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Introduction:
The liturgical tradition of the
Mesopotamian Church is of Apostolic
origin, developing and growing up in
continuity with that heritage. Since
the conversion of Constantine in 313
AD, relations between Christians of
the Persian Empire and the Western
Fathers became curtailed due to
political rivalry, and the
theological inter-acting between
East and West reached a halt. The
Synod of Mar Isaac in 410 AD
reactivated that productive
theological, canonical, and
liturgical relationship. In the
field of liturgy, the liturgical
growth reached a pivotal phase in
the middle of the 7th Century with
the Patriarch 'Ysho'yahb III, who
delivered the most comprehensive and
lasting Reform and Reorganization of
the Mesopotamian Liturgy.
I. Phases
of Liturgical Reform:
In order to
understand this Patriarch's major
contribution to that effect, we have
to shed light, though in a cursory
way, on the preceding phases. I may
divide Mesopotamian liturgical
history, prior to 'Ysho'yahb III,
into two periods:
From 1st to
4th Century:
The
Aramaic-speaking community of
Mesopotamia and Persia, Jewish and
Pagan, accepted Christianity as a
fulfillment of their own history and
culture. The Holy Scriptures and the
Jewish liturgical tradition with its
practices were certainly the initial
resource for the emerging Christian
community in performing its liturgy.
With the growth of the Church East
of Euphrates, new Aramaic literary
compositions expressing Christian
content, were gradually added to the
rituals. The initial vibrant growth
of the Church of the East came to a
halt with the protracted Persian
persecution of Christians (339-379
AD), mostly in reaction to the
conversion of the Roman emperor to
Christianity and its consequential
spread in the entire West.
From 5th to
mid-7th Century:
The beginning
of the 5th Century, especially
following the Synod of the
Catholicos Mar Isaac (410 AD),
brought some stability to the Church
of the East and some freedom to its
institutions, effecting a
flourishing of monasteries and of
theological schools, providing
scores of teachers and spiritual
fathers, who in turn adorned the
Mesopotamian liturgy with an immense
wealth of compositions.
One major event happened before 'Ysho'yahb's
eyes: the Arabic-Islamic conquest of
vast regions and countries of the
Near and Middle East (630-645 AD),
putting an end to the Persian
Empire, modifying the relationship
between Church and State, inviting
the Church to deepen and enrich its
spirituality within its
institutions, and to reach out with
missionary zeal to the vast eastern
lands beyond the Muslim domain.
II. 'Ysho'yahb
III and the Reform:
The Liturgical
Year: The Catholicos 'Ysho'yahb
reorganized the liturgy of the
Church of the East in its entirety
when he was Metropolitan of Arbil
(637-649 AD) (Toma D-Marge, Memra 1,
ch. 11, text p. 79); when he became
Patriarch (649-659), he generalized
his liturgical canons to the whole
patriarchate. In this lecture, I am
focusing only on one basic subject:
the liturgical year of the Church of
the East, as organized by him, and
as it remains in effect until the
present time, basically without
alteration. The best description of
the subject is found in the
Expositio Officiorum of an Anonymous
Author (10th Century, 1st Book, pp.
25, 29-33; Book 2, pp. 116-118).
The
Design's Building Blocks
Sunday as
the new main weekly reference:
For three
successive times, the Lord Jesus
appeared to his disciples on Sunday:
on Resurrection Day to the two
disciples on the road to Emmaus
(Luke 24:13-35), in the evening of
that first day of the week in the
Upper Room (John 20:19), and again a
week later, in the Upper Room to the
Disciples with Thomas (John 20: 26).
Friday, being the crucifixion day,
maintains its status as a point of
reference that may begin or conclude
a period or a cycle, especially as a
commemoration day for a martyr or a
saint.
The Jewish
feast of Pentecost:
Immediately after the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, which was joined
by the Priestly Code to the Passover
celebration (Leviticus 23:5-6),
"beginning with the day after the
Sabbath, the day on which you bring
the wave-offering sheaf, you shall
count seven full weeks, and then on
the day after the seventh week, the
fiftieth day, you shall present the
new cereal offering to the Lord."
(Leviticus 23:15-16). "On this same
day, you shall by proclamation have
a sacred assembly, and no sort of
work may be done..."(23:21).
