Holy things for holy people

Episcopal Cafe recently posted this daily reading from St. Cyril of Jerusalem. It points to a part of the liturgy that we don't hear in our modern liturgical forms.

"After [the Lord’s Prayer] the Priest says, “Holy things to holy men.” (or holy things for holy people.) Holy are the gifts presented, having received the visitation of the Holy Ghost; holy are ye also, having been deemed worthy of the Holy Ghost; the holy things therefore correspond to the holy persons. Then ye say, “One is Holy, One is the Lord, Jesus Christ.” For One is truly holy, by nature holy; we too are holy, but not by nature, only by participation, and discipline, and prayer." (read the rest here.)

This ancient announcement at the presentation of the gifts to the people, sometimes called the "Sancta Sanctis" is a portion of the Eucharistic liturgy that would be worth retention. In our modern Episcopal liturgy the Presider says, "The gifts of God for the people of God."

I have heard a priest or two over the years add a line from the Sancte Sanctis into the liturgy saying, "The gifts of God for the people of God: holy food for holy people." While I have serious reservations about adding an incomplete Sancta Sanctis, "holy things (food) for holy people," it is a potent reminder that God has made us holy. Holiness literally means "set apart." Our lives are set apart by God at our Baptisms, and God continues to set us apart as we receive Christ's body and blood, and live as Christ's body, the Church, in the world.

The Sancta Sanctis is utterly incomplete without the response of the people, “One is Holy, One is the Lord, Jesus Christ.” While God has set us apart through grace in holy Baptism, holiness is not complete without our participation, discipline, and prayer. That's why we make baptismal promises, and disciplines by which we grow in faith. As Cyril so eloquently put it, "One is truly holy, by nature holy; we too are holy, but not by nature."

Gordon Lathrop's book Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology says it best, “Holy things for holy people,” sings the presider, summing up the history of the liturgy and condensing our own ritual attempts to say, in invitation and warning, something of the truth of God. “Neither we nor these things are holy,” sing the people. “God is holy by giving holiness away in the world. But these things and we are holy, by God’s great mercy, because of Jesus, because by his promise and presence are full of him, and only so.”

Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology By Gordon W. Lathrop Published by Fortress Press, 1998