By Rev. Dr. Philip Zymaris
In our sacraments we emphasize the use of matter precisely because of this Orthodox stress on the incarnation, the resurrection and the resulting theological affirmation of the goodness of matter because Christ took on a material body and in the resurrection our material bodies so that they may participate in the glory of the Kingdom. Therefore matter as created by God is good (“And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good,” Genesis 1:31), and it is used in the sacraments (especially the Eucharist) as a vehicle for communication of the divine.
For example, in our Orthodox baptismal service we have a true, threefold immersion of the neophyte in water rather than a “symbolic” sprinkling. Continuing with the example of baptism, one can note that in the Byzantine service we also totally anoint the neophyte in oil and chrism. One may further observe that in the catechism/ exorcism part of this service (the first part), when the sponsors (godparents) or the prospective Christian himself or herself renounces Satan, they actually spit toward the West. (It is interesting to note that this liturgical practice has even passed into popular Orthodox culture, i.e., the practice of spitting in some Orthodox circles, as reflected in the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” actually comes from this very literal, physical liturgical practice!)
In the Sacrament of Holy Unction, once again there is a true anointing with oil. The Sacrament of Confession is done face-to-face with the priest, and the body participates by kneeling at the absolution prayer. In the marriage service, rings, crowns and wine are employed as well as a liturgical dance, an ancient practice found in the Old Testament involving the whole person in joyful, celebratory worship. Finally, the Orthodox method of distributing Holy Communion is still to offer both bread and wine to clergy and laity alike. Indeed, up until the ninth century, there was no spoon. All of the faithful received the Body in their hands exactly as the clergy still do today. Hence, by the way we celebrate our sacramental life, the participation of the whole human being, of one’s body, mind and soul, is clearly evident, and this participation is a derivative of basic Christian theology.
The few examples offered above hopefully can be seen as a confirmation of what the late Fr. Alexander Schmemann so often quoted: Lex orandi lex credendi, the rule of prayer is the rule of faith. In other words, what we pray is what we believe; what we do in church is precisely what we teach in our theology books. The very structure and way we do our worship services (our “typicon”) makes it clear that this is the case in our Orthodox tradition. The fact that this evident connection between theology and worship found in our liturgical life has been forgotten today is unfortunate but not irreparable. All we need to do to rediscover these treasures is to begin actively participating in our services rather than merely attending them, for the theological basis of our worship is still manifestly embedded in these services and especially in the sacraments and in the sacrament of sacraments, the Eucharist.
In this way we can once again experience and live out what we believe to be the basic tenets of the good news of Christianity and become true theologians, that is to say, prayerful, liturgical beings truly united to Christ “in spirit and truth.” Only then can this experience overflow to the “liturgy after the liturgy,” i.e., to our everyday life, so that we may become living witnesses, a desperate need in our world today, which thirsts so much for spiritual truth. In this way we can demonstrate to the whole world what the psalm so often quoted in our services exclaims: “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 33/34:9)!
Rev. Dr. Philip Zymaris is Assistant Professor of Liturgics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He earned an MDiv from Holy Cross in 1991 and a ThD from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2000. Fr. Philip is Presbyter at Assumption Church in Pawtucket, RI.
Praxis, “Theology Matters,” Vol. 12, Issue 1, Fall 2012
