Here in the liturgical West, we think of Holy Week being primarily about the so-called “Paschal Driduum” of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. But the Eastern Church keeps it intensively the whole week, really starting on Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday. On those days before the action of Holy Week really gets going, the most popular services are what’s known as the Bridegroom Matins (shifted curiously to the night before the specified day). These services, which take their imagery from two parables in Matthew 22 and 25, the Wedding Banquet and Bridesmaids. If you remember last Summer’s series on the Parables, you may remember that both of these parables are apocalyptic in their themes. So today I’d like to reflect on the most famous hymn from these services, and why the East might bring these apocalyptic themes into its Holy Week observance.
The text of the hymn I’d like to look at today goes like this:
Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight
And blessed is the servant whom he shall find watching
But unworthy is the one whom he shall find heedless.
Beware, therefore, O my soul, lest you be weighed down with sleep,
Lest you be given up to death and be shut out of the Kingdom.
But rise up, saying “Holy! Holy! Holy, are you O our God”
This is basically just a pointed telling of the Parable of the Bridesmaids, in which half of a group of girls charged with lighting the way for an arriving bridegroom fall asleep unprepared and run out of oil for their lamps and are not able to join in the marriage celebration. Using that imagery, this hymn tells us to stay vigilant and prepared.
Marriage imagery is an ancient part of our Scriptural, spiritual, and theological traditions (and as we saw in the series on the atonement, surprisingly rich!). But in the New Testament it takes on an apocalyptic edge. Whereas in the Old Testament, it was YHWH’s marriage with Israel that was the focus (husband and wife), in the New it is Christ’s wedding with the faithful that comes to the fore (bridegroom and bride). This is a slight but important shift, turning an image of stability and established relationship into a transformational event, a decisive moment.
I often write about Advent being the most apocalyptic season in the Church year, as it prepares for the coming of Christ. (This was actually the theme for my Advent reflections this past year!) So what’s this imagery doing here in Holy Week? The symbolism of Apocalyptic is always multifaceted and multilayered. Here the focus of this symbolism shifts from the Incarnation (the invasion of God’s Kingdom into the kingdoms of this world) to the Cross: It is the moment of truth, the event that changes history. It is the moment when Christ weds his Church. Some ancient traditions go so far as to call the Cross the marriage-bed!
With this in mind, the parable becomes very apt for the start of Holy Week. Like the bridesmaids, we are awaiting the bridegroom. And we don’t want to be caught unawares and unprepared.
May we all keep a blessed Holy Week, with eyes wide open.
Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight
And blessed is the servant whom he shall find watching
But unworthy is the one whom he shall find heedless.
Beware, therefore, O my soul, lest you be weighed down with sleep,
Lest you be given up to death and be shut out of the Kingdom.
But rise up, saying “Holy! Holy! Holy, are you O our God”
Matthew Root 