Part 8 historical prospective of the liturgy washing hands
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Historical prospective of the liturgy
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Part 8 historical prospective of the liturgy washing hands
- 1. Historical Prospective of the Liturgy-Part VIII DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM WASHING HANDS Ipodiakonos Zoran j. Bobic
- 2. Washing hands: Washing of the hands prayer: I will wash my hands among the innocent and I will walk around your altar, 0 Lord, that I may hear the voice of your praise and tell of all your wondrous deeds. Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house and the dwelling place of your glory. Destroy not my soul with the wicked, nor my life with men of blood, in whose hands are iniquities; whose right hand is filled with bribes. But I have walked in my innocence; redeem me, 0 Lord, and have mercy on me. My foot has been set in righteousness; in the churches I will bless you, 0 Lord (Ps. 25:6-12).
- 3. Washing hands: History Oriental Rites, the priest washes his hands at least twice when celebrating Mass; Religious motives rather than utility prompted the Jewish custom of washing before the Thanksgiving at the end of a meal; Our Lord, for example, took advantage of this custom to wash the feet of the apostles at the end of the Last Supper; His action, too, was symbolic rather than practical (John 13:2-12); …every pious Jew washed his hands before he prayed; Early Christians also washed their hands on entering the church; Its utilitarian purpose and symbolism; Symbol of the purity of souls dedicated to God;
- 4. Washing hands: History Cyril of Jerusalem: designates the purity and blamelessness of our actions; Chrysostom: …he stresses the cleanliness of the soul that should go with it; Some time before the eighth or ninth century; Slav branch of the Byzantine Rite followed its mother Rite; The first clear reference to Psalm 25; Some kind of formula seems to have accompanied the washing of the hands;
Editor's Notes
- In almost all the Oriental Rites, the priest washes his hands at least twice when celebrating Mass. The first washing of hand takes place during the rite of preparation, the second, at the offertory. Chaldean Nestorians also wash their hands a third time just before the fraction. In the Byzantine Rite, however, there is only one washing of the hands, during the rite of preparation. In the Syrian Rite, also, there is only one, but at the offertory. Religious motives rather than utility prompted the Jewish custom of washing before the Thanksgiving at the end of a meal. Our Lord, for example, took advantage of this custom to wash the feet of the apostles at the end of the Last Supper; his action, too, was symbolic rather than practical (John 13:2-12). In a sense, the meal was offered to God through the “berakah”, the blessing. Since the uncleansed could not offer it, the participants washed their hands. In fact, every pious Jew washed his hands before he prayed. Evidence of similar ablutions appear in Christian antiquity. Thus, Christians washed their hands before praying, even before private prayer. Early Christians also washed their hands on entering the church. Large basins were placed by the doors of the church or of the room where the Eucharist was to be celebrated. Hands could have become soiled in bringing offerings to church. Propriety demanded that hands be scrupulously clean, for communicants would receive the Holy Communion on their palms. But there was another and higher reason for the washing: that of symbolizing freedom from all stain of sin. ' The twofold purpose of these ablutions was probably due to both the Jewish heritage and natural feeling or instinct. Certainly, the hand that touched the Blessed Sacrament was to be clean physically and spiritually. Early Christians considered the hand as the principal instrument, the privileged member in which the strength and activity of the person were concentrated. Hence the whole person was represented by it. That is why the outward washing of hands symbolized the internal purification from all that sullied both body and soul. After the custom of receiving Holy Communion in the hand had been discontinued, together with that of bringing offerings of bread, wine, or oil to church, there was no longer any pressing need for the faithful to wash their hands before Mass. Whether the celebrant and the other clergy washed their hands on entering the church is unknown. Good reasons exist for concluding that they did, and other good reasons for presuming that they did not. In any case, the celebrant and concelebrating priests washed their hands at the offertory. Its utilitarian purpose and symbolism, however, were the same as they are today in the rite of preparation before the Divine Liturgy. After receiving and handling the offerings of the people, the deacon, or the celebrant (if no deacon were present), washed his hands so that they would again be clean. Yet, from the very beginning, it was the symbolism of spiritual purity or washing as the " symbol of the purity of souls dedicated to God, " rather than practical utility that was stressed.
- Cyril of Jerusalem, in fact, emphasizes this mystical sense when he says the washing of hands " designates the purity and blamelessness of our actions." He seems to exclude its practical utility entirely," for we did not come into the ecclesia covered with dirt! " No less does Chrysostom minimize the outward washing of the hands when he stresses the cleanliness of the soul that should go with it. " We wash our hands when we enter into church, and shall we not wash our hearts also ? " he asks. " Why? Is it our hands that speak ? It is the soul that utters the words; it is to it that God pays attention; cleanness of the body is of no use, if it [the soul] is defiled ... While we are fearful about trifles, we care not for important matters. To pray with unwashed hands is a matter indifferent, but to do it with an unwashed mind, that is the extreme of all evils. " Originally, the Byzantine Liturgy and its antecedents also had the hand-washing at the offertory. Some time before the eighth or ninth century, " the Office of Preparation of the Gifts " was transferred from its original position before the offertory to the beginning of the Liturgy. The washing of the hands, however, remained at the offertory until the thirteenth century, when it was transferred to its present position at the beginning of the rite of preparation. The Slav branch of the Byzantine Rite followed its mother Rite in this. The twelfth and thirteenth century Slav missals still have the washing of the hands associated with the " Bringing in of the Gifts " at the Great Entrance, but those of the next two centuries have it in the present position before the “proskomidia”. At any rate, the washing of the hands in the rite of preparation still has the same purpose and symbolism as it had in its original place at the offertory. The hands of the priest will touch the very sacrament of the body of Christ, and so they should be clean. But physical purification is not the only purpose. The verses of Psalm 25, which the priest recites during the washing of hands, stress the higher, mystical meaning : spiritual cleanness. He will wash his hands among the innocent; since the hands represent the whole person, the cleansing symbolically encompasses his whole being. In this spotless purity of the innocent, he will serve or " walk around the altar." In this innocence, he will hear God's praise and recount God's wondrous deeds. The priest loves the beauty of God's house, the dwelling-place of God's glory; he loves it because God lives there. He begs God to save his soul, not to destroy it with the wicked, with men of blood, nor with those whose hands (i.e., whole being) are soiled with all manner of evil. He ends his prayer by reiterating his innocence of which the hand-washing is a symbol, and with the promise to praise the Lord in his assemblies. The first clear reference to Psalm 25 in connection with the hand washing in the Byzantine Liturgy comes from the fourteenth century. Does this mean that prior to that century no accompanying prayer was said? The answer cannot be given definitively. Probably most rites had some accompanying formula said out of personal devotion. Cyril of Jerusalem does refer to Psalm 25, I wash my hands among the z"nnocent, in this connection. All the Liturgies have associated some kind of formula with the hand-washing as an expression of purification for service at the altar; to have attained such universality, this need for verbal expression must have been felt at an early period. The Chaldean Nestorian Liturgy, for example, has verse 6 of Psalm 25 at the third hand-washing (before the fraction); 18 the Armenian Liturgy has the same at the handwashing both in the rite of preparation and at the offertory. The Latin Rite's Lavabo (Ps. 25:6-12) in its various arrangements traces its roots at least to the ninth century. The Liturgy of the Coptic Jacobites uses verse 6 in combination with Psalm 50:9 just before the prothesis. While the formulae for hand-washing in the Syrian and Ethiopian Liturgies are different, they express the same longing for purification. A common origin alone can explain such universality. Some kind of formula seems to have accompanied the washing of the hands as a devotional option long before any missal prescribed an official prayer