Holy Communion • Soorp Badarak
The Divine Liturgy is the central act of worship in the Armenian Church, where the faithful gather in the presence of God through His Word and Holy Sacraments.
By Deacon Shant Kazanjian
Introduction to the Soorp Badarak
For the Armenian Church, as in all ancient churches, the Divine Liturgy (Soorp Badarak) is the central act of worship. Biblically speaking, worship is the official gathering of the community of faith in the presence of God, an assembly that is called, constituted and presided over by God.
The believers encounter God and enter into communion with Him through His Son, Jesus the Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Rooted in the Scriptures, the mode of this encounter, for us, is through His Word and Sacraments.
These are God-given signs through which God becomes present to the community of faith, the Church. Since the earliest days of the Church, the Word and the Sacrament have been the two main parts that constitute the essence of worship on Sundays: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Origins of the Badarak
The origin of the Badarak goes back to the Last Supper that Jesus ate with his disciples the night he was betrayed. The earliest account is found in the Letter of the Apostle St. Paul to the Corinthians, written in the middle of the first century, to the community that he had founded a few years earlier. He says: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). St. Paul calls this service “the Lord’s Supper” (1 Corinthians 11:20). The only other name given to this ritual in the Bible is “the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:35; Acts 2:42), which comes from one of the actions of Jesus at the Last Supper – “… he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it…” (Luke 22:19; see also Mark 14:22; Matthew 26:26). Later, Christians would refer to this service as the “Eucharist” (Greek = thanksgiving). Again, the name is taken from one of the actions at the Last Supper – “…when he had given thanks…” Other names for this service include the “Divine Liturgy,” “Mass,” and “Holy Communion.” The Armenian Apostolic Church calls this service Soorp Badarak, meaning Holy Sacrifice, underscoring the essential biblical meaning of the Lord’s Supper. From the earliest days, the Christian assembly included the Liturgy of Bread and Wine and also the Liturgy of the Word, that is, reading and teaching from the Sacred Scriptures (Colossians 4:16, Revelation 1:3). The New Testament has many references and allusions hinting at this twofold structure (Luke 24:13-35; John 6; Acts 2:42, 20:7-12; 1 Corinthians 10-11, 14:26; Revelation 5). The Liturgy of the Word could be from the synagogue tradition of reading and teaching the Scriptures (Luke 4:16-21; Acts 13:27). Another possibility could be that it came from the ceremonial meal traditions that included a service of readings from the Scriptures. The earliest description of a Christian worship service comes to us from St. Justin the Martyr, in the middle of the second century, Rome. St. Justin says when the community comes together, there is first readings from the Scriptures, fol- lowed by preaching and prayer. Then the gifts (the bread and a cup of wine) are brought to the celebrant; he says a long prayer of thanksgiving, and then every one partakes of the gifts. St. Justin lists baptism, true faith, and right living as con- ditions for participation in the Eucharist. This two-part structure – reading from the Scriptures and the Eucharist – became the classical pattern of worship in all ancient churches, including the Armenian Church. The first part of the service is called the Liturgy of the Word, or Midday Office (Jashoo Bashdon) or the Liturgy of the Catechumens (Yérakhayits Badarak). Catechumens are those who are under instruction (cate- cheses) in preparation for baptism. In the early church, a non-baptized person attended only this first portion of the service. The second part is called the Liturgy of the Eucharist (Kohapanootyoon) or the Liturgy of the Faithful (Havadatsélots Badarak). To this classical two-part structure of the Liturgy, a preparatory service was added at the beginning and a dismissal service at the end (both additions were made centuries later). Therefore, today, when we say Soorp Badarak, we are refer- ring to the service in its entirety – that is, the Preparation, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the Dismissal. As Christianity grew and spread, it was only natural to see the Divine Liturgy expressed in different forms and patterns, as attested in the liturgies from the 4th and 5th centuries. The Armenian Church was heir to these traditions, and our Holy Fathers translated several of these Eucharistic liturgies into Armenian. Later, they gave the liturgy its Armenian accent.
Last Supper
What is so significant about the Last Supper? This was a climactic meal in a series of many meals that Jesus had with his disciples, as well as with sinners and outcasts of society. So much so that the religious leaders criticized his practice of table fellowship, saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). Not merely eating food with others, shared meals in the Bible were viewed as a sign of peace, oneness, unity, friendship, acceptance, and forgiveness. In addition, meals included prayers of blessing and thanksgiving. Thus, those sharing the table fellowship would not only receive the blessings of the prayers pronounced but also share in the blessings that result from the practice of eating together.
Jesus’ table fellowship with sinners and outcasts was a powerful symbolic act. Through it, Jesus was enacting the essential Gospel message; that is, he was extending God’s grace and mercy, love and compassion, forgiveness and salvation to all humanity. This was God’s plan from the beginning and it was thwarted by human sinfulness. Jesus blasted open the walls of separation and exclusivity that characterized the mentality of the religious leaders of that time.
