By Adma Shakhashiri
From The Word, September 1967
The story of the beginning of the world, as we all know it from the Bible, reveals to us that God created everything — the heavens and the earth — in seven days. God, the Almighty, made the whole world beautiful and good, and made man “In His own image” to be the master of it all. God rested on the seventh day when He ended His work. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day — the Sabbath.
Since the creation of the world, God blessed man and wanted him to be obedient and serviceable to Him. But above all, God loves mankind — He loves us all, and He also asks us to love Him. God wanted man to be happy, loving amid friendly. But Adam, the first man that He created, and Eve his wife, who lived in the most beautiful garden called Eden, were tempted and disobeyed God.
Adam and Eve did not repent, nor did they ask forgiveness from God. God put them out of their beautiful garden home, paradise, and condemned them to hard work. But regardless of their disobedience, and because God is forgiving and loves man beyond measure, He still wanted man to repent and to be good. God promised that there would be a time when a Savior would come and save all mankind from evil, and open again the gates of paradise. The people, since then, began to expect the Savior of the world. Many prophets — holy men of God — foretold about the coming of the Savior. We as Christians know that the Savior is our Lord, Jesus Christ, who became Man in order to save us from evil and to bring us closer to God.
And so, as it was prophesied by the Prophet Micah, many centuries before, the Savior Jesus Christ was born in the city of Bethlehem. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to cure man from his errors and sins. Jesus loved us greatly and died for us and rose on the third day from the death. This day is a holy day and is Sunday.
The Orthodox Church was founded by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. His teachings spread to many countries by the twelve Apostles. They told the people in their different languages about Christ’s life, His sufferings, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection. They also spread His teaching about love, kindness, hope and forgiveness.
One of God’s Ten Commandments in the Bible is: “Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy.” Sunday, the day of resurrection of Christ, is the holy Sabbath day of all the Christians. We also call it the Lord’s Day and devote it to prayer and to the worship and service of God. Not only did the Christians consider Sunday as the Lord’s Day, but a special place is also set aside on this day for His worship and praise — this is the church which is “God’s House.’’ In the early days of Orthodox Church history, 2000 years ago, the home was God’s house, where all the Faithful met to pray. Later when the Christians grew in number, special buildings were constructed as special houses of worship called churches. Many Orthodox churches throughout the ages are, till the present day, beautiful monuments of art.
But whether the church is large or small, beautiful or not, God is present in it. Every thing we see in church helps us to think of God. The icons of the Saints, the candles, the censing, the words of the priest and the singing of the choir all direct our thoughts and lift up our hearts to God. When we listen carefully to all that goes on during the Divine Liturgy, we feel also that the Angels and the Saints — many unseen holy men and women of God are present with us singing hymns of praise to God.
This is why the Lord’s Day is different from any other day of the week. It is a day of worship and prayer to God to help us cleanse and adorn our hearts. It is a day when we should perform acts of love and mercy, such as visiting the sick, helping the weak, and assisting the poor.
In addition to this outside place of worship, there is a little unseen church or house of God in the heart of every Orthodox person, who was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This is the church where God is not worshipped only on Sunday, but on every single day of the week. I would like to quote a beautiful short poem in this message for you to memorize:
Who builds a church within his heart
And takes it with him everywhere
Is holier far than he whose church
Is but a one-day house of prayer.
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Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, October 18
Troparion, Tone Three
Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, intercede with our merciful God, that He may grant to our souls the forgiveness of our sins.
Kontakion, Tone Two
Let us praise holy Luke, the star of the Church, herald of piety and proclaimer of mysteries; for the Word Who alone knows the secrets of hearts has chosen him with Paul as a teacher of the nations.
