It is worthy and just that we should always give Thee thanks, Lord, holy Father, eternal and almighty God, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who willed to suffer for the impious, and be unjustly condemned for the wicked; Who forgave the praying thief his crime, promising him Paradise by His most agreeable will, Whose death wiped away our crimes, and resurrection brought us justification. Therefore we entreat Thee, our God, that today Thou forgive us our sins, and on the morrow, refresh us with Thy sweetness. Having today accepted the confession of our sins, grant also tomorrow an increase of spiritual gifts. Today, cast away from our bodies whatever Thou hatest, and tomorrow, refresh us with the wounds of Thy cross. Today, fill our mouth with joy, and our tongue with rejoicing, such that now and forever we may praise Thee, proclaiming Thee as a most loving Savior, and so saying: Holy… (The Preface of Spy Wedneday in the Mozarabic Rite.)
Dignum et justum est nos tibi semper gratias agere, Domine, sancte Pater, eterne omnipotens Deus: per Jesum Christum, Filium tuum, Dominum nostrum. Qui pati pro impiis voluit, et pro sceleratis indebite condemnari. Qui latroni deprecanti omisit delictum, promittens ei voluntate gratissima paradisum. Cujus mors delicta nostra detersit, et resurrectio justificationem nobis exibuit. Ob hoc te, Deus noster, exposcimus, ut hodie dimittas nobis peccata nostra, et cras reficias nos dulcedine tua. Hodie nostrorum peccaminum confessione accepta, et cras donorum spiritualium tribue incrementa. Hodie quicquid odis a nostris corporibus abjice, et cras nos refice vulneribus crucis tuae. Hodie os nostrum reple gaudio, et lingua nostra exultatione, qualiter nunc et usque in seculum laudemus te, piissimum Salvatorem proclamantes, atque ita dicentes. Sanctus…
As I noted in articles published yesterday and the day before, the Gospel of Holy Monday was originally John 12, 1-36, and that of Holy Tuesday was originally John 13, 1-32. This meant that the Passion of St Luke, which has always been the Gospel of Spy Wednesday, would originally have been the first retelling of the Passion during the Roman Holy Week, after the Mass of Palm Sunday. (As I have also noted on various occasions, this anticipation of the events of the Passion before the liturgical days on which they actually happened is a custom almost unique to the Roman Rite.)
This connection between the Masses of Palm Sunday and Spy Wednesday is highlighted by the introit of the latter, which is taken from the epistle of former, Philippians 2, 5-11.
Introitus In nómine Jesu omne genu flectátur, caelestium, terrestrium et infernórum: quia Dóminus factus est oboediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis: ideo Dóminus Jesus Christus in gloria est Dei Patris. Psalmus Dómine, exaudi oratiónem meam: et clamor meus ad te veniat. In nómine Jesu…
Introit (Phil. 2, 10; 8 and 11) In the name of Jesus let every knee bend, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: because the Lord hath become obedient unto death, but the death of the Cross. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. Psalm 101, 2 O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to thee. In the name of Jesus…
The Psalm with which it is sung, the hundred-and-first, dominates this Mass as Psalm 34 does that of Holy Monday, providing the text of the tract, offertory, and communio. It is also the fifth of the penitential psalms; in his Exposition of the Penitential Psalms, St Gregory the Great makes the connection between it and the epistle of Palm Sunday that surely inspired the creation of this introit. (PL 79, 601 B-C) He begins with psalm’s biblical title.
“ ‘The prayer of the poor man, when he shall be anxious, and pour out his supplication before the Lord.’ Who is this poor man whose prayer is noted in this psalm, if not he of whom the apostle said, ‘who when he was rich became poor for our sakes’? (1 Cor. 8, 9) For He, that He might make us participants in His riches, took on the necessities of our poverty; for ‘He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.’ (Phil, 2, 7-8) And just as He became poor for us, so also was He made anxious for us, and at last was handed over to death for us, and for us hung upon the Cross. For He died, as the Apostle, says for our sins (1 Cor. 15, 3) and rose for our justification. (Rom. 4, 25) Now He was able to be anxious from His human nature, from which also He was able to die. Therefore, our (mystical) Head prays in this psalm that through grace we may be led back thither, whence we fell through the fault of our first parent.”