The
Christian Pentecost:
The Ascension
of the Lord into heaven was
celebrated Forty days after the
Resurrection, based on Acts 1:2-3.
Ten days later, on Sunday again, the
Holy Spirit descended upon them. It
was Pentecost, the Fiftieth day
(Acts 2:1-4). The period of seven
weeks from Resurrection to Pentecost
is the initial scriptural reference
and fixed core for the development
of the Christian liturgical year.
The
Lent-Resurrection and its Season:
The Lenten
season leading to Resurrection Day,
as a liturgical period, was
developed gradually through the
first three centuries, up to the
Council of Nicea (325 AD), from a
few days of fasting before Easter to
one week, to a season of seven
weeks, with variable systems for
calculating the forty days of
fasting. The end result for the
Mesopotamian Calendar was the
formation of a period similar to the
Pentecostal season, i.e. a fifty-day
or seven-week period becoming the
core of the Liturgical Year, Easter
Sunday being the central axis,
followed by a period of another
seven weeks climaxing with
Pentecost.
Christmas-Epiphany and their Season:
Another major initial reference was
the Christmas-Epiphany season, which
had to be organized in relation to
the Lent-Easter season, especially
after adopting the arrangement by
the Western and Eastern Churches of
two celebrations for the
Manifestation of the Lord to the
world: Nativity (December 25th), and
Baptism (January 6th), agreed upon
in the 4th-5th Century. Jesus' life
with all of its aspects, including
acts, teachings, healings and
miracles, is an integral part of his
redemptive mission, and thus was a
matter of spiritual and educational
dynamic to follow Jesus through the
historic events of his life
following his Nativity and Baptism.
This development led to the
formation of another period, the
Epiphany Season of ideally seven
weeks, that was arranged prior to
Lent.
We have seen the preliminaries of
the liturgical calendar developed
collectively in the Christian East
and West: the core axis is
Resurrection Sunday, with a 7-week
period before (Lent) and another
7-week period after (Pentecost),
keeping in mind the period of
Epiphany. With this core in hand,
how did the Bishop and later
Catholicos construct his year? The
Mesopotamian theology is brilliantly
scriptural, as 'Ysho'yahb will
prove.
Building Up
a Yearly Cycle:
There is
evidence to support the notion that
the Sumerians and Akkadians used the
so called "Pentecostal" Calendar,
its unit being not the month but
seven weeks plus one day (Hildegard
and Julius Lewy, The Origin of the
Week, Hebrew Union College Annual,
Cincinnati, 1943, pp. 41, 45, 47,
99-101). Remnants of this system
have survived in the scriptural
Jubilee and Pentecost, but most of
all in the Chaldean liturgical
Calendar.
The
Scriptural:
The Jubilee
and its cycle: "Seven weeks of years
shall you count --seven times seven
years-- so that the seven cycles
amount to forty-nine years... This
fiftieth year you shall make sacred
by proclaiming liberty in the land
for all its inhabitants. It shall be
a jubilee for you." (Leviticus
25:8-10).
Jesus and
the Jubilee:
the Lord
Jesus, at the beginning of his
ministry, "... came to Nazareth,
where he had grown up, and went
according to his custom into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day. He
stood up to read and was handed a
scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He
unrolled the scroll and found the
passage where it was written: 'The
spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he anointed me to bring glad
tidings to the poor. He has sent me
to proclaim liberty to captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to
let the oppressed go free, and to
proclaim a year acceptable to the
Lord.' (Is. 61:1-2). Rolling up the
scroll, he handed it back to the
attendant and sat down, and the eyes
of all in the synagogue looked
intently at him. He said to them:
'Today this Scripture passage is
fulfilled in your hearing'." (Luke
4:16-21).
