A - The eighth day
“And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day… And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he had rested from all his work which God had created him to do” (Gen. 1:31, 2:3). Man, in turn, is called to sanctify the seventh day and to share in the joy of the beauty of the universe.
But this world fell into sin and its beauty was corrupted, and its seventh day was no longer a day of joy in the beauty of creation. After the fall, man and the whole world lived in a time of sorrow and alienation (Gen. 3:16-24), until Christ was incarnated and rose from the dead, bringing man and the whole world into a new era, and a new day dawned, the Day of Resurrection, the Day of the Lord, the eighth day (Heb. 4:1-11). The incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ signify the end of the old age and the beginning of the new age, the time of resurrection and joy.
“Peace be upon you, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Lk 1:28), the angel said to the Virgin, linking joy to the reconciliation of man with God. As for the risen Christ, His first words to the women were: “Peace be with you” (Matthew 28:9), linking joy to the event of the resurrection.
B - Liturgical time
The events we celebrate in our Church are organized according to the new time transformed by the light of Christ’s Resurrection. In the Holy Mass we live out our universal unity with our brothers and with the entire universe. The heart of the Eucharist is the Body of Christ, that is, the divine-human life of the Lord. But this divine-human Body is also linked to the Virgin Mary and to all the saints (see Eph 1:22, 5:23; Col 1:18-24; Jn 10:16; 1 Cor 10:16-17; Gal 3:27-28; Eph 4:4, 5:30).
The life of the saints is the life of Christ himself, continuing throughout the ages. We are united to them on the basis of the human nature that Christ reformed through his incarnation, death and resurrection. In the divine liturgy, and especially the Eucharist, we participate in the life of Christ and its events and in the life of the saints, because we are all one body, Christ, the saints and ourselves, and we are all “one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
On church feasts we do not only remember Christ and the saints, nor do we “return” to the events of the divine plan and the lives of the saints, but we live these events sacramentally, and we actually participate in the life of Christ and the saints. Therefore, the hymns of our church do not refer to the past but to the present: “Today he was hung on a tree,” “For today the time of our feast has come and the choirs of the holy angels celebrate together.” The use of the word “today” is not an expressive form, but a sacramental reality that exists in the hearts of believers. All the saints and the angelic hosts spiritually share with us in the joy of the feast and live with us all the occasions that we experience, because they are all repeated in the present in a sacramental way.
The Annunciation, the Nativity, the Circumcision, the Baptism of the Lord, the Transfiguration, the Passion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost and the Feasts of All Saints are not events that happened in the past, which we now gather to remember and imitate. They go far beyond that, for in them lies the vitality of our Church, for they transmit to us the person and works of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit who remains alive and active in the life of our Church. This is the interior experience of the Church and of every believer: there is only one truth, and it is always present (cf. Mt 16:28; Mk 9:1; Lk 9:27; 17:21).
C - Birth period
The birth of Christ is an expression of God’s love for fallen man (John 3:16), so it is prepared for it by fasting for forty days, which includes the feasts of Christmas, circumcision, and the Baptism of the Lord, and ends on the Sunday following the feast of the Epiphany. The Christmas hymns of the Church express the joy of man and all creation in the event of salvation, and transform their joy into a comprehensive glorification of Christ the Savior: “Christ is born, glorify him. Christ came from heaven, receive him. Christ is on earth, rise up. Sing to the Lord, all the earth, and praise him with joy, you peoples, for he has been glorified.” “Today the Virgin gives birth to the One who is transcendent in essence. The earth brings forth the cave to the unapproachable. The angels with the shepherds glorify. The Magi with the star walk along. For a new child has been born to us, the God who was before the ages.”
The hymns always show the divine-human event in its entirety. Believers do not see in the divine child an ordinary “baby,” a weak newborn, but rather the “supreme” and “unapproachable” One who is born and “offered” for the salvation of man. This is clear from the hymns of the feasts of the Circumcision and Baptism of the Lord: “O Lord, most merciful, God by essence, You took on human form without change. Fulfilling the law, You voluntarily accepted the circumcision of the flesh in order to erase the silhouettes and remove the mask of our passions. Glory to Your goodness, glory to Your compassion, glory to Your ineffable condescension, O Word” (at Vespers of the Feast of the Circumcision).
“By your baptism, O Lord, in the Jordan River, the worship of the Trinity appeared, for the voice of the Father testified, calling you the beloved Son, and the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of the Word. O Christ God, who appeared and enlightened the world, glory to you” (Troparion for the Feast of the Divine Epiphany).
D - Easter period
Easter is the climax of the church year, and preparation for it begins with the “Triodion” or “Triodism.” (1)It is a collection of liturgical texts that includes the Sundays: The Pharisee and the Publican, The Prodigal Son, The Meat and Cheese Fare, followed by the Sundays of Great Lent, where the believer enters a life of repentance and intense asceticism: “Let us flee from the haughtiness of the wicked Pharisee. Let us learn the humility of the good publican, so that we may rise up and cry out to God with him: Forgive us, your servants, O Christ, your only Savior” (On the Matins of the Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican).
“When I ignorantly and foolishly disobeyed Your paternal glory, I squandered in sin the riches You gave me. Therefore I cry out to You with the voice of the prodigal son, crying out: I have sinned before You, O merciful Father. Accept me repentant and make me like one of Your hired servants” (On the Sunday of the Prodigal Son).
“The field of virtues has been opened; enter, you who prefer the struggle, girding yourself with the good struggle of fasting. For those who fight lawfully will be crowned with righteousness. Let us take up the weapon of the cross and fight the enemy, having faith as an indestructible wall, prayer as a shield, almsgiving as a helmet, and instead of the sword fasting which cuts off all evil from the heart. Whoever does these things will receive on the Day of Judgment the true crown in Christ, the King of all.”
