Melkite Greek Catholic Church
 
SERVICE IN THE CHURCH TODAY can mean many things. The clergy are said to serve the Divine Liturgy and other services. They are not improvising or directing or even celebrating; their role as servers suggests that their personality take a back seat to what they serve, much as good waiters are unobtrusive when they serve at table.

Church members serve in a variety of ways in the worship, teaching and fellowship activities of the community. In many places they are honored today as the Church remembers those who volunteered to serve at the Lord’s burial: Joseph, Nicodemus and the Myrrhbearers. Today we also remember the Church’s first ordained servants, the Deacons.

Both Myrrhbearers and Deacons had one thing in common: they served Christ the Unwanted. The Myrrhbearers served the despised and rejected Jesus, condemned by the Jewish leaders and abandoned in death by even His closest followers, These volunteers stepped forward to provide a burial for Him, when the alternative was to leave His body for animals to scavenge. The Deacons were set apart by the Apostles to serve Christ unwanted in the weakest segment of society: those who had no family to care for them in their old age.

Joseph and the Myrrhbearers

In Mark 15:44-16:8, which is read at this Sunday’s Liturgy, we see Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Council, arrange for Jesus’ burial. St John Chrysostom observes, “This was Joseph, who had been concealing his discipleship. Now, after the death of Christ, he became very bold. For neither was he an obscure person nor unnoticed. He was one of the Council, and highly distinguished and, as we see, courageous. For he exposed himself to death, taking upon himself the enmity of all by his affection for Jesus. He begged for the body and did not desist until he obtained it. Not only that, but by laying it in his own new tomb, he actively demonstrated his love and courage” (Homily 88 on Matthew).

In John 19:39 we are told that the seeker Nicodemus, a leading Pharisee, helped Joseph in this task. Their service is memorialized in the troparion sung on this day, itself drawn from the Gospel of St Mark: The noble Joseph took down from the tree Your spotless body. He wrapped it in fine linen with aromatic spices and laid it for burial in a new tomb…

Mark notes that Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses (whom John identifies as the wife of Clopas – Cleophas in the King James Bible – and a relative of the Theotokos) saw where Jesus had been buried and returned with others on Sunday morning with more spices. Mark 15:40 tells of a Salome, one of those who had witnessed the death of the Lord, who accompanied them. These women were among those whom Luke says provided for Jesus’ needs during His ministry from their possessions. Others among them, according to Luke, were “Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Suzanna, and many others” (8:3). Matthew 27:56 mentions “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (i.e. James and John). Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, are included among them as well. As St John Chrysostom remarked, “They lamented over what had happened, beating their breasts. Meanwhile, the religious leaders were glorying in those very things for which the others were grieving, neither moved by pity nor checked by fear” (Homily 88.2 on Matthew).

The Jews did not embalm the dead like the Egyptians. Rather they anointed a corpse and surrounded it with large quantities of spices to counteract the odor of decay. Jn 19:39 says that Nicodemus brought one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes for that purpose. When the women returned to the tomb at first light on Sunday morning, according to Mark and Luke, they brought more spices. The odor should have increased to such a degree that further masking would be needed if people were to visit the tomb. But the Lord did not need their spices; not subject to corruption, He had conquered Death and destroyed its hold over us.

The Myrrhbearers knew that the service they offered was fruitless in a sense – Jesus was dead and they could not change that. They could simply perform a last act of love and remain by the tomb in witness to their love for Him. Their faithfulness to serve Christ even in death was rewarded; they were blessed to see the empty tomb and to bear witness to the Apostles that Christ was risen.

The Burial of Christ

The role of Joseph, Nicodemus and the Myrrhbearers is particularly remembered in our worship at the Holy Friday service of the Burial of Christ. The hymns we sing before the image of the dead Christ make frequent mention of them:

Nicodemus and Joseph

are now joined by heaven’s hosts.

Within a narrow tomb

they place the precious body

of the One whom nothing

at all can contain.


The most noble Joseph,

With Nicodemus buried

You with myrrh in a new and strange way,

O Christ; and they cried aloud:

“Be afraid, O earth, and tremble with fear!”


Ointment bearing women

drew near to You, O Lord,

to offer myrrh in their love.