The Risen Christ and the Mystical Winepress, by Marco dal Pino, often called Marco da Siena, 1525-1588 ca. Both of the figures of Christ in this painting show very markedly the influence of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment.
The Roman station church for this day is St Mary Major, as also on the Ember Wednesdays. As on those days, and on the Wednesday of the fourth week of Lent, there are two readings before the Gospel. The first is Isaiah 63, 1-7, preceded by a part of verse 62, 11.
Thus sayeth the Lord God: Tell the daughter of Sion: Behold thy Savior cometh: behold his reward is with him. 63, 1 Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength? I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save. Why then is your apparel red, and your garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the gentiles there is not a man with me: I have trampled on them in my indignation, and have trodden them down in my wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my apparel. etc.
The Church Fathers understood this passage as a prophecy of the Passion of Christ, starting in the West with Tertullian. (Adv. Marcionem 4, 40 ad fin.)
The prophetic Spirit contemplates the Lord as if He were already on His way to His passion, clad in His fleshly nature; and as He was to suffer therein, He represents the bleeding condition of His flesh under the metaphor of garments dyed in red, as if reddened in the treading and crushing process of the wine-press, from which the laborers descend reddened with the wine-juice, like men stained in blood.
This idea is repeated in very similar terms by St Cyprian (Ep. ad Caecilium 62), who always referred to Tertullian as “the Master”, despite his lapse into the Montanist heresy; and likewise, by Saints Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechesis 13, 27) and Gregory of Nazianzus (Oration 45, 25.)
The necessary premise of the Passion is, of course, the Incarnation, for Christ could not suffer without a human body. Indeed, ancient heretics who denied the Incarnation often did so in rejection of the idea that God can suffer, which they held to be incompatible with the perfect and incorruptible nature of the divine. St Ambrose became bishop of Milan in 374, after the see had been held for by one such heretic, the Arian Auxentius, for twenty years. We therefore find him referring this same prophecy to the whole economy of salvation, culminating in the Ascension of Christ’s body into heaven, in his treatise On the Mysteries (7, 36):
The angels, too, were in doubt when Christ arose; the powers of heaven were in doubt when they saw that flesh was ascending into heaven. Then they said: “Who is this King of glory?” And while some said “Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.” In Isaiah, too, we find that the powers of heaven doubted and said: “Who is this that comes up from Edom, the redness of His garments is from Bosor, He who is glorious in white apparel?”
In the next generation, St Eucherius of Lyon (ca. 380-450) is even more explicit: “The garment of the Son of God is sometimes understood to be His flesh, which is assumed by the divinity; of which garment of the flesh Isaiah prophesying says, “Who is this etc.” (Formulas of Spiritual Understanding, chapter 1) Therefore, like the Mass of Ember Wednesday in Lent, this Mass begins with a prophecy of the Incarnation, as the church of Rome visits its principal sanctuary of the Mother of God, in whose sacred womb began the salvation of man.
The icon of the Virgin Mary, known as the “Salus Populi Romani”, in the reredos of the Borghese chapel of the basilica of St Mary Major. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Fallaner, CC BY-SA 4.0)
This is particularly appropriate for the day on which the Church reads the Passion of St Luke, who has a special association with the Virgin Mary. Most of what the New Testament tell us about Her is recorded in his writings, including almost all of the words actually spoken by the Her; this fact lies behind the tradition that he painted a picture of the Virgin, which is figuratively true if not literally. It is his account of the Passion that tells of the meeting between Christ and a group of women on the way to Mount Calvary, (chapter 23, 27-30); although he does not say that Mary was among them, art and piety have long accepted that it was so.
The gradual is taken from Psalm 68, which, as I noted yesterday, figures very prominently in the liturgy of Holy Week, and not just in the Roman Rite.
Graduale Ne avertas faciem tuam a púero tuo, quoniam tríbulor: velóciter exaudi me. V. Salvum me fac, Deus, quoniam intravérunt aquae usque ad ánimam meam: infixus sum in limo profundi, et non est substantia.
Gradual, Ps 68, 18; 2-3 Turn not thy face away from thy servant: for I am in trouble, swiftly hear me. V. Save me, o God, for the waters have come in even unto my soul. I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no sure standing.
