cry out and He says: Here I am.
The day we do not know is “tomorrow”
As for what we know well, it is “today” .. it should be:
A day of repentance.
A day of prayer.
A day of spiritual growth.
“Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:7).
Hear me quickly..
Before my oil runs out and my lamp goes out.
Before the door closes and my cries are of no use.
Prayer has levels: the finest of which is reaching the point of meeting the Bridegroom (Jesus) every day, for the wise virgins spent their entire lives staying awake, praying, and crying out for the meeting that extended in their lives forever.
Gospel (Matthew 25:1-13)
While the Gospel presents the heavenly Bridegroom, the wise virgins, the vigil, the midnight hour, and the oil in the lamps or empty lamps to announce to us:
That if we stay awake and realize the value of the present moment (Acts 30:17) and make His presence our longing and light, then we will have become wise and entered with Him into our eternal wedding.
But if we are preoccupied with signs and timings that are not of our authority (Acts 1:7) and live in negligence and sleep regarding our salvation and Christ, neglecting the day of salvation (as in the Psalms), then the closed door will come and the heavenly voice will say, “I do not know you,” and at that time, the form of dedication, the title of virgins, the opinions of those around us, and the praise of any human will be of no use.
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them,
but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps….those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut… Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us ! But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”
Engineer Fouad Naguib Youssef says: “The easiest way to know God is to meet Him in His younger brethren, who are the vendors from whom we buy oil like the ten virgins. They are the money changers whom we can entrust with talents if we are not skilled in trading them, so we need the brethren of the Lord, through whom we meet God.” (Engineer Fouad Naguib Youssef)
The ninth hour of Wednesday Eve
The readings of this hour talk about:
☞The unworthiness of the Jewish leaders and rulers for the great salvation and heavenly wedding because of the idols’ altars they made. (Prophecy).
☞And because of their resistance to Him (Psalms).
☞And their persecution of His ministers (Gospel).
Prophecy (Hosea 9:14) etc., (ch. 10:1, 2)
This prophecy declares the reason for the unworthiness: rebellion, hardness of heart, and idols’ altars.
“I will cast them out of My house. I will not love them anymore. All their leaders are disobedient. Israel is a luxuriant vine; her fruit is abundant. According to the multitude of her fruits she has multiplied her altars. They have divided their hearts; now they shall be utterly destroyed.”
Psalm (Psalm 21:19, 18)
The Psalm reveals their resistance to the Savior as they allied with the Romans.
[The Jews used the first phrase in the Psalm as the name of the Psalm, and that is what we are doing now.]
Therefore, when the Lord said on the cross “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” those standing around the cross remembered all the words of the Psalm, and they saw before them a living, speaking image and a fulfillment of the prophecies of the Psalm. (Father Antonios Fakhri)
Quotes from this Psalm are mentioned 13 times in the New Testament, 9 of them are in the story of the Passion alone. The disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ used it as material for preaching the message of salvation through the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Father Tadros Jacob Malaty)
The dogs here refer to the nations, meaning the Romans. According to the law, dogs are considered unclean. They were like fierce, unclean dogs in their cruelty, whipping, and cursing of the Lord. (Father Antonios Fakhri)
The link between the psalm and the gospel (Fr. Luke Sidarous)[8]
Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog.
The psalm calls this serpent (the dog) because of its meanness, the futility of its authority, and because it is unclean like a dog.
The sword: the tool of killing and death, and the Lord Jesus trampled death and rose, avenging the blood of the martyred prophets.
The lion: it is the death from which the Lord emerged (from the mouth of the grave) rising from the dead.
The horns of the wild oxen…
Because the Lord has broken the thorn of death, which is his horn, and has forever destroyed his power and authority.
My precious life..
For the Lord Jesus is the only begotten Son, the Son of the Father equal to Him in all things and one with Him in essence.
And no sonship resembles His sonship, it is a unique sonship in all things.
Gospel (Matthew 23: 29-36).
And the Gospel concludes with woes to the hypocritical leaders who persecuted the prophets of God and boasted in appearance and shed blood in holy places, and perhaps for this reason the prophecy of this hour says that the Lord will destroy their altars.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!…
Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets…..
How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”
The eleventh hour on Wednesday Eve
The readings conclude:
🡺With the glory of the bridegroom (Prophecy).
🡺And the sign of His glory; the Cross (Psalms).
🡺And the Jewish leaders refusing to seek shelter under His wings but resisting Him (Gospel).
Prophecy (Wisdom of Solomon 8:24)
The prophecy begins with the glory of the bridegroom, the source of wisdom, the hypostasis of the eternal Word, one in essence and will with God the Father, who renews all things and all people and makes those who accept Him partners with God. This is what happened through His cross and resurrection.
“Wisdom moves in all that moves, it reaches and comes upon all for the sake of its purity… For it is the light of the eternal light, the mirror of God’s pure works and the image of His goodness, capable of all things and is one and renews all things and is constant in itself, and in every generation it dwells in pure souls and makes them partners of God and makes them prophets.”
Psalm (Psalm 56:1)
“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by.”
Therefore, the psalm calls on every soul to seek refuge under the wings of eternal wisdom, which is the cross. Just as the Bride of the Song of Songs says, “I sat down in his shade with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste.” (Song of Songs 2:3).
The link between the Psalm and the Gospel (Father Luke Sidarous)
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!…
Seeking refuge in the Lord is the only way to salvation. “When my anxieties multiply within me, your consolations delight my soul.” Therefore, it is fitting for us to repeat the word “have mercy on me” in prayer instead of asking that our enemies show us compassion.
My soul trusts in You…
The enemy Satan plots conspiracies and consults against the children of God, but the soul that relies on God lives in peace amidst the noise of false accusations and consultations, even if news of surrender to the tormentors reaches it, like the three young men and Daniel.
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge..
The chief priests were searching and seeking for Jesus to capture Him, but He drew for us the path of salvation by hiding from the face of evil in the bosom of the Father. “The righteous sees the evil and hides,” “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”
Until these calamities have passed by..
For the psalm affirms that calamities will pass over, but it is upon the children of God to walk the path of reliance, surrender, and seeking refuge in the bosom of the Father, just as the child Jesus did before when He escaped from Herod’s face until calamities passed over, and it was said to Joseph in a dream, “ for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead ” (Matthew 2:20).
The Gospel (Matthew 25:14) – (Matthew 26:2,1)
And the Gospel concludes with the Passover holiday, where the Jews did not find their Savior, but instead sought Him not to seek refuge under His wings to be saved, but to resist Him:
“And the Passover of the Jews was near, then they sought Jesus. Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was ,should report it that they might seize Him.”