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The community of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Norwalk, Connecticut welcomed His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America on the evening of Monday, April 6, for the Orthros of Great and Holy Tuesday, the Second Bridegroom Service. Celebrating alongside His Eminence was Proistamenos Fr. Nicholas Dassouras.
In his homily, the Archbishop explained the conflicts recounted in the evening’s lengthy Gospel reading, in which Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and scribes—each representing their own political and religious interests—came one after another to challenge the Lord with trick questions. Convinced that the popularity of the rabbi from Nazareth posed a threat to their standing, His Eminence said, they approached Him with arrogance, and were met with responses that left them astonished.
Then, the Archbishop continued, Christ gave the religious leaders what His Eminence referred to as a “wake-up call.”
“Over and over again the Lord reproaches the leaders of these religious groups, and He does so in some of the harshest language in the New Testament,” His Eminence said. “He was trying to break up their hard-heartedness. He was trying to open their eyes to their own hypocrisy, their own pretentions to piety.”
“For it is hypocrisy that ends up being the most offensive behavior, when it comes to matters of Faith and religion,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said. “This is an important lesson for all of us, especially in these Sacred Days of Holy Week. We hear the words of the Lord as a caution against our own pride and vainglory, which lead to hypocrisy, especially in spiritual matters.”
> Read His Eminence’s full homily here
Beginning on the evening of Palm Sunday and continuing through the evening of Holy Tuesday, the Orthodox Church observes a special service known as the Service of the Bridegroom. Each evening service is the Matins or Orthros service of the following day—(e.g. the service held on Monday evening is the Orthros service for Holy Tuesday). The name of the service is drawn from the figure of the Bridegroom in the Parable of the Ten Virgins, found in Matthew 25:1-13.
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