Divine Mercy: The Heart of the Gospel

124 Divine Mercy: The Heart Of The Gospel document to contain information about the Church’s liturgy. The very fact that “another feast to be observed with honor eight days after” the Pasch — “the very eighth day” — should be mentioned in such a document, should cause us to consider seriously the importance o f that particular feast. Presently, in Eastern Churches o f the Byzantine tradition there are twelve Major Feasts that are singled out for special celebration, and most often icon representations o f those feasts are prominently found placed in their proper order on the icon screens that join the nave of the Church to the sanctuary. You can imagine my surprise when in the Basilica of Our Lord’s Nativity in Bethlehem I spotted the Icon of the Feast of the Octave of the Resurrection o f Our Lord, unlike the present usage, insert­ ed among the principal festive icons on the two Icon Screens that sur­ round the main sanctuary o f that Basilica. This fact has to be a witness to that Feast's special status in the Church in times gone by. What is more, in that same Bethlehem Basilica, on the two walls marking the beginning of the sanctuary area, there are found two immense mosaic representations: to the right o f the onlooker, the scene of the Annunciation; to the left, the scene of the Apostle Thomas in the midst o f the Apostles probing Christ’s wounded Side. Why should there be such a great emphasis on the latter theme in the Basilica honoring the mystery o f our Savior’s Nativity? Now, in his book The Bible and the Liturgy, after quoting the passage ftom the Apostolic Constitutions about the very Octave Day of the Pasch being a great feast for Christians, Father Danielou states: Gregory (that is, o f Nazianzen) also gives testimony concern­ ing the importance of the feast since he adds: That Sunday (that is, The Pasch) is that o f salvation, this (one, that is, the Octave) is the anniversary o f salvation, that (one, that is, the Pasch) was the frontier between the burial and the resur­ rection; this (one, the Octave) is purely (entirely that) of the sec­ ond creation, so that, as the first creation began on a Sunday (this is perfectly clear: for the Sabbath falls seven days after it, being repose from works), so the second creation began on the same day (that is, a Sunday), which is at once the first in relation to those that come after it, and the eighth in relation to those before it, more sublime than the sublime day, and more wonderful than the wonderful day: fo r it is related to the life above, (p. 169,