At the Last Supper, the meal connected to the Passover, Jesus explained his table fellowship practice and gave a new meaning to the meal. The Passover meal celebrated the Exodus events – commemorating God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, the sacrificial lamb, God nourishing his people in the wilderness with manna from heaven, as well as the covenant and the giving of the Law.
“While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'” (Matthew 26:26-28).
Jesus identified the bread with his body and the wine with his blood which was going to be shed. In the Scriptures, the separation of body and blood has a sacrificial meaning. In the context of the Passover celebrations, Jesus was pointing to himself, to his passion and death, as the new sacrifice, instead of the Passover Lamb. Through it, Jesus was inaugurating a new covenant.
In the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus uses another image from the Passover celebration and relates it to the meaning of his death – namely, manna or bread from heaven. He says, “I am the bread of life…the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” and continues, saying, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:51, 53).
Meaning
What Are We Doing When We Go to Badarak?
Jesus commanded his disciples, and us by extension, to receive the bread and the cup – “Take, eat… take, drink.” By partaking of the table of the Lord, we remember Jesus who gave his life as ransom for the sins of mankind and said “Do this in remembrance of me.” Through communion in the body and blood of Christ, we share in the blessings and the benefits of his redemptive death on the cross. He is saying, take, in my sacrificial death you will find forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, life here and now, and the hope of eternal life.
Forgiveness of sins, sacrificial Lamb, deliverance, manna from heaven – these themes are brought together in our hymns and prayers. At the beginning of the Badarak, the celebrant prays quietly the following prayer from St. Gregory of Nareg:
…accept our supplications and prepare us to be an honorable dwelling place to partake in all readiness of the heavenly Lamb, and to receive without condemnation this immortalizing manna of life, the new deliverance.
Later into the service, we sing the following hymn addressed to Christ:
Son of God, who was sacrificed for reconciliation with the Father, bread of life distributed among us; we beseech you, through the shedding of your holy blood, have mercy upon the flock redeemed by your blood.
Finally, all this is encapsulated in the invitation to communion. The celebrant, turning to the people while holding high the chalice and the body, says:
In holiness let us partake of the most holy and precious body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who descending from heaven, is distributed among us. This is life, hope, resurrection, expiation, and forgiveness of sins…
After receiving communion, we sing:
We thank you, O Lord, for having fed us from your immortal table, by distributing your body and your blood for the salvation of the world and for life of our souls.
In summary, the Soorp Badarak is a celebration of faith, the salvation that God has wrought for us in the faithfulness of his Son, Jesus the Messiah, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, in total gratitude and thanksgiving. We celebrate this salvation through prayer and worship, ritual and symbols, reading and preaching the sacred Scriptures, proclamation and commemoration, and in hymns and chants. In doing so, we partake of the fruits of Christ’s salvific work for us. And thus we, the Church, become totally renewed and anchored in Jesus the Lord.
The Structure of Soorp Badarak
The Order of Worship
01
Preparatory Service
The Preparatory Service includes the preparation of the celebrant, the congregation, and the elements. The celebrant prepares himself first by putting on his vestments accompanied by special prayers in the vestry. After making the entrance into the chancel, he washes his hands at the bema as a symbolic act of purification and confesses his sins before God and the faithful, asking God for forgiveness. Then, the celebrant and the altar servers go up to the altar chanting Psalms antiphonally; behind the closed curtain, the celebrant prepares the bread and wine for communion. Then follows the procession around the Church, and the Liturgy of the Word begins.
02
Liturgy of the Word
This part of the service focuses on the Word of God. Its goal is to teach and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The main element here is the reading from the sacred Scriptures. Usually, three readings are selected – one from the prophets, one from the apostolic letters, and the final and climactic reading is always from one of the four Gospels and is sung from the altar. One of the earliest descriptions of the Liturgy of the Word in the Armenian tradition is given by Catholicos Hovhannes Otsnetsi (650–728). Since then, for the most part, this portion of the service has remained the same, except for some minor additions from the 12th century. Our service today includes: introductory doxology, introit, the Trisagion Hymn, the Jashoo Chant, followed by readings from the Bible, and concludes with the singing of the Nicene Creed. In the past, the sermon was usually given here but now it comes right before the Lord’s Prayer. In his description of the Liturgy of the Word, Otsnetsi says that reading from the Scriptures is like being nourished by the bread that came down from heaven. Identifying the “bread from heaven” with God’s revelation and teaching comes from the Bible. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven, the embodiment of the revelation of God, the incarnate Word of God. Partaking from the table of the Word must precede partaking from the table of bread and wine. At the beginning of Badarak, the Gospel book is enthroned at the center of the altar. After the scriptural readings, the Gospel book is enthroned to the right side of the altar to make room for the chalice, for the service of the bread and wine.
