Orienting to the Liturgy: Some Notes on the Propers of the First Sunday of Great Lent

First Sunday of Great Lent (The Sunday of Orthodoxy)(Tone 5)

[The Sunday of Orthodoxy commemorates the final resolution of the iconoclastic controversy (the period in which the veneration of the holy icons was outlawed and many of the icons were destroyed).  Finally, in 787, the Second Council of Nicaea restored the holy icons to the churches.]

Tropar, Tone 5

Let us the faithful acclaim and worship the Word, co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, and born of the Virgin for our salvation. For He willed to be lifted up on the cross in flesh, to suffer death and to raise the dead by His glorious resurrection.

Tropar of the Triodion, Tone 2

We bow before your Most pure image, O kind Lord, and beg pardon for our sins, O Christ our God. Of Your own will You consented to ascend the Cross in the flesh to free Your handiwork from enslavement to the enemy. In thanksgiving we cry aloud to You: By coming to save the world, our Saviour, You filled all things with joy.

[the tropar of the Sunday of Orthodoxy reminds us that the source of life and joy for the entire universe is the Cross of Christ (the Mystery of the Lord Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection).  Traditionally, we view this mystery as an exchange; the Lord takes on Himself what is not His own, but He gives to us what properly belongs to Him.  In the Mystery of the Cross and Resurrection, the Lord takes upon Himself all the consequences of the sins and evils of this world.  Having absorbed all this evil, He gives to us in exchange the fullness of Divine Life.]

                                                                                                                          

Glory…Now…

Kondak of the Triodion, Tone 8

The uncircumscribed Word of the Father became circumscribed when He took flesh of you, O Mother of God; and when He restored the divine image to its ancient glory, He suffused it with the beauty of God. Therefore, confessing our salvation in deed and word, we portray it in images.

   

[the entire Mystery of the Incarnation has the same purpose: to restore in us the Divine Image and to infuse it with the beautiful Life of God. First, He heals division by taking sin and evil upon Himself, then, He engenders unity in His Creation by filling it with Divine Life.]

Prokimen, Tone 4

Blessed are You, Lord God of our fathers, and praised and glorified is Your Name forever.

v. For you are righteous in everything You have done to us.

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF SAINT PAUL,
THE APOSTLE, TO HEBREWS:

Brethren, after Moses grew up, his faith made him refuse to be called the king's grandson. He chose to be mistreated with God's people instead of having the good time that sin could bring for a lit­tle while. Moses knew that the trea­sures of Egypt were not as wonderful as what he would receive from suffer­ing for the Messiah, and he looked for­ward to his reward.

What else can I say? There isn't enough time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Sam­uel, and the prophets. Their faith helped them conquer kingdoms, and because they did right, God made promises to them. They closed the jaws of lions and put out raging fires and escaped from the swords of their ene­mies. Although they were weak, they were given the strength and power to chase foreign armies away.

Some women received their loved ones back from death. Many of these people were tortured, but they refused to be released. They were sure that they would get a better reward when the dead are raised to life. Others were made fun of and beaten with whips, and some were chained in jail. Still others were stoned to death or sawed in two or killed with swords. Some had nothing but sheep skins or goat skins to wear. They were poor, mis­treated, and tortured. The world did not deserve these good people, who had to wander in deserts and on mountains and had to live in caves and holes in the ground.

All of them pleased God because of their faith! But still they died without being given what had been promised. This was because God had something better in store for us. And he did not want them to reach the goal of their faith without us.

Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us! So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won't let go. And we must be determined to run the race that is ahead of us. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God's throne! (11:24-26, 32-40, 12:1-2)

[We please God through faith, when we prefer the things of the next world, the Kingdom of God, to the things of this world.  When we sacrifice communion in the things of this world for communion in the things of the Kingdom of God, we increase our standing in that Kingdom.  We purchase for ourselves a better resurrection.]

Alleluia, Tone 4

Moses and Aaron are among His priests and Samuel among those who call upon His name.

v. They called on the Lord, and He heard them.

A READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN:

At that time Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, "Come with me." Philip then found Nathanael and said,  "We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael asked,  "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip answered, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, "Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn't deceitful."? "How do you know me?" Nathan­ael asked. Jesus answered, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." Nathanael said, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see some­thing even greater .I tell you for cer­tain that you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man." (1:43-51)

[The reference to the fig tree in the gospel reading is extremely interesting and thought-provoking.  We feel a strong temptation to speculate concerning the event that must have happened beneath the fig tree.  The truth is, however, we have no idea of the circumstances, which surround this reference.  The only thing certain thing is that the event under the fig tree is the most personal event of Nathanael’s life.  It is something that could only be known by him and God. We know that the event (whatever it was) must have proved Nathaniel’s honesty.  Perhaps too, that event was something that could only be healed by God, since the final reference of the reading is to the Cross of the Lord, “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.]

Communion verse

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest.

Rejoice in the Lord, O you just; praise befits the righteous

Alleluia (3)