Spiritual struggle and vigilance reach their climax during Holy Week, when the faithful are called to meet Christ and experience His Passion sacramentally: “Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight. Blessed is the servant whom he finds awake; but he who finds him ignorant is unworthy. See, O my soul, that you do not fall asleep and are shut out of the kingdom and delivered up to death. Rather, be alert and cry out: Holy, holy, holy are you, O God; for the sake of the Mother of God, have mercy on us” (On the Bridegroom’s Service).
“Today He who hung the earth above the waters was hanged on a tree. A crown of thorns was placed on the head of the King of Angels. He who covered the heavens with clouds was clothed with false adornment. He who freed Adam in the Jordan accepted the blow. The Bridegroom of the Church was nailed to the cross, and the Son of the Virgin was pierced with a spear. We adore Your Passion, O Christ; show us Your glorious Resurrection” (Maundy Thursday).
On the Night of Resurrection, the believers and the entire universe live within the light that never sets, the light of joy and revelation that illuminates everything:
“All creation has now received light, heaven, earth, and all that is beneath the earth. Let all creation celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, by which we are strengthened” (On the Magic of the Resurrection, Third Valley).
“We celebrate the mortification of death, the destruction of hell, and the first fruits of another eternal life, rejoicing and praising the One who is the cause of these blessings, I mean the God of our fathers, blessed and glorified alone” (On the Magic of the Resurrection, Seventh Valley).
Believers do not live an ordinary day, for now a “new life” begins, because the eighth day has dawned and Christ will never set.
The Easter period continues in the life of the Church throughout the five weeks following the Resurrection, and they are the Sundays of: Thomas, the Myrrh-Bearing Women, the Paralytic, the Samaritan Woman, and the Blind Man.
H - Pentecost period
The Pentecost period begins with the Feast of the Ascension, and we enter the Kingdom of the Holy Spirit. The Lord promised His disciples at the moment of His Ascension that He would send them the Holy Spirit, who would make them His witnesses throughout the world (Acts 1:8): “You ascended in glory, O Christ our God, and gave gladness to Your disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit. They were convinced, blessedly, that You are the Son of God, the Savior of the world” (Troparion of the Ascension).
The work of Christ’s salvation is completed on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles and reveals to them the secret of divine love and qualifies them to preach Christ: “The Holy Spirit is light and life, a living and rational fountain, a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of understanding, good, upright, rational, ruling, purifying of faults, divine and deifying, fire from a prominent fire, speaking, active, dividing gifts, by which all the prophets and apostles of God with the martyrs spoke, a strange reputation, a strange vision, a fire divided for the distribution of gifts.”
Man is no longer scattered, the Babylonian period has passed, and a new era has dawned upon humanity, the era of union with the Body of Christ (see 11:1-9; Acts 2:5-12; Rev. 7:9-10). Therefore, at Pentecost we sing this hymn: “When the Most High descended, confusing the tongues, he divided the nations; and when he distributed the tongues of fire, he called all to one unity. Therefore with one voice we glorify the all-holy Spirit.”
The divine fire, or “strong breath” that blows at Pentecost, returns man to unity with the Holy Trinity, that is, to the true and correct faith, and makes him prostrate to one God, the Triune God, who is the salvation of man: “We have seen the true light, and have received the heavenly Spirit, and have found the true faith. Let us prostrate to the inseparable Trinity, for He has saved us.”
In the period extending from the Resurrection to Pentecost, Christians live in the light of the Resurrection, as if they were on Mount Tabor, experiencing the indescribable joy of the Transfiguration. The Church prohibits prostration and bowing of the knees during this period, because they indicate sorrow and repentance, while the time is a time of resurrection, when man feels the sublime dignity he acquired through the death and glorious resurrection of the Lord, and remains standing as the righteous do before the throne of God (Rev. 20:12). But at Pentecost we hear the deacon calling us to prostrate again: “Again and again with bowing of the knees let us pray to the Lord.” It is an invitation to the faithful to return to the world of fallenness and corruption, conveying to it the message of the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that this world may once again acquire the meaning it had at creation.
And - Sunday
Christians experience the Resurrection and Pentecost whenever they gather to celebrate the Sacrament of Thanksgiving, especially on Sundays. Therefore, they chant with enthusiasm: “We have seen the true light, and we have received the heavenly Spirit…”, before the priest urges them to go out into the world and convey joy and the message of salvation to it: “Let us go out in peace.”
This shows us that, in the liturgical season, we are not dealing with specific memories or specific times in which the Christian is called to live in a different way, forgetting his concerns and the affairs of his daily life. In other words, it is not a temporary rapture and distancing from the troubles of life. The Christian is called to continue throughout his life what he lives in the liturgical time and place, and to illuminate his entire life with the event of the Resurrection and Pentecost.
But it is not an easy matter for a person living in the midst of the world. Therefore, he must return to the liturgical atmosphere and resume life in the joy of the Resurrection and Pentecost, in order to set out into the world with new strength, until the time of the Lord’s second coming, when man and the entire world will live the perpetual divine liturgy in the eternal glory of the Resurrection and Pentecost (see Rev. 21:22-25, Is. 60:1-22).
Footnote related to the title “The Liturgical Year”: See (For Understanding and Living the Liturgy) by the Monastery of Deir al-Harf and (The Sacrifice of Praise) by Farid Haddad, Al-Nour Publications (publisher).
(1) See (The Triodion), by a group of authors, (Get to know your church) series, Al-Nour Publications (publisher).