Ointment bearing women

came to anoint with myrrh

Christ, the true Myrrh of our God.


Ointment bearing women

came to Your tomb, O Lord,

to anoint You with their myrrh.



It is the custom in many places that members of the church council represent Joseph and Nicodemus by carrying the image of the dead Christ before its burial in anticipation of the Resurrection. Similarly, young women depict the myrrhbearers by walking in the procession and sprinkling scented water as they go.

The Parish Myrrhbearers

The holy Myrrhbearers are the patrons of many sisterhoods in Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches. As the women in the Scriptures ministered to the material needs of Christ and His disciples, parish myrrhbearers serve their community by coordinating Sunday morning coffee hours and other parish meals. Some Myrrhbearers organize mercy meals for the departed or receptions for churchings and baptisms.

Elsewhere the parish Myrrhbearers may maintain the parish prayer list or ministry of intercession’ remembering the needs for which parishioners have asked their prayers.

In some Churches local Myrrhbearers undertake charitable programs at home and abroad. Orphan adoption programs and support for seminarians are supported by Myrrhbearers in several dioceses.

In some parishes the Myrrhbearers are the young women who exercise a ministry of hospitality at the church’s regular Sunday services by serving as greeters, and by distributing bulletins and other handouts.

In some parishes Myrrhbearers ring the church bells, tend the candle stands or bring the offerings forward for the priest to receive. They come into special prominence on Holy Friday when they keep watch before the holy shroud and scatter flowers before it in procession.

 
WHEN WE THINK about Christian ministry, it is the liturgical ministry of priests or deacons, readers or chanters that most readily comes to mind. But in the Church’s tradition, ministry has a much broader meaning. The ministry of Christians includes many forms of service, all in imitation of “the Son of Man [who] did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28).

In one sense, every baptized Christian is called to ministry because we all share in the priesthood of Christ through the mystery of chrismation. “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:5, 9).

The purpose of our ministry as sharers in Christ’s priesthood is to “proclaim the praises of Him” who brought us to eternal life through baptism: to glorify God in word and deed. The means by which we exercise this ministry is by offering up “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In fact, everything can be done in a godly manner, offered as a spiritual sacrifice to proclaim the glory of God.

The Apostolate of the Laity

In the past century, it has become customary to call the ministry of those believers who are not clergy “the apostolate of the laity.” It was particularly extolled at the Second Vatican Council in its Decree On the Apostolic Activity of God’s People, affirming that “The apostolate of the laity derives from their Christian vocation and the Church can never be without it” (AA 1).

The goal of Christian ministry, according to the Fathers of this Council, is that “the whole world might enter into a relationship with Christ” (AA 2). Everything in the Church is oriented to this goal in one way or another and everyone in the Church is called to work for this goal. As the Council Fathers went on to say, “No part of the structure of a living body is merely passive but has a share in the functions as well as life of the body: so, too, in the body of Christ, which is the Church.”

It is for this reason that the Council Fathers make this, perhaps their most daring assertion: “The member who fails to make his proper contribution to the development of the Church must be said to be useful neither to the Church nor to himself”. A baptized Christian who does not contribute to building up the Body of Christ is, the Fathers insist, a useless Christian!

Scriptural Patrons of the Lay Apostolate

The Biblical figures commemorated on this Sunday point to a principal way of exercising: using one’s resources to build up the Kingdom of God. Two of them made sizeable contributions in accordance with their stations in life. Joseph of Arimathea, described in the Gospel as “a rich man” (Matthew 27:57) and “a prominent member of the Sanhedrin” (Mark 15:43) used his influence with Pilate to obtain the crucified body of the Lord Jesus and donated his own tomb that the Lord might be buried, as Chrysostom said, “not as a criminal, but magnificently, after the Jewish fashion, as some great and admirable one” (Hom. on Matthew).

Along with “the noble Joseph,” as our troparion calls him, Nicodemus, “a ruler of the Jews” brought a one-hundred-pound mixture of myrrh and aloes – worth thousands, by some estimations. Both these men made significant donations to cover the cost of Jesus’ burial.