The Breviarium in Psalmos, (an exegetical treatise traditionally but erroneous ascribed to St Jerome) beautifully explains the application of the first part to the Passion. “(This is) the voice of Christ, who took on the form of a servant, speaking to the Father… ‘swiftly hear me’ that I make take up my spirit again, which I commended into Thy hands.” The Passion of St Luke which is read at this Mass is the only one that records Jesus saying these words of Psalm 30, 6, “Into Thy hands I commend my spirit”, right before His death.
The prayer which follows it is the first to explicitly mention the Resurrection on the ferial days of Holy Week, another reminder of the unity of the Paschal mystery. For this reason, the Church also uses it for the suffrage of the Cross in Eastertide.
“O God, who willed that for us, thy Son should suffer the gibbet of the Cross, that Thou might drive far from us the power of the enemy; grant us thy servants, that we may obtain the grace of the resurrection.”
The second reading, Isaiah 53, 1-12, is the fourth and last of the passages of his book known as the Songs of the Suffering Servant. It is cited as a prophecy of Our Lord several times in the New Testament, and figures very prominently in the Holy Week liturgy of most ancient rites, so fully does it describe and conform to the events of the Passion.
If space permitted, St Jerome’s commentary on this chapter would be worth quoting in full, but here I must limit myself to this part, which is particularly relevant to this Mass, explaining the common theme of the two prophecies.
“He was despised and ignoble (verse 3) when He hung upon the Cross, and having become a curse for us (Gal. 3, 13), bore our sins. … But He was glorious and comely of appearance when at His Passion the earth trembled, and the rocks were broken, and as the sun fled, the elements feared that eternal night had come. Of him the bride says in the Song of Songs (5, 10), ‘My beloved is bright and ruddy’: bright in the fullness and purity of the virtues, ruddy in the passion, of which we shall afterwards read, ‘Who is this that cometh up from Edom, from Bosra with garments ruddy?” (Isa. 63, 1), chosen from among the thousands for the resurrection, that He who was the first-born of all creation might become the first-born of the dead.”
O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Thy divinity, having taken up the office of a myrrh-bearer, lamenting, bringeth Thee sweet-smelling oils before Thy burial, saying, “Woe is me! for the desire for unchastity and the love of sin are become for me a dark and moonless night! Receive the font of my tears, Thou who bringest the water of the sea out of the clouds; bend Thyself down to the groanings of my heart, Thou who did incline the heavens by the ineffable emptying of Thyself! I shall kiss Thine immaculate feet, and again, I will wipe them with the tresses of my head, even those feet whose tread at dusk did so frighten Eve in Paradise when she heard it that she hid herself for fear. Who will examine the fullness of my sins and the depths of Thy judgments? Deliverer of souls, my Savior, do not overlook Thy handmaid, Thou who hast mercy without measure!” (A hymn of the nun Kassiani.)
In the Byzantine Rite, the Divine Office on the Wednesday of Holy Week is particularly occupied with two themes: the betrayal of Judas, and the anointing of the Lord’s feet in the house of Simon the Leper. This latter episode is read from the Gospel of St Matthew, 26, 6-16, at the liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and is the subject of this extraordinary hymn, the last of Orthros, written by a nun named Kassiani (or Kassia), who lived in the first half of the ninth century.
She was born in Constantinople around 805, and as a young woman, presented as a possible bride to Theophilos, the last iconoclast Emperor. When he said to her, for some tactless reason, “from a woman came the worse things” (“ta khiro” in Greek, i.e. the fall of man, which began with Eve), she replied “And from a woman came the better things” (“ta kritto”, i.e. the redemption of man, which began with Mary). This rebuttal made Theophilos choose another, the Empress and future Saint Theodora, who played a decisive roll in putting an end to iconoclasm.
