Great and Holy Wednesday stands at perhaps the most delicate point of Holy Week. Christ is now very near to His Passion, and the Church places before us two persons who stand before Him in utterly different ways. On the one hand, the woman who approaches with myrrh, compunction, and tears. On the other, Judas, who begins within himself the path of betrayal. Thus the day becomes one of profound contrast between repentance and hardness of heart.
The Anointing at Bethany
According to the Evangelists, while the Lord was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman who had lived in sin approached Him. Having learned that Jesus was there, she brought an alabaster flask of very costly myrrh of pure nard.
The Passage (Matt. 26:12-13)
“For in that she hath poured this ointment on My body, she did it for My burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”
Translation
For in pouring this myrrh upon My body, she has done it in preparation for My burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in remembrance of her.
Read & listen to the excerpt from the Holy Gospel here →
Her act unfolded in three stages.
1.First, contrition: she broke the vessel, showing that her offering to God was total and without return.
2.Second, anointing: she poured the myrrh upon the head and feet of the Lord, an act that in Jewish tradition was associated with kings and with preparation for burial.
3.Third, repentance: with her tears she washed His feet and wiped them with the hair of her head.
The Lord received this gesture as a sign of His coming burial. Despite the objections of some of the disciples regarding such an expense, Christ justified her, showing that the love she manifested surpassed every merely formal social charity.
The Compact of Betrayal
In contrast to this fragrance of repentance, Judas Iscariot, moved by the passion of avarice, departs from the company of the Lord. He goes to the chief priests and scribes in Jerusalem, who were seeking an opportunity to arrest Jesus without causing an uproar among the people.
Judas poses the question of the bargain: “What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you?” The agreement is sealed for thirty pieces of silver, the amount fixed in the Law as compensation for the death of a slave. From that moment Judas steps fully into the path of betrayal, seeking the time and place when the Lord might be alone so that he might hand Him over to His enemies.
The Church sets these two events side by side, not merely to create dramatic contrast, but to show how the same presence of Christ may become for one person an occasion of repentance and for another an occasion of ruin. The woman offers everything she has. Judas begins to measure the price of betrayal. One breaks the vessel of myrrh. The other seals the agreement with silver.
This is perhaps the deepest message of Great and Holy Wednesday. Salvation is not theory, nor does it happen mechanically. Man stands freely before Christ. He may approach Him with tears and find mercy. Yet he may also harden his heart, even while remaining outwardly close to Him. For this reason the day is not only moving. It is also revealing.
The Hymnography of the Day
The central hymnographic event of the day is the idiomelon of the nun Kassiani, which gathers up the theological meaning of Great and Holy Wednesday.
The Hymn of Kassiani
“O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Thy divinity, took upon herself the office of a myrrh-bearer, and lamenting, brought Thee myrrh before Thy burial...”
Translation and Meaning
O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Thy divinity, took upon herself the office of a myrrh-bearer and, with lamentation, brought Thee myrrh before Thy burial. The woman does not see in Jesus merely a teacher, but God Himself. For this reason she offers Him the reverence due to God.
“...Receive from me the fountains of tears, O Thou who drawest up the waters of the sea into the clouds. Incline unto the sighing of my heart, O Thou who didst bend the heavens by Thine ineffable condescension.”
Translation and Meaning
Receive from me these fountains of tears, O Thou who drawest the waters of the sea into the clouds. Bend down to the groaning of my heart, O Thou who didst bow the heavens by Thine ineffable self-emptying. Here the contrast is shown between the omnipotence of God and His humility in hearing a contrite heart.
Theological Summary
Great and Holy Wednesday teaches that salvation is bound up with man’s free response. The Church sets forth the sinful woman as an image of the soul healed through repentance, and Judas as an image of the soul that refused healing.
On the afternoon of this day, in many places, the Mystery of Holy Unction is celebrated for the healing of soul and body. Through the anointing with the sanctified oil, the faithful are called to imitate the woman of the Gospel, to anoint the Lord with their own repentance, that they may be found worthy to sit at the Supper of Great and Holy Thursday not as betrayers, but as partakers of the Kingdom.
The participation of the faithful | Great and Holy Wednesday: The Healing of the Soul
- In the afternoon: The Mystery of Holy Unction is celebrated. The faithful are anointed with the sanctified oil for the healing of soul and body.
- In the evening: Matins for Great and Holy Thursday is sung, together with the Hymn of Kassiani.
- Fasting: Strict fasting.
You can find Monastic Fasting Recipes here → - Custom: In many places, the faithful bring flour to Holy Unction, which is later used for tsoureki or prosphora.
