Silence, the Word and the Sacred

The Word that Transfigures

Chapter 9 THE WORD THAT TRANSFIGURES David Goa The transfiguration of the cosmos is the central concern of the Orthodox tradition of Christianity. The various rituals that the faithful enact stem from the Divine Liturgy, which stands as both the "high" and the "popular" poem of this magnificent symbolic tradition. Its rich language and imagery are drawn from Biblical texts and the writings of the Church Fathers, particularly those of St. John Chrysostom, "the golden tongue," whose name is attached to one of this family of ancient liturgies. The mythopoetic character of liturgicalword is the logos, which is Christ present in all that is and is done, the "word" which clarifies and illumines human experience, and the Biblical text. Silence emerges at the very heart of this song. It is the apprehension of chaos, the wonder at creation in all its rawness, and, for some, the mystical contemplation of emptiness. The action of the liturgy —for it is an occasion of God's presence —engenders in the imagination and hearts of the faithful a silence which invites attention to the "Word of Life." Word and silence are at the heart of this ritual, both in their power to evoke (anamnesis: sacred memory), and in their eschatological call. In the ritual we see the knitting together of memory and hope; indeed, they are knit together as the "Word out of silence" which transfigures the life of the world. Past and future coalesce in the present, in the transfigured presence. This chapter explores the ritual action which places the faithful at the centre of the Divine Word and addresses the existential silence of the human condition. This is the point of departure for the sacred. The Silence of God The Orthodox tradition has its centre in the events celebrated during Passion Week and Pascha (Easter). It takes its cue from the sixth chapter of Romans, which opens by posing the question at the heart of our great silence. Saint Paul answers his own question: But if we have died in Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. For we know that Christ raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. 163 164 Silence, The Word and the Sacred The life of Christ, His passion, death and resurrection, speak of the meaning and structure of life. This is clear in the rituals of Passion Week and Pascha, in which the Orthodox Christian contemplates the saving events of Christ's life. The faithful are steeped in its significance for the meaning of human experience. The world, we are constantly told in the tradition, was created by God. Man and Woman were created in the image of God. Yet, at the very heart of human experience is suffering, agony, and finally death. This may come as the tragedy of the mortal body, as the trauma of the mind, as the agony of the spirit. But come it will, come it must. Only a few (the Holy Virgin Mary, some claim) are able to accept the discontinuity of life with equanimity. But for the rest of us, the rupture in joy, the limitations of perfection, the loss of our sense of wholeness, inevitably come. The discontinuityof life threatens to consume us. But, the tradition says, God has created the world. Joy and wholeness divine is the proper state of mortals. The world was intended as the garden of communion, not the sea of alienation. The faithful come on Passion Week and contemplate the condemned Saviour, the dying Lord, the dead God. They do this first in the Vesper service on Holy Friday. Here the priest chants a lengthy set of "gospels," all drawn from scripture. He chants them as it were to the crucifix, to the dying Christ hanging life-size at the very centre of the sanctuary. The story of creation, of exile, of liberation, indeed of the history of salvation so fraught with alienation and death, is read. The faithful punctuate each of the twelve readings with prostrations before the dying Lord. All their suffering, all the death in their lives, hangs on that cross, groaning for release, for nothingness, for an end. In this contemplation of Christ's suffering, we suddenly see all human suffering, from that of Adam and Eve to the present, hangingon the cross. This is the day that God dies. It is the day which the ultimate is offered up. Not only does all that is meaningful and sacred...