Q&A Home > H > Holy Pascha

Wednesday (1)

• During the Ninth Hour's Daytime Litanies of Great Friday's Holy Pascha, why are the first twelve "Lord have mercy" said without the verses?
• In the Holy Pascha book, page 106, there is a mismatch concerning the Psalm preceding the Holy Gospel. In English, the reading is from Psalm 62:6,7; while in Arabic it is from (I think) 61:1,4. It seems that the discrepancy between the two languages is not only in the verse number but in the psalm number as well. Could Your Grace explain if this is just an oversight, or a language problem?
• My question concerns the expositions in the Pascha. The Pascha is beautiful, but some of the expositions make me very uncomfortable. I have many Jewish friends, including Christian converts. I would love to invite these friends over to enjoy the Pascha and see how the Old Testament completes the New one. However, that is impossible due to the content of some of the expositions. For example, in the Sixth Hour of Tuesday, it says, "As for the contrary Jews who are His own, He relegated them to the darkness of Hell forever because they refused His words, rejected Him, and condemned Him to death."  Again, on the First Hour of Wednesday, "Therefore, they shall be with their children in Hell, their home, forever;" and on the Eleventh Hour, "Because of their opposition, He will chain them and assign them to Hell, the place of suffering." Again, on the First Hour of Thursday Eve, "Truly He is the One who enlightens the hearts of the faithful, except for the opposing Jews, whom he blinded the vision of their hearts and their eyes..." Yet another example is found in the 3rd Hour of Good Friday, "As for Israel, its foolishness prevails on them forever." The Jews are called "foolish", "contrary", and even "stupid" (a word that is generally unacceptable in the Church).   I understand that some of this refers to the Jews who actually had a hand in getting the Romans to put Jesus to death. However, the language used is not limited to these people. Moreover, these Expositions add nothing to the beauty of the Holy Bible and are just interpretations that can hurt people more than help them. How are the Jews supposed to return to the Church (as prophesied) if such things are kept as stumbling blocks? My question, therefore, is since we are in a missionary era, are there talks about removing these Expositions? If not, what is the justification of keeping them? What do they add to the believer?