The
Mesopotamian ecclesiastic leadership
was entitled to think:
Having the
Lord with us forever, every year is
a jubilee year! Why not build upon
that? Why not expand the pattern of
the Paschal periods of 7 weeks to
the whole year? Implying that every
calendar year may be organized as a
full cycle of salvation events:
Annunciation, Nativity Festivities,
Epiphany, Lent, Resurrection
Festivities, Pentecost Festivities,
Apostolic Preaching and Festive
celebration, followed by 7 weeks of
Penance and conversion (called "Hallilayn"
= Purification). When Constantine in
313 AD saw in the skies the sign of
the Cross, that he adopted as his
banner of victory, the Empire tilted
decisively toward Christianity,
leading to the uncovering of the
buried cross of the Lord, with a
fixed celebration of the event on
September 13. The Exaltation of the
Cross became a new point of
reference for the yearly cycle,
becoming the core for a new
liturgical period, to be culminated
by the Dedication of the Church as
the crowning of the whole yearly
cycle. This is the yearly cycle that
I may call: the Cathedral Liturgical
Year.
What is the
role and the vision of 'Ysho'yahb? 'Ysho'yahb,
a great supporter of monasteries,
will combine the vision of the
historic marking events of our
salvation with the eschatological
phase of the Kingdom of God; this
one will comprehend the following
periods: a period 50 fasting days in
imitation of the prophet Elijah, the
precursor of the end of time,
coupled with the eschatological
sign: the Exultation of the Cross,
plus 1 to 4 flexible weeks of Moses
to fill any leftover gap, then the
Crowning of the Church as the
fulfillment of the Kingdom. The end
result is the following:
4 weeks of Subbara + Yalda 1 or 2
Sundays
7 weeks of Dinha
7 weeks of Sawma
7 weeks of Qyamta, including 1 for
Week of Weeks
7 weeks of Sh-lyhe + Nawras d'El 1
week, including Pentecost 1 week
7 weeks of (Qayta) Hallilayn=Purification
7 weeks of Elijah including Slywa +
Mushe
4 weeks of Quddash 'Edta
The
greatness and originality of the
Mesopotamian design as transmitted
by 'Ysho'yahb:
Rabban
Brykh'ysho', abbot of the Monastery
d-Beth-Qoqa (14th c.), known by the
name of Bar Eskape, offers one of
the classic and standard
presentations of the Mesopotamian
Liturgical Year (Cambridge Add. 1981
FF. 2v-4v, Wright-Cook Catalogue,
pp. 164-168), which is in agreement
with the presentation of Patriarch
Putrus Elijah Abbu-Alyawnan rendered
in the Preface of the Chaldean
printed Hudhra, whose basic outline
is the following:
a) It is great to design every year
as a jubilee of festivity,
redemption, and liberation. b) It is
of great significance to accompany
the Lord through all the steps of
his earthly life and through all the
major events that accomplished our
redemption. c) It is fulfilling to
celebrate the Descent of the Holy
Spirit igniting the Apostolic role
for carrying on Christ's salvation
to all the nations. d) It is
meaningful and highly recommendable
to challenge ourselves in penance
and spiritual renewal, as a healthy
result of the Apostolic preaching.
e) 'Ysho'yahb, then, combines the
dawning of the year with the end of
time, bringing the prophet Elijah to
remind us of it, battling the Son of
Perdition with the Sign of the Son
of Man the Victorious Cross, thus
celebrating Christ's triumph joined
by his crowned Bride, the Church.
Impressive design and dazzling
beauty.
For 1350 years the Church of the
East took benefit from his design
and arrangement. Nevertheless, every
human endeavor could be improved and
completed. After so many centuries,
it seems to me the time is ripe to
give a facelift to this impressively
venerated design. Leaving aside many
minor disconnections, like putting
the Emmaus encounter Tuesday after
Resurrection Sunday, distancing it
from the connection with the event.
Similarly, counting the 8th Sunday
after Pentecost the Final of the
Period of the Apostles (Nawsar d'El),
as the 1st of Qayta, is out of
order. Indeed it has nothing to do
with Qayta, all the prayers being in
regard to the Apostles. The Feast of
God should rather be called "Nawras
d'El" and celebrate the success of
the Apostles until the following
Friday!
What is the major structural flaw in
this design? It is the artificial
mixture of current historic time
with eschatology. It is bringing the
Prophet Elijah to make him the
flag-bearer of a 7-weeks period,
making the Holy Cross Exaltation an
insertion or inclusion in its
structure, mixing the military
triumph of Constantine with the end
of times, then bringing Moses into
the picture, to supply the few weeks
needed to complete the year, though
he has nothing to do with the end of
time. The Dedication of the Church
is, in this context, totally
disconnected with what comes before
and with what comes after.
