Archive for category: Feasts

Christ came to the world in human form to atone for the wrongdoings of humans on our behalf and fulfill the Divine justice. He reopened the gate of heaven through His death as all humans, be they sinners or righteous, were not allowed to enter paradise. Between our Creator and us was a big wall that no one could take down but only our Lord Jesus Christ.

As the Lord promised to Adam, He came to the world and endured severe pain and contempt for our sake. He was then crucified on the Cross (Meskel) between two criminals who spent their entire lives robbing and terrorizing people. The Lord took our sin and our death and gave us His life; He called us His sons while everything we have ever done was crucified him and sin. 

Christ redeemed us through His death on the Cross. The Cross has thus become the sign of victory for Christians. It is the symbol of our freedom from evil and our rebirth for a new life in Jesus Christ. That is why Saint Paul the Apostle said “But God forbids that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Gal 6:14)

Even after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Cross kept on making numerous miracles among believers. But the Jews who lived in those days were envious, and hence buried the Cross and turned the place into a dumping ground for garbage. Through time, the garbage piled up and took the form of a hill. The Jews had made every effort to obscure the place where the Cross was buried. 

After 200 years, Queen Elena, mother of Constantine the Great, set out to locate the place where the cross was buried and excavate it. She prayed hard to request for the will and help of God and then headed for Jerusalem in 319 E.C to accomplish her project.

 Given the lapse of two centuries, it was hard for Queen Elena to spot the exact place of burial of the Cross. She thus sough the counsel of an old man named Kirakos who told her that the Cross was buried in one of three hills located in city of Jerusalem. 

 Elena summoned all priests in the city for mass prayers. She then lit a bonfire and put incense into it. The smoke from the bonfire billowed into the sky and then bent down to the hill where the Cross was buried. She had the place dug, and three crosses were excavated. The True Cross on which our Lord was crucified was identified for the enormous miracles it did. After unearthing the Holy Cross, Queen Helena lit torches heralding her success.

In the Middle Ages, the Patriarch of Alexandria who got hold of part of the True Cross, gave the Ethiopian Emperor Dawit a piece of the Cross in return for protection afforded to the Coptic Christians. This piece is reputedly held at the Gishen Mariam church located about 70 kilometers northwest of Dessie in northern Ethiopia. 
Ethiopians have been celebrating this day for a millennium. There are two occasions on Meskel. The first is Demera (September 26), in which bonfires are built topped by a cross to which flowers are tied. The flowers are Meskel Daisies. The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church orchestrates the ceremony to light a huge bonfire in Meskel Square at the heart of Addis Ababa.  

The ceremony is accompanied by spiritual dancing and singing. Priests in full ceremonial dress sing around the bonfire. While the Demera is set on fire there is an inner feeling of brightness for all those who are around it. Little Demeras are also built at individual houses or villages. On the next day of Demera comes the Meskel festivity. In the morning of Meskel, believers go to the spot of the Demera, and using ashes from the fire, they mark their foreheads with the sign of the cross. The festival coincides with the mass blooming of the golden yellow Meskel daisies. The day is observed with holiday meals and drink. 

Our forefathers have managed to preserve this age-old tradition which has recently been inscribed in the records of UNESCO as one of the intangible heritages of the world. The responsibility to pass on this unique tradition to the coming generations now lies on the shoulders of every one of us.  
   

Happy Meskel celebrations to you all!!

 Source:  

• The Book of Synaxarium: September 27. 

Hiruy Ermias 2002: Mzgebe Tarik part 1 (መዝገበ ታሪክ ክፍል አንድ).  Page: 32-33.  

 

You do not own this day to act on it as you like. It is the Lord’s Day. You should give it to Him; learn verses from the Holy Bible, learn hymns, sing for the Lord and praise Him, pray, serve the Lord, visit His children or contemplate on the Holy Books. 

 

Do not spend it in making errands, shopping, or cleaning your house. Let all the day be for the Lord.If you cannot give all the day to the Lord, in case you are not on holiday in your work, give what you can out of it to the Lord and compensate the rest on another day.

One day a rich man was returning home in his car after shopping, and he was stopped suddenly by a godly man crying to him, "Take care, you man, see what you are treading on". He stopped quickly thinking he ran over a child, but he found nothing. He asked that godly man who answered him, "You are treading on the Lord’s day. You tread on the Fourth Commandment".

 

See what St. John the Beloved said in the Revelation, "I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day" (Rev.1:10). What a beautiful verse to contemplate on and to carry out in your life.

