As the development of these celebrations took place very slowly, indications taken from later sources allow us to go back to the apostolic era. Once again, we note the evolution of religious practices! The practices of the first Christians are in the Bible! Very quickly, corruption took root everywhere! As in the case of Job, the devil seeks any means to destroy Job and his relationship with Yah.weh! Transform reality into a fiction that no longer has anything to do with it! His great specialty! It is too easy for humans to follow the wrong path that no longer has anything to do with the teaching of Jesus! In fact, the devil has a good back! Did Jesus use songs in his teaching? I must not have read the gospels well!
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36. First Christian Eucharists
It is in Paul's letters that we encounter the first mentions of the activities of Christians on Sunday, "the Lord's day." The frankness with which the apostle blames the abuses which had already crept into these meetings, helps us to lift the veil slightly on the celebrations of the early Church: “When you come together in common, it is not the Lord's Supper which you eat. As soon as we are at the table, in fact, everyone rushes to eat their own meal, and one is hungry, while the other is drunk. So you have no houses to eat and drink? Or do you despise God's Church and want to shame those who have nothing? What to tell you? Should we rent you? No, on this point I am not praising you.” (1 Corinthians 11:20-22) By rereading the two letters to the Corinthians, the account of the Sunday service at Troas, the indications of the Didakhê and the letter of Pliny written to the emperor Trajan (beginning of the 2nd century), we have a good idea of the Sunday celebrations during the first time of the Church. As the development of these celebrations took place very slowly, indications taken from later sources allow us to go back to the apostolic era.
According to Pliny's report on the interrogation of two Christian servants, we know that there were two religious services every Sunday. The first was celebrated early in the morning and the second during the evening. At the morning service, two choirs sang alternately a canticle addressing the divinity of Christ. During this morning meeting, Christians committed to living Christian morality in their daily lives. In the evening, the celebration consisted of a double meal: that of the feast and that of the Eucharist. At the morning service, a hymn addressing the divinity of Christ was sung alternately in two choirs. Sunday meetings were filled with singing and music. The Greeks loved music and had a refined sense of rhythm. We must remember the Greek comedies and tragedies where choruses were an essential part of the theatrical works. Paul encourages a liturgical program that meets this need for song and music: “Recite among yourselves inspired psalms, hymns, and hymns. Sing and celebrate the Lord with all your heart. (Ephesians 5, 19) Among the many charisms mentioned by Paul, there is one “to sing the psalms”. (1 Corinthians 14, 26) He is probably thinking of the hymns composed in a spirit of piety, and similar to the canticles of the Old Testament. The Gospels will transmit to us three of these canticles: the Magnificat of Mary, the Benedictus of Zechariah and the Nunc dimittis of Simeon.
Readership, a vital ministry
When in 386 Saint Augustine recounts that he was carried away by the song of the community of Milan and touched to tears, it was certainly not a boring and melodyless song. We must also mention the reading of biblical texts during these liturgies. In ancient times, people never read simply with their eyes. We read aloud, with all the nuances, inflections, variations of rhythm that brought joy to the participants. Among the Greeks, rhetoric enjoyed great favor and prizes were awarded to those who knew how to read well in public. The Church, which recognized the importance of reading well, established a particular ministry, that of the “reader”.
Growing influence of women in the Christian community
The services in Paul's churches left women with an important role. Among the Jews, women were eliminated from the liturgical service; she was relegated to a separate place. There was no effort to teach the little girls the Scriptures. For its part, emerging Christianity gave women a place of choice. This helps us understand the recognition they had for Christ and the attraction he had for them. They recognized in him a Savior who respected them, loved them and cared for them. In the Gospels, certain images characterize the new position of the woman and announce a true spring for her: Mary at the feet of Jesus in Bethany, Martha who makes her profession of faith at the death of her brother, the sinner perfuming the feet of Jesus at Simon the Pharisee, the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, the adulterous woman who owes her life to him! With Paul, we notice the ever-growing influence of women in the Christian community: Eunice and Lois, Lydia, Evodia, Syntyche, Damaris, Prisca, Phoebee, the daughters of Philippe... They play an important role in the development of Churches. After the death of Paul and especially after Christianity became the state religion at the beginning of the 4th century, the Church lost this openness and this deep respect that we had for women in Christian communities. She then adopted the macho culture of the Empire. In the evening, the celebration consisted of a double meal: that of the feast and that of the Eucharist During Sunday evening, the Christians gathered a second time for a fraternal meal. First there was the agapes or the potluck meal, one of the most beautiful inventions of the early Church. We should not be surprised to find in the catacombs numerous representations of this meeting preceding the Eucharist.
We brought small tables and placed them in the shape of a horseshoe or a semi-circle. The slave and the servant took their place next to the municipal tax collector Erastus, the former president of the synagogue Crispus, the businesswoman Phoebeus, the rich Titius Justus, and they were served by affable people, who circulated between the tables. The oldest person sat in the middle of each table, as we see in the catacomb frescoes. The master of the house provided the basic necessities: hot and cold water, olives, sardines, plates and dishes. A deacon, a presbyter or the master of the house said the prayer over the food: “Praise be to you, Lord, our God, King of the earth, you bring bread out of the ground..., you produce fruit and Vine". After the feast, those who had not yet been baptized left and the others went to the Eucharistic banquet in the upper room, which was on the upper floor. Many candles were lit there. The participants made a common confession of their sins, then they went to the offering table, and placed their baskets filled with flour, grapes, incense, oil, bread, wheat and wine. , food that will be offered to the poor and people in need. This is the origin of our “Sunday collections”. While these offerings are gathered, the Kyrie eleison is sung in chorus.
It is then that the main celebrant pronounces in a solemn tone the account of the Last Supper, as Paul received it from the Mother Church of Jerusalem: “This is what I received from the Lord, and what I transmitted to you: the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and having given thanks, he broke it and said: “This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me". He did the same for the cup, after the meal, saying: “This cup is the new Covenant in my blood; do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:23-25). We see that these words are very close to those of the Last Supper in the account of the synoptic gospels. Paul's account is actually the oldest of all these texts. The community responded: “To you be glory throughout the centuries. The fragments of this bread scattered on the mountains have been united into one whole, so that your Church may be gathered from the ends of the earth into your Kingdom. For thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever” (Didakhê, ch. 9). After this recital of the last scene, the believers approached to receive fragments of the consecrated bread, and to drink from the chalice presented to them. They returned to their seats after giving each other the kiss of peace. The Eucharist was then taken to the sick, while a hymn of gratitude was sung, which will give its name to the entire ceremony (eucharist = thanksgiving). It all ended, according to the Didakhê, with a cry of nostalgia in view of the Parousia of the Lord: “Maranatha”, Come, Lord Jesus (Didakhê, ch. 10). All this information lifts the veil a little on the first celebrations of the Lord's Day.
