Psalm 85
You have shown favor to Your land, O Lord;
You have turned back the captivity of Jacob!Mercy and truth have met together;
righteousness and peace have kissed each other!
(Psalm 85:1, 10)
How a psalm is used liturgically is often a vital clue to its meaning in the life of the Church. So Psalm 85 is associated with Christ’s death and resurrection. It is read as part of the Ninth Hour, when, as Saint Basil’s prayer of the Ninth Hour says, “O Lord, You hung upon the life-giving tree, and made a way into paradise for the wise thief, and by death destroyed death.” Verses 1 and10 are used as the Alleluia verses for the second and third Sundays after Pascha. These same verses are also part of matins in the third week of Pascha (Monday, Aposticha):
Peoples, praise Christ with psalms;
sing to Him in joy!
A great Pascha has shone forth from the tomb for us:
Christ the Giver of life.//
He is the Redeemer of all creation!
Verse: You have shown favor to Your land, O Lord; You have turned back the captivity of Jacob! (Psalm 85:1)
You greeted the Myrrhbearers;
You changed Eve’s curse into joy.
You arose, sending Your disciples //
to proclaim Your third-day Resurrection from the tomb.
Verse: Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other! (Psalm 85:10)
Christ, our great and holy Pascha
shines on us this day.
Come, let every soul be illumined;
behold this most radiant day. //
Let us rejoice and be glad!
“You have turned back the captivity of Jacob!” All creation has been held in slavery to death, but the Lord’s resurrection frees us. Suffering, sickness, sin and death still hold sway for a time. But their victory is fleeting, overthrown by a resurrection life that is eternal.
This was the spiritual interpretation the Fathers gave to slavery, but the fact is that for centuries after the Roman Empire was Christianized, slavery continued in the Middle East, medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire. Serfs were not freed in Russia until 1861. I just saw Twelve Years A Slave, and was reminded that Bible-believing Christians in America had no problem justifying the slave culture in the US. But most of Christian history—including the Orthodox world—was the same. Today there are some 30 million people who are enslaved, including 60,000 in the US (mostly in sex trafficking). For a world map of contemporary slavery see www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/17/this-map-shows-where-the-worlds-30-million-slaves-live-there-are-60000-in-the-u-s/.
Holy Synod Meeting Begins
Members of the Holy Synod began arriving last night for the meetings that start today. Yesterday, in preparation for the Synod session, His Beatitude met with the Sexual Misconduct Policy Advisory Committee (Dr Albert Rossi, Protodeacon Peter Danilchick, Father Alexander Garklavs, Father Ted Bobosh, Robert Koory, Father Eric Tosi, Cindy Davis and me—Bernard Wilson was unable to attend). He is pleased with the progress that the OCA has made in addressing and preventing misconduct, but said we also need to turn our attention as a church much more broadly to clergy and parish health. He hopes to revitalize the Pastoral Life Department along these lines, not just dealing with problems, but creating a “network of mutual assistance” that includes deacons and laity.
Later in the afternoon, His Beatitude welcomed Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) for tea and conversation, as part of a continuing effort to build good relationships with the leaders of other Orthodox churches in North America.