Kassiani founded a convent, of which she served as abbess, and even suffered for the faith, being scourged by Theophilus for her opposition to iconoclasm. A number of her hymns are extant, many of them still used in the Byzantine Rite to this day; she is one of the very first composers whose original scores are known and useable. A traditional story relates that as she was composing this hymn in the garden of her monastery in the late afternoon, and had gotten as far as “I shall kiss Thine immaculate feet, and again, I will wipe them with the tresses of my head,” a sister came to tell her that Theophilos had arrived. Not wishing to see him, she ran to hide, leaving behind her writing implements. Theophilos entered the garden and found them, and added the words “even those feet whose tread at dusk did so frighten Eve in Paradise when she heard it that she hid herself for fear.” When he had left, Kassiani returned to the garden, found the paper with his addition, and decided to keep it.
Truly it is worthy ... through Christ, Our Lord. Who though innocent, did will to suffer for the impious, and undeservedly be condemned for the wicked; Whose death wiped away our offenses, and Whose Resurrection brought our justification. Through Him we humbly beseech Thy compassion, that today Thou may cleanse us of our sins, and tomorrow, fill us with the riches of the venerable Supper. Today, do Thou accept the confession of our offenses, and tomorrow, grant us the increase of Thy spiritual gifts; today accept the offering of our fast, and tomorrow, bring us into the banquet of the Most Holy Supper. Through the same Christ, Our Lord. (The Ambrosian Rite Preface of Spy Wednesday.)
A votive painting of the Man of Sorrows, with the Eucharist and symbols of the Passion, originally from the church of St Nicholas, in Brzeg, Poland, now in the National Museum in Warsaw. The inscription on the border says “In the year of the Lord 1428, this city and church were laid waste and burnt by the enemies of Jesus Christ, the Hussite heretics; later on, this plaque was commissioned in the year of the Lord 1443 by the chaplain (‘altaristam’) N. Kaecherdorff.” (Public domainimage from Wikimedia.)
Vere quia dignum... Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Qui innocens pro impiis voluit pati, et pro sceleratis indebite condemnari. Cujus mors delicta nostra detersit, et resurrectio justificationem nobis exhibuit. Per quem tuam pietatem supplices exoramus, ut nos hodie a peccatis emacules; cras vero venerabilis Coenae dapibus saties; hodie acceptes nostrorum confessionem delictorum: cras vero tribuas spiritualium incrementa donorum; hodie jejuniorum nostrorum vota suscipias: cras vero nos ad Sanctissimae Coenae convivium introducas. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum.
It is worthy and just that we should always give Thee thanks, Lord, holy Father, eternal and almighty God, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who willed to suffer for the impious, and be unjustly condemned for the wicked; Who forgave the praying thief his crime, promising him Paradise by His most agreeable will, Whose death wiped away our crimes, and resurrection brought us justification. Therefore we entreat Thee, our God, that today Thou forgive us our sins, and on the morrow, refresh us with Thy sweetness. Having today accepted the confession of our sins, grant also tomorrow an increase of spiritual gifts. Today, cast away from our bodies whatever Thou hatest, and tomorrow, refresh us with the wounds of Thy cross. Today, fill our mouth with joy, and our tongue with rejoicing, such that now and forever we may praise Thee, proclaiming Thee as a most loving Savior, and so saying: Holy… (The Preface of Spy Wedneday in the Mozarabic Rite.)
Dignum et justum est nos tibi semper gratias agere, Domine, sancte Pater, eterne omnipotens Deus: per Jesum Christum, Filium tuum, Dominum nostrum. Qui pati pro impiis voluit, et pro sceleratis indebite condemnari. Qui latroni deprecanti omisit delictum, promittens ei voluntate gratissima paradisum. Cujus mors delicta nostra detersit, et resurrectio justificationem nobis exibuit. Ob hoc te, Deus noster, exposcimus, ut hodie dimittas nobis peccata nostra, et cras reficias nos dulcedine tua. Hodie nostrorum peccaminum confessione accepta, et cras donorum spiritualium tribue incrementa. Hodie quicquid odis a nostris corporibus abjice, et cras nos refice vulneribus crucis tuae. Hodie os nostrum reple gaudio, et lingua nostra exultatione, qualiter nunc et usque in seculum laudemus te, piissimum Salvatorem proclamantes, atque ita dicentes. Sanctus…
O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Thy divinity, having taken up the office of a myrrh-bearer, lamenting, bringeth Thee sweet-smelling oils before Thy burial, saying, “Woe is me! for the desire for unchastity and the love of sin are become for me a dark and moonless night! Receive the font of my tears, Thou who bringest the water of the sea out of the clouds; bend Thyself down to the groanings of my heart, Thou who did incline the heavens by the ineffable emptying of Thyself! I shall kiss Thine immaculate feet, and again, I will wipe them with the tresses of my head, even those feet whose tread at dusk did so frighten Eve in Paradise when she heard it that she hid herself for fear. Who will examine the fullness of my sins and the depths of Thy judgments? Deliverer of souls, my Savior, do not overlook Thy handmaid, Thou who hast mercy without measure!” (A hymn of the nun Kassiani.)