Do the works that make you grow spiritually; for as your body is in need of rest, your spirit also needs to rest in the Lord.
Note: Now we have come to the end of our lessons about the First and Second commandments relating to the Lord’s worship, as well as the Third Commandment relating to the Lord’s name and the Fourth commandment relating to the Lord’s Day.

 Next week, we will contemplate on the commandments relating to our relations with the others. The First will be "Honor your mother and your father."

Source: H.H. Pope Shenouda III, 1997.Contemplations on the Ten Commandments: The fourth Commandment, Volume I.

 

 

The same was said also about the circumcision (Acts 15:10-24). It was only a sign just as the Sabbath. When God rested on the seventh day from creating the world, this was a symbol of His true rest when He redeemed us and overcame death on Sunday. Even this Sunday on which we rest refers to the great Sabbath in the everlasting eternity "when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father,… The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. … that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:24-28). Only then we come to the everlasting rest, the rest of eternity.

This small Sabbath then has changed into Sunday in Christianity. On that day the disciples used to meet and break bread (Acts 2:46). According to the Ethiopian church tradition, it is celebrated in honor of Christ’s resurrection from the dead (Mk. 16:9). On the first day of the week, after Jesus has been raised from the dead (Mk. 16:9), He appears to Mary Magdalene, Peter, Cleopas, and others. The same time of the week "a week later”, more literally, "after eight days again", Jesus appears to the eleven apostles and others (Jn. 20:26). After Jesus ascends (Ac. 1:9), on the feast of Pentecost or Shavuot (the 50th day from First fruits and thus usually calculated as the first day of the week), the Spirit of God is given to the disciples, who baptize 3,000 people into the apostolic fellowship. The second coming of Jesus Christ might be on Sunday as He promised His disciples that He would come again. (John 14:1-3)

It is also the day on which the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and the early Church was founded. It was on Sunday also that the Lord Christ appeared to the disciples and women. The main point is that we keep the Lord’s Day holy and make of it a blessing to our lives and rejoice and be joyful on it in the Lord.

You shall not do any work

The Law commanded that no work be done on the Lord’s Day. And as they were used to celebrate the Sabbath from evening to evening (Lev. 23:32), they prepared themselves from Friday and they called Friday "the day of Preparation" (Luke 23:54).

The Jews used to carry out the Commandment, "You shall not do any work" in a literal way, lacking spirit. Even doing good on the Sabbath was considered by them a sin!! So they opposed the Lord Christ regarding this matter.

But the commandment not to work on that day did not mean turning the Lord’s Day into a day of laziness, sleep and rest in bed! Good things ought to be done on it. So a question that caused argument between the Jews and the Lord Christ was, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" (Matt. 12:10, Luke. 14:3).

The Lord used to heal and teach on the Sabbath

The Lord used to intentionally heal many people on the Sabbath; the man born blind was healed by the Lord on the Sabbath intentionally "Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes." (John 9:14). He was born blind and the Lord could have healed him on any other day. It would not matter if he continued blind another day. But the Lord made it with purpose to establish a rule concerning the Sabbath.

He created eyes to the blind, out of the mud, in a miraculous way that demonstrated His divinity, but the Jews were literal and did not see the greatness and significance of the miracle but only said that He was a sinner because He did not observe the Sabbath (John 9:16,24).

The Lord also healed the man with the withered hand, and discussed the matter with them if it was lawful to cure on the Sabbath. He said to them, " …What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath. …" (Matt. 12:10-13).

He healed, on the Sabbath, also the woman who the devil crippled for eighteen years. He said to the leader of the synagogue, " … Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound; think of it; for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" (Luke 13:10-16).

The Lord healed also the man at Bethe saida who had been ill for 38 years. The Lord could have healed him on any other day no matter if the thirty eight years increased by two days or so. But the Lord wanted to give a principle, He did not only heal the man but also ordered him to carry his bed and walk (John 5:2-8).

On the Sabbath, He healed also the man who had dropsy (Luke 14:1-6). Furthermore, when His disciples plucked heads of grain on the Sabbath and the Pharisees objected, He answered them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:23-28), and said to them, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice" (Matt. 12:7).

To prove to them that a spiritual work is lawful on the Sabbath He said, " … on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? " (Matt. 12:5, 6). By this, He meant circumcision on the Sabbath; for a child was to be circumcised on the eighth day, and if this came on a Sabbath, he was circumcised and yet they were guiltless. Thus He said to them, " … If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?" (John 7: 21- 23).

To be continued …

Source: H.H. Pope Shenouda III, 1997.Contemplations on the Ten Commandments: The fourth Commandment, Volume I. with slight edition.