Tonight, the Matins service of the Holy Great Friday, also called service of the 12 Gospels, was celebrated in the Orthodox Churches.
The Church ordered 12 Evangelical Pericopes of the Holy Gospels to be read as a symbol of the 12 Apostles, and to illustrate the view of the Evangelist Saints on the Redeeming Sacrifice – showed His Beatitude Patriarch in the sermon delivered in the Patriarchal Cathedral.
Sometimes we can forgive neither those whom we love or whom we say we love, but in the case of the Saviour, He does not curse those who hurt Him and does not say Get me rid of them, but “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword”. Jesus does not use violence to exterminate his enemies to be able to survive. He would rather endure other people’s violence than fall out of the state of love for God and for the fellow beings. Here we already see the power of the sacrificial and forgiving love which anticipated Resurrection.
The religious services of the Holy Great Friday teach us to open our soul so that Christ, our Crucified Lord should give us, with His unseen but real presence, spiritual power to defeat evil with kindness and the sin with holiness. Those who fasted, who complained for their sins, did charity, and forgave other people could defeat, little by little the temptation of greed, pride and wickedness; those who passed through sufferance and trials without diminishing their faith or love for God and for their fellow beings can defeat the temptation of sufferance and unite themselves with the Christ Crucified and Resurrected”, His Beatitude explained.
The 12 evangelical pericopes of this service make up a complete picture of the Holy Passions of the Saviour, which culminated with His crucifixion and death on the Cross. While the 15th Antiphone of the Matins of the 12 Gospels was being sung and the bells rung, the Holy Cross on which the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was painted was brought from the Holy Altar in the middle of the church.
According to the synaxis read at this service on the Holy Great Friday the holy saving and frightening Passions of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, are celebrated: spitting, slaps, insults, mockery, the porphyry coat, reed sponge, vinegar, nails, spear and first of all the Cross and death He accepted right on His own will for us. The grateful robber who was crucified together with Him is also remembered.
