Sinteza liturgică bizantină: typos – eikon – prototypon

Abstract

The theological reflections on the Sacred Liturgy conducted by St. Mark of Ephesus are a synthesis of Eastern patristic tradition on religious worship, the speci fics of his liturgical thinking being founded on apostolic and postapostolic liturgical tradition, on patristic liturgical hermeneutics and on theological concepts formulated and employed in the Orthodox tradition. St. Mark of Ephesusesis on the hermeneuticsline of the saints Nicholas Cabasilas and Simeon of Thessalonica, who in their liturgicalcomments, apart from the theological and spiritual meanings of the stages, gestures and formulas of the Holy Liturgy, they also exposed the Orthodox teaching regarding the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist in relation to the Roman-Catholic one. St. Mark of Ephesus provides a synthesis of terminology in hisliturgicalexplanations rendered by the triad: typos – eikon – prototypon (τύπος – εἰκόν – πρωτότυπον). The Honoured Gifts, consecratedat the anaphora, remain symbols, ie “type and icon” of the Body and Blood of Christ until their transformation [μεταβολήν; μεταποιεῖν] by calling the Holy Spirit, after that becoming the prototype itself. In this liturgicalframework “icon” becomes its “prototype”. In the Orthodox Church, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, far from exhaustingits semantic valences is another way through which Jesus Christ teaches us His overwhelminghumility. Only in the Holy Liturgy He accepts to be symbolized by two matters like bread and wine mixed with water, and then, through prayer and work of God to become Himself. This eucharistic transformation is an expression of the love of the incarnated Son of God who remains in His creation and sacramentally to help those who love Him to be saved.