These are
the main observations in that
regard:
1) After
Sunday Nawras d'El, indicated by the
Hudhra as the 1st Sunday of Qayta,
supposedly the penitential Period of
Summer should begin, implying that
penance would be the subject of the
weekly days, but, looking at the
texts, the dominant subject is the
Apostles' role and intercession;
only with Friday (Hallilayn=Purification),
and the following days, is penance
the main topic. In fact, in many
ancient references, this period is
not called "of the Summer", but of "Hallelayn",
which is the Incipit (first word) of
the Friday's Evening "'Onytha".
Furthermore, It looks like 'Ysho'yahb
himself called it exactly so, as
reported by the Commentary of Rabban
Brykh'ysho', indicating that that
Friday was the beginning of this
Shawo'a, not the prior Sunday or the
following one. Darmo's printed
Hudhra is more faithful to the
ancient manuscripts and reports the
title "First Friday of the Beginning
of the Period of Qayta" (part III,
p. Resh Pe 280). The 7th Friday is
the conclusion of this Shawo'a, as
reported in the Hudhra itself.
2) It is noticeable that from the
1st Friday of Elijah for ten weeks
(from Friday to Friday), every
Friday and Sunday, both eve and
morning prayer, contains a special
section of the prayer addressed to
the Cross, the topic being not
penitential but triumphant.
3) A conclusion could be made: in
the original Cathedral Year the
penitential period of Hallilayn was
followed by a period dedicated to
the Exultation of the Cross, that 'Ysho'yahb,
subordinated to a superimposed
eschatological season, in the
fellowship of Elijah and Moses, that
he borrowed from the monastic
tradition.
4) Patching historic time with
eschatology causes a disruption of
vision in the continuous flux of the
liturgical year. Furthermore,
eschatology should be considered
present in the whole course of
messianic time, since the
incarnation of the Word of God.
Historic events of redemption and
eschatology are concomitant
spiritual realities: each person's
life and death is, in some realistic
sense, an expectation of the coming
of the Lord. Moreover, mixing a
triumphant Cross season with a
monastic penitential period
connected to Elijah is quite
artificial; the disconnection and
imbalance is patent especially on
Sundays, where the topic of the
Victorious Crucified and Risen Lord
is subordinated to the theme of
monastic ways of penance!
5) Patching the cathedral practice
with the monastic is a pattern that
'Ysho'yahb applied also in the
formation of the Public Prayer (Slotha
d-Gawa), where "Lilya" is nothing
more than the monastic prayer of the
night that he inserted before the
Cathedral Morning Prayer. The Lent
Period presents another sample of
the mingling between the Cathedral
and monastic cycles, accredited to 'Ysho'yahb.
If we read Toma d-Marge (Memra B, ch.
7-11) we will witness another sample
of the tendency of 'Ysho'yahb to
mingle the monastic and the secular.
I think a
solution is warranted:
1) Restoring
the Liturgical year to its original
Cathedral cycle is the basic first
step toward any reformation of the
Reform of 'Ysho'yahb, after which
the monastic spiritual wealth could
be explored and used within a
comprehensive system of
spirituality.
2) The Exultation of the Cross is a
fundamental part of the History of
Salvation and of the yearly cycle,
and could be fully connected with
the Preaching of the Apostles and
the conversion of the nations, from
one side, and the Dedication of the
Church as its fulfillment, from the
other. Elijah and Moses could be
given a subordinated role within
this period, as a representative
period of the Old Testament, guiding
us to the dawn of the New Testament.
Conclusion:
This would be
the adjusted Mesopotamian liturgical
year, a petpetual Jubilee:
1. Subbara: 4 weeks + Christmas
Season (2 Sundays flexible)
2. Epiphany: 7 weeks, flexible
3. Sawma: 7 weeks
4. Qyamta: 7 weeks
5. Pentecost with Shlyhe: 7 weeks
6. Purification=Hallilayn: 7 weeks
7. Slywa: 7-10 weeks (including
Elijah and Moses, flexible)
Crown of the Year - Coronation of
the Church: 4 weeks |