In the history of the Eastern Churches there have been many people who gave significant donations to the Church, building churches, schools, hospitals or clinics for the poor. The countryside in places like Greece or Lebanon is dotted with small chapels build by donors to honor their patron saints or in thanksgiving for favors received.

In our society, the equivalent is often an endowment given to the Church. The investments generated by such endowments contribute over the years to the cause specified by the donor. An endowment by the late Father Allen Maloof has helped make possible the publication of Sophia, the journal of the Eparchy of Newton, for over forty years.

Others remembered today contributed lesser amounts, but over an ongoing period of time. The myrrh-bearing women are those who provided for Jesus’ needs out of their own resources: Mary Magdalene, Joanna and other women whose ordinary contributions helped sustain Him during His ministry. While Joanna’s husband was the steward of King Herod’s household, there is no evidence that any of these women were wealthy. They were the equivalent of today’s middle-class parishioners, many of whom continually underwrite the expenses of a church or ministry to the needy.

Applications in the Parish

There are ways based on a person’s professional skills which can help build up the Church and thereby glorify God. But there are also countless believers whose everyday skills in the kitchen or in the workshop have helped build and maintain churches and other properties in Eastern Christian parishes throughout the country.

Our life-skills, even more than our talents, can help build up the Church. The witness-value of a committedly Christian family, for example, is enormous in our society where family values are neglected, if not disparaged. Couples can assist their pastors in preparing others for marriage or parenting by witnessing to the importance of the Gospel in their own family life.

In many parishes the Youth Group is a social club. People believe that they will keep their youth in church by making it fun. A much more effective approach is taken by those who help younger teens prepare for roles of service in the community. Teaching teens to serve enables them to see that working to build up the Church and spread the Gospel in society are not “electives,” but are essential to living our baptismal union with Christ. Present

Applications in the Public Square

Assisting in the activities of the parish or other organized group is certainly one way of building up the Kingdom of God, but it is not the only one. Nor is it the primary one. As the Vatican Council Fathers noted, “The laity must take up the renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation” (AA, 7). The Christian in the business or professional world must be a Christian all week long, not just on Sundays. Christian businesspeople are sometimes criticized for excusing their unchristian behavior in the workplace, saying “it’s just business.” The Christian in business can be an agent for renewal, transforming their business into a place of ministry.

Christian business people perhaps minister best by witnessing that increasing profits is not all that matters to them. The Christian owners of the Chick-Fil-A chain will not open any of their franchises on Sunday because it is “a day to rest and relax with family and friends.” Similarly, a number of retailers, and even entire malls, have opted to close on Thanksgiving Day to allow their employees to enjoy the day with their families. Since so many families travel great distances on that holiday to be together, workers greatly appreciate their employers’ concern. Some other businesses have made Thanksgiving the “first day” of Black Friday, demanding that their employees work on that day without holiday pay, overtime or even the possibility of breaks. Some of these same companies have also eliminated holiday bonuses.
 
SERVICE IN THE CHURCH TODAY can mean many things. The clergy are said to serve the Divine Liturgy and other services. They are not improvising or directing or even celebrating; their role as servers suggests that their personality take a back seat to what they serve, much as good waiters are unobtrusive when they serve at table. Church members serve in a variety of ways in the worship, teaching and fellowship activities of the community. In many places they are honored today as the Church remembers those who volunteered to serve at the Lord’s burial: Joseph, Nicodemus and the Myrrhbearers. We also remember the Church’s first ordained servants, the deacons. Both Myrrhbearers and deacons had one thing in common: they served Christ the Unwanted. The Myrrhbearers served the despised and rejected Jesus, condemned by the Jewish leaders and abandoned in death by even His closest followers. These volunteers stepped forward to provide a burial for Him when the alternative was to leave His body for animals to scavenge. The deacons were set apart by the Apostles to serve Christ unwanted in the weakest segment of society: those who had no family to care for them in their old age.

