The lamps which hand in Orthodox Churches have a very long and
venerable
tradition. In the book of Exodus it says:
And do
thou
command the sons of Israel, and let them bring to thee refined pure
olive
oil beaten to burn for light, that a lamp may burn continually in the
tabernacle
of the testimony, outside the veil that is before the ark of the
covenant.
Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening until morning before the
Lord; it is a perpetual ordinance thoughout your generations of the
sons
of Israel.
(Ex. 27:20 -
Septuagint)
In his commentary on Psalm 17, Saint Athanasius the Great points out
that
the lamps used in our worship represent the mind that is illumined with
repentance, for without repentance, our lamps - that is , our minds,
are
darkened by sin.
The incense, too, has a long history in the rites of both the Old and
the
New Israel. at every vespers service in the Church, we chant the verse
from Psalm 140
Let my
prayer
be set forth as incense before Thee; the lifting up of my hands as an
evening
sacrifice.
Thus, it is a symbol of our prayers and teaches us how our prayers must
rise unto God, free of the early passions; but filled with warmth and
fragrance.
Furthermore, the incense typifies the life of virtue, as opposed to the
stench of sin. It reminds us of the fragrance of the holy relics of the
saints, who are graced with incorruption - which stands in contrast to
the foul stench of corruption and decomposition that comes from
sin.
In his ninth sermon on the Song of Songs, this is what Saint Gregory of
Nyssa says concerning the true meaning of the aromatic incense, as it
is
used in sacred rites of the Church of New Israel:
The soul that
breathes a sweet spiritual fragrance, in the manner of Paul who was the
fragrance of Christ (II Cor. 2:15), surpasses all the aromatic spices
of
the old Law. She becomes fragrant throughout her entire life, breathing
the myrrh of holiness and an incense variously mixed and compounded of
all the virtues; and thus she comes to delight the nostril of (Christ)
her Spouse in a fragrance of sweetness.
(Pg. 44,
967-7)
Thus, the incense is meant to teach us that we must strive to become
the
'fragrance of Christ', so that both our souls and bodies may escape the
bonds and the bitter stench of sin and corruption, even as Christ
triumphed
over sin and death. |