In the Byzantine Rite, the Divine Office on the Wednesday of Holy Week is particularly occupied with two themes: the betrayal of Judas, and the anointing of the Lord’s feet in the house of Simon the Leper. This latter episode is read from the Gospel of St Matthew, 26, 6-16, at the liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and is the subject of this extraordinary hymn, the last of Orthros, written by a nun named Kassiani (or Kassia), who lived in the first half of the ninth century.
She was born in Constantinople around 805, and as a young woman, presented as a possible bride to Theophilos, the last iconoclast Emperor. When he said to her, for some tactless reason, “from a woman came the worse things” (“ta khiro” in Greek, i.e. the fall of man, which began with Eve), she replied “And from a woman came the better things” (“ta kritto”, i.e. the redemption of man, which began with Mary). This rebuttal made Theophilos choose another, the Empress and future Saint Theodora, who played a decisive roll in putting an end to iconoclasm.
Kassiani founded a convent, of which she served as abbess, and even suffered for the faith, being scourged by Theophilus for her opposition to iconoclasm. A number of her hymns are extant, many of them still used in the Byzantine Rite to this day; she is one of the very first composers whose original scores are known and useable. A traditional story relates that as she was composing this hymn in the garden of her monastery in the late afternoon, and had gotten as far as “I shall kiss Thine immaculate feet, and again, I will wipe them with the tresses of my head,” a sister came to tell her that Theophilos had arrived. Not wishing to see him, she ran to hide, leaving behind her writing implements. Theophilos entered the garden and found them, and added the words “even those feet whose tread at dusk did so frighten Eve in Paradise when she heard it that she hid herself for fear.” When he had left, Kassiani returned to the garden, found the paper with his addition, and decided to keep it.
Truly it is worthy ... through Christ, Our Lord. Who though innocent, did will to suffer for the impious, and undeservedly be condemned for the wicked; Whose death wiped away our offenses, and Whose Resurrection brought our justification. Through Him we humbly beseech Thy compassion, that today Thou may cleanse us of our sins, and tomorrow, fill us with the riches of the venerable Supper. Today, do Thou accept the confession of our offenses, and tomorrow, grant us the increase of Thy spiritual gifts; today accept the offering of our fast, and tomorrow, bring us into the banquet of the Most Holy Supper. Through the same Christ, Our Lord. (The Ambrosian Rite Preface of Spy Wednesday.)
A votive painting of the Man of Sorrows, with the Eucharist and symbols of the Passion, originally from the church of St Nicholas, in Brzeg, Poland, now in the National Museum in Warsaw. The inscription on the border says “In the year of the Lord 1428, this city and church were laid waste and burnt by the enemies of Jesus Christ, the Hussite heretics; later on, this plaque was commissioned in the year of the Lord 1443 by the chaplain (‘altaristam’) N. Kaecherdorff.” (Public domainimage from Wikimedia.)
Vere quia dignum... Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Qui innocens pro impiis voluit pati, et pro sceleratis indebite condemnari. Cujus mors delicta nostra detersit, et resurrectio justificationem nobis exhibuit. Per quem tuam pietatem supplices exoramus, ut nos hodie a peccatis emacules; cras vero venerabilis Coenae dapibus saties; hodie acceptes nostrorum confessionem delictorum: cras vero tribuas spiritualium incrementa donorum; hodie jejuniorum nostrorum vota suscipias: cras vero nos ad Sanctissimae Coenae convivium introducas. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum.
When Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he was at table. And the disciples seeing it, had indignation, saying, “To what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.” And Jesus knowing it, said to them, “Why do you trouble this woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always. For she in pouring this ointment upon my body, hath done it for my burial. Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memory of her.” Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests, and said to them, “What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you?” But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver. And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray him. (Matthew 26, 6-16, the Gospel sung at Vespers of the Presanctified Gifts on Spy Wednesday in the Byzantine Rite.)
The Betrayal of Judas, as depicted by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, 1304-06.
On the following day, the Divine Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper is sung together with Vespers; the stichera, sung between verses of Psalms 140, 141, 129 and 116 while the church is incensed, are a series of poetic compositions about the betrayal of Judas, several of which also refer to the woman who anointed the feet of Christ.
Judas the transgressor, o Lord, who dipped his hand with Thee in the dish at the supper, lawlessly stretched out his hands to take the silver pieces; and he that reckoned up the price of the myrrh, did not shudder to sell Thee, that art beyond price; he who stretched out his feet to be washed, deceitfully kissed the Master to betray him to the lawless; cast from the choir of Apostles, and having cast away the thirty silver pieces, he did not see Thy Resurrection on the third day; through which have mercy on us.
Judas the slave and deceiver, the disciple and plotter, the friend and accuser, was revealed by his deeds; for he followed the Teacher and with himself he plotted the betrayal; he said to himself, ‘I shall hand him over, and gain the money that has been agreed upon.’ He sought for the myrrh to be sold, and Jesus to be taken by guile; he gave a greeting; he handed over Christ; and like a sheep to the slaughter so did He follow, that alone is compassionate and loveth mankind.
Judas is truly of the generation of vipers who ate the manna in the desert and murmured against the One who nourished them; for while the food was yet in their mouths, the ungrateful ones spoke against God; and he, the impious one, while bearing in his mouth the heavenly Bread, devised betrayal against the Savior. O insatiable mind, and inhuman daring! He sold the One who nourished him and handed over to death the Master whom he kissed; truly the transgressor is their son, and with them he has inherited destruction. But deliver, o Lord, our souls from such inhumanity, Who art alone boundless in long-suffering.
When Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he was at table. And the disciples seeing it, had indignation, saying, “To what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.” And Jesus knowing it, said to them, “Why do you trouble this woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always. For she in pouring this ointment upon my body, hath done it for my burial. Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memory of her.” Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests, and said to them, “What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you?” But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver. And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray him. (Matthew 26, 6-16, the Gospel sung at Vespers of the Presanctified Gifts on Spy Wednesday in the Byzantine Rite.)
The Betrayal of Judas, as depicted by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, 1304-06.
On the following day, the Divine Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper is sung together with Vespers; the Stichera, sung between verses of Psalm 140 while the church is incensed, are a series of poetic compositions about the betrayal of Judas, several of which also refer to the woman who anointed the feet of Christ.
Judas the transgressor, o Lord, who dipped his hand with Thee in the dish at the supper, lawlessly stretched out his hands to take the silver pieces; and he that reckoned up the price of the myrrh, did not shudder to sell Thee, that art beyond price; he who stretched out his feet to be washed, deceitfully kissed the Master to betray him to the lawless; cast from the choir of Apostles, and having cast away the thirty silver pieces, he did not see Thy Resurrection on the third day; through which have mercy on us.
Judas the slave and deceiver, the disciple and plotter, the friend and accuser, was revealed by his deeds; for he followed the Teacher and with himself he plotted the betrayal; he said to himself, ‘I shall hand him over, and gain the money that has been agreed upon.’ He sought for the myrrh to be sold, and Jesus to be taken by guile; he gave a greeting; he handed over Christ; and like a sheep to the slaughter so did He follow, that alone is compassionate and loveth mankind.
Judas is truly of the generation of vipers who ate the manna in the desert and murmured against the One who nourished them; for while the food was yet in their mouths, the ungrateful ones spoke against God; and he, the impious one, while bearing in his mouth the heavenly Bread, devised betrayal against the Savior. O insatiable mind, and inhuman daring! He sold the One who nourished him and handed over to death the Master whom he kissed; truly the transgressor is their son, and with them he has inherited destruction. But deliver, o Lord, our souls from such inhumanity, Who art alone boundless in long-suffering.
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