Joseph and the Myrrhbearers

In Mark 15:44-16:8 read at this Sunday’s Liturgy we see Joseph of Arimathea arrange for Jesus’ burial. In John 19:39 we are told that the seeker Nicodemus, a leading Pharisee, helped Joseph in this task. This service is memorialized in the troparion sung on this day, itself drawn from the Gospel of St Mark: The noble Joseph took down from the tree Your spotless body. He wrapped it in fine linen with aromatic spices and laid it for burial in a new tomb… Mark notes that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses (whom John identifies as the wife of Clopas – Cleopas in the King James Bible – and a relative of the Theotokos) saw where Jesus had been buried and returned with others on Sunday morning with more spices. Mark 15:40 tells of a Salome, one of those who had witnessed the death of the Lord, who accompanied them. These women were among those whom Luke says provided for Jesus’ needs from their possessions during His ministry. Others among them, according to Luke were “Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Suzanna and many others” (8:3). Matthew 27:56 mentions “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (i.e. James and John). Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, are included among them as well. The Jews did not embalm the dead like the Egyptians. Rather they anointed a corpse and surrounded it with large quantities of spices to counteract the odor of decay. John 19:39 says that Nicodemus brought one hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes for that purpose. When the women returned to the tomb at first light on Sunday morning, according to Mark and Luke, they brought more spices. The odor should have increased to such a degree that further masking would be needed if people were to visit the tomb. But the Lord did not need their spices; not subject to corruption, He had conquered death and destroyed its hold over us. The Myrrhbearers knew that the service they offered was fruitless in a sense – Jesus was dead and they not change that. They could simple perform the last act of love and remain by the tomb in witness to their love for Him. Their faithfulness to serve Christ even in death was rewarded; they were blessed to see the empty tomb and bear witness to the apostles that Christ was risen.

The Seven Deacons

Among the unwanted in the first century AD were widows who had no one to care for them. If a widow had surviving children or other relatives they had someone on whom they could rely. If a widow had no children or relatives she was reduced to the status of a beggar. In the Acts of the Apostles the first Christians are described as faced with a growing problem of caring for those who came to them for help. The Apostles were torn between the needs of those indigents and the mission from Christ to spread the Gospel. They ordained seven men as the first deacons for the purpose of caring for these widows. While the deacons served the material needs of the people, the apostles concentrated on the spiritual: “We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4). Over the ages the deacons’ ministry of service to the poor evolved to include care for church property and service to the priest at the holy table. As the deacon handled the material side of the Church’s affairs – particularly its charitable ministry – he also came to care for the material side of the Liturgy. He received and apportioned the holy gifts, carried the Holy Gospel, incensed the church and directed the work of the servers. In icons saintly deacons are often shown holding a censer – symbol of their liturgical ministry – and a church or cashbox, representing their material responsibilities.

Serving the Unwanted Today

In many traditional societies people would come together to bury those who died alone; that is not the case in our culture. In contrast, groups of Catholic high school students have dedicated themselves to caring for Christ the Unwanted in the St Joseph of Arimathea Pallbearer Society. They act as pall bearers for the poor and provide a Christian burial service for the deceased who do not have the funds to be buried at a private cemetery, many of whom have no one at end of their life to pray for them or to carry them to their final resting place. Members serve as pallbearers, lead prayers, read Scripture passages and offer condolences to the decedents’ family and friends. In the Louisville, KY chapter teens assist the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office’s indigent burial program. They have been called upon to bury the homeless, some of whom had died on the streets. They buried murder victims who had died at the prime of their lives. They buried babies and children whose death tore at the hearts of their parents. They buried the elderly and disabled who had lost touch with their families. At some of the funerals, grieving family members were present, thankful for their prayers and presence. While at others, there was no one, but the society members and the staff from the coroner’s office. Youth from a chapter at St Ignatius’ High School in Cleveland OH witnessed how their service in the society helped develop their own faith. A thirteen year-old reported, “At my first funeral, as we walked the casket to the exit of the church, the doors opened and there was so much light coming though the doors. I felt God’s presence, and the image it gave me was that I was carrying this person to a new life.” As another student reported, “God walks along side us, helping to carry the casket. He stands with the mourners, giving them comfort. He is with the soul of the deceased, carrying them to rest.” The unborn, the handicapped, the lonely and victims of prejudice of every sort have been identified as among our society’s Unwanted. Those who respond to these marginalized brothers and sisters are the spiritual heirs of both the myrrhbearers and the seven deacons. By their untiring concern they both serve Christ in the Unwanted and make palpable the presence of Christ to them as well.

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