Day 1 (Monday)
Hebrews 2:1-18 (Reading from 9th Hour of Christmas Royal Hours)
In this week between Christmas and the New Year, as our regular catechetical ministries are on a short break, we will take one more week to reflect on the wonder of the Lord’s Incarnation, before continuing next week with a reading from Proverbs, and the following week with the next step in the story of Abraham and his family. This week, we will read the second chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, in which the Apostle continues to develop his point about the Son of God, and the distinction between the Gospel and the message received from the angels. The latter portion of this chapter, from verse 11 on, is the Epistle reading for the 9th Hour of the Royal Hours of Christmas.
Warning to Pay Attention
2 Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 2 For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, 4 while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.
Exaltation through Abasement
5 Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. 6 But someone has testified somewhere,
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
7 You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor,
8 subjecting all things under their feet.” (From Psalm 8)
Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, 9 but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12 saying,
“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” (From Psalm 22)
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.” (A continuation from Psalm 22)
And again,
“Here am I and the children whom God has given me.” (From Isaiah 8:17-18)
14 Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. 16 For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out the connection of this text with what St. Matthew said in last week’s Day 3 reading, in which the people glorified God for the authority He had given to human beings, because of what Jesus had said, in forgiving the paralytic’s sins, and what He did, in healing him. We see the same sort of association here, as St. Paul interprets Psalm 8, as it speaks of humanity being made a little lower than the angels, as in fact referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, being made for a time lower than the angels, but now being glorified, revealed even in His humanity, risen from the dead, as eternal God, and in this elevating human nature itself, making us brothers and sisters with Him.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 2 (Wednesday)
Hymns from the Feast of the Lord’s Circumcision
Every year, on January 1st, the 8th day after the Nativity of the Lord, we celebrate the Circumcision in the Flesh of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In this feast, we see our Creator and God, human and present in our midst, submitting Himself to the Law that He Himself had given, accepting circumcision, precisely as did Abraham and all His descendants. The point, of course, is that our Lord is Himself the long-awaited Child of Promise, in anticipation of Whom all the coming generations from Abraham had been dedicated to God as His own people. In keeping with the commandments of God, it was also on this 8th Day that He received the name the Angel had commanded for Him, and was called Jesus.
Hymns from the Feast of the Circumcision
1st Hymn of the Vespers Kekragaria
When the Saviour condescended for the sake of mankind, He accepted to be wrapped in swaddling bands. And He that was eight days old from His Mother, and beginningless from His Father, did not disdain to be circumcised in the flesh. O you faithful, let us cry unto Him: You are our God; have mercy on us.
Dismissal Hymn of the Feast
Our human form have you taken on Yourself without change, * O greatly-compassionate Master, though being God by nature; * fulfilling the Law, You willingly * receive circumcision in the flesh, * that You might end the shadow and roll away * the veil of our sinful passions. * Glory be to Your goodness unto us. * Glory be to Your compassion. * Glory, O Word, to Your inexpressible condescension.
Troparia from the 1st Ode of the Canon of the Feast
The eighth day, which bears the figure of the age to come, is made to shine and is sanctified by Your voluntary poverty, O Christ; for on this day, according to the Law, You were circumcised in the flesh.
Christ accepts circumcision on the eighth day after His birth; and on this same day, making the light of the new Grace to rise up, He makes the shadow to withdraw.
Troparia from the 9th Ode of the Canon of the Feast
Transcending the bounds of man's whole nature, Christ is supernaturally born of a Virgin; and as the letter of the Law commands, He is circumcised in the flesh, and is shown to be a fulfiller of the Law.
Come, let us celebrate in holiness the glorious naming of Christ the Master; for in a manner worthy of God, Jesus is given His name today. Together with this, we also magnify the memorial of the hierarch.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out here how the 8th Day, the day of the Lord’s Circumcision and naming, is recognized and celebrated by the hymns here as a sign of the New Creation, as initiating the Age to Come. By fulfilling the Law, the Lord does not end it, but completes it in Himself, being Himself the one which the Law of Circumcision prophesied, and ushers in for all of us who are called by His Name and incorporated into His Body, the Church, the fullness of communion with God.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 3 (Friday)
Matthew 9:14-17 (Question about Fasting)
Last week, we saw the Lord heal a leper and call Matthew (the evangelist who is writing this Gospel) to follow Him, although he had been a tax collector before. Matthew hosted a dinner for Him and his disciples, and the Pharisees criticized Him for spending time with sinful people, at which point He told them that it was precisely the sinful people who needed to be saved, and therefore He had come to them. It seems that this passage continues at the same dinner, with the disciples of John coming to Him there as well.
The Question about Fasting
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should point out that the basic point Jesus is making is that both the disciples of John, and the Pharisees, are operating in a different reality than His own disciples; that is to say, the Pharisees are operating according to the assumption that they need to be super perfect in regards to the Law in order to invoke or enable the return of God’s presence to His people, while the disciples of John are operating according to the assumption that they need to live in active repentance in order to prepare for the Messiah that John foretold to come. But His own disciples are present with the one that both the Pharisees and John’s disciples are waiting for; it doesn’t make sense for them to be trying to prepare for His coming when He is already with them. He does note, however, that the time when He is present with them in this way will pass, and that then they will fast, not in preparation for His coming, of course, but in order to help them, which is to say, us, live in communion with the Lord, Who is indeed always present with us, even to the end of the age, even if He is not walking and talking with us as He did with His disciples.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?