03
Liturgy of the Faithful
The basic outline of this service is as follows: the gifts (bread and wine) are taken to the altar in a solemn procession. The celebrant offers a long prayer of blessing and thanksgiving, known as the Eucharistic Prayer. This prayer is attributed to St. Athanasius of Alexandria (293–373). The Eucharistic prayer begins with the following blessing from the celebrant: “The grace, the love and the divine sanctifying power of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you.” It ends with “And the mercy of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all.” Most of this prayer is said silently by the celebrant, except for a few lines here and there, while the choir sings hymns. But not all is lost; the hymns pick up the essential elements of the Eucharistic prayer. Through this prayer, the Church commemorates God’s marvelous deeds from creation to consummation, and at the heart of it is the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the celebrant begs God the Father to send his life-giving Spirit upon the gathered believers and upon the gifts on the holy table “to make them truly the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Finally, there follows a general intercession for the living and for the dead and for all things. Here we commemorate those saints who bore witness to the Gospel and the Christian faith. In particular, we commemorate our holy fathers and chief pastors, including our first illuminators, the holy apostles Thaddaeus and Bartholomew, St. Gregory the Illuminator, Sts. Sahag and Mesrob, St. Gregory of Nareg, and St. Nerses the Graceful. With the Lord’s Prayer, following the sermon, the final phase of the liturgical process begins, namely, preparation for and invitation to communion. After communion, two thanksgiving hymns are sung. The earliest textual evidence for the structure of the Liturgy of the Faithful comes to us from Bishop Khosrov Antsevatsi’s commentary on the Soorp Badarak (10th century). In subsequent centuries minor additions were made, for instance, the three hymns after the words of the institution (“Take, eat;… Drink…”): Heavenly Father, “Hayr Yérgnavor,” Son of God, “Vorti Asdoodzo,” Spirit of God, “Hoki Asdoodzo.” One of the last additions to Badarak was “Dér voghormya” (Lord, have mercy), authored by Catholicos Simeon Yerevantsi (1710–1780). “Dér voghormya” was not originally composed for liturgical use. However, because it was so well received by the faithful, it gradually became part of the Church services and Badarak.
04
Dismissal Service
After the two thanksgiving hymns, Soorp Badarak comes to a close with the prayer, “O Lord, you bless those who bless you…” (“Vor orhnés zaynosig…”), followed by the final Gospel reading, and a dismissal blessing – “Be blessed by the grace of the Holy Spirit; depart in peace and may the Lord be with you all. Amen.”
Conditions for Participation
Participation
2. Love of God and Neighbor
Love for God and love for the neighbor is the quintessential condition for partaking from the table of the Lord. In our Badarak, this condition is expressed through the ritual of the “kiss of peace” accompanied by the hymn “Krisdos i méch mér haydnétsav.” As a covenant making and renewing event, the Lord’s Supper obliges the believers to hear and do the Word of God (Matthew 7:24-27). In other words, believers must abide by the will of God as expressed in the sacred Scriptures. Jesus summarizes this in two commandments: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). Love is the barometer of our life in Christ. In the Bible, to love Jesus or to love God is to obey and do his word and his instructions (John 14:15, 21, 23, 24). And to love one’s neighbor must be patterned after Christ’s love for us. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13). Jesus showed his love for us by his sacrificial and vol- untary death on the cross. “[Jesus] … loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood…” (Revelation 1:5). The Badarak is the commemoration and celebration of the death of Christ, through which he expressed the act of love that gives life to others. Therefore, what we proclaim and celebrate at the service must correspond to how we live.
3. Self-Examination
This leads to the next condition: St. Paul says, “Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28). We have to check if we are indeed loving God, i.e., obeying his commandments, and loving others as Christ loved us. If not, we need to correct our ways and resolve to change. That is to say, self examination should culminate with confession of sins and absolution, prior to receiving communion, lest we eat and drink judgment upon ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:29). “So that this may be for all of us who approach it, not unto judgment, but for expiation and for forgiveness of sins” (Soorp Badarak). St. Paul also warns the Corinthians, and hence us, that certain immoral behaviors, incompatible with the teachings of the Scriptures, prevent one from approaching the table of the Lord (1 Corinthians 5:9-13; 10:1-24).
4. A Life of Repentance
In the early church if someone had committed a grave sin (adultery, mur- der, apostasy), penance was imposed on him, and during this period, he was not allowed to approach the table. Our Badarak forbids the penitents from receiving communion: “… and let none of the penitents … draw near unto this divine mystery” (“…yév mi vok habashkharoghats …mértséstsi hasdvadzayin khorhoorts”).
5. Orthodox Faith
Finally, the Badarak stipulates that we profess the orthodox faith of the Armenian Church, the Nicene Creed, which is a summary statement of the biblical faith.
A Celebration of Faith, Grace, and Thanksgiving
In summary, the Soorp Badarak is a celebration of faith, the salvation God has wrought for us through Jesus Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Through prayer, worship, Scripture, hymnody, proclamation, and Holy Communion, the Church is renewed and anchored in the Lord.
