Today, the Church liturgically recalls the life and work of Our Holy Father Ephrem the Syrian.
As we have seen, the theology of Syrian was a fountain of teaching about the incarnation of our Lord, especially his baptism in the Jordan. The feast of Theophany was the foremost manifestation of the Triune God. Among the Syrian theologians, none was most important than St. Ephrem.
Born of pagan parents, he found the Christian faith, was baptized and eventually ordained a deacon. His life was marked by asceticism, as he imitated our Lord in the desert. He had the ascetic gift of tears, sorrow for sin and joy in the salvation of our Lord. His Troparion begins, “Your abundant tears made the wilderness sprout and bloom, and your deep sighings made your labor fruitful a hundredfold. “His theology was equal to the greatest fathers, but his style was entirely different. He wrote in verse, so that it might be sung in hymns, and so he is called the “Harp of the Holy Spirit.”
The corpus of his work was huge, and over 400 hymns still exist, many of which are used in the Syrian Liturgy. He writes of the mystery of the Incarnation:
“A tiny stream from your teaching, Lord,
For us below makes a flood of interpretations.
In your Bread is hidden a Spirit not to be eaten,
In your Wine dwells a Fire not to be drunk.
Spirit in your Bread, Fire in your Wine,
A wonder set apart, [yet] received by our lips!
See, Fire and Spirit in the womb that bore you!
See, Fire and Spirit in the river where you were baptized!
Fire and Spirit in our Baptism;
In the Bread and the Cup, Fire and Holy Spirit!” (Hymns on the Faith 10)
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
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Today the Church liturgically commemorates one the greats: St Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople. The Troparion for this feast reads:
The holy apostle and martyr, Timothy, bishop of Ephesus, is honored by the Church today.
St Maximus the Confessor is liturgically commemorated today.
St. Anthony the Great, also called St. Anthony the Abbott (though he was a hermit) and St. Anthony of Egypt is commemorated on January 17. He is identified as the founder of desert monasticism, though the story of his life, particularly how he met St. Paul of Thebes, who preceded him into the desert, is a study of the search for Christian perfection. This story tells how he heard the gospel about the rich young man, to whom Jesus said, ““If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Matthew 19:21). When Anthony heard this gospel, he immediately divested himself of all his possessions and went into the desert to seek Christian perfection. This is really the calling of all Christians, as Jesus commanded, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:47)” For this we are baptized, that we might seek Godly perfection.
The holy prophet, Malachi. Second day of the prefestive period.
[In the Byzantine Church today is the feast day for St. Stephen while in the Latin Church December 26 is the day on which Stephen is liturgically commemorated.]
The Feast of the Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Children [in the fiery furnace] has always been closely connected with Christmas. Proper for them are found on the two Sunday before Christmas and today we sing, “Come, O faithful, let us celebrate the forefeast of the birth of Christ; offering a spiritual canticle by way of a star. Let us join the Magi and shepherds in their hymns of praise: Behold, the Savior has come from a virgin’s womb to call back to himself the whole human race.”
The prophet Haggai, in 520 B.C., preached that the temple must be rebuilt for the sake of the faith of the people. In this way he foreshadowed that Jesus, the Messiah to come, would be the Temple of the New Covenant in his body. His birth, then, is the completion of God’s promise to make his dwelling among his people.
St. Spiridon is commemorated with special solemnity in the Greek Church. The Synaxarion tells us, that “he led the peaceful life of a simple shepherd. He was a plain, unpolished countryman and yet without equal when it came to love of neighbor, meekness, acts of kindness, almsgiving and the practice of virtues.” He was a man of hospitality, who would break his ascetic fast to feed a stranger in need. He was a man of simple and plain words, who put to shame the vain eloquence of a prelate “who wanted to show off by altering certain words of the Gospel too common for his taste.” He was a perfect example of a saint, for through him the love of Christ manifested itself, raising the dead, stopping droughts, looking into the hearts of sinners and forgiving them. Because of his Christ-like virtues, he was called from being a shepherd of sheep in the field, to being the bishop pastor of Christ’s rational sheep in Tremithus. In this way, he was the fulfillment of the shepherds who came to Christ at his birth.