Imagine that Mor Epherem lives in this twenty-first century with us in Kerala. This great church father, who composed most of our prayers and hymns, will have something to say to us about the way we worship today.
The Syrian fathers such as Mor Ephrem and Mor Balai are the ones who had the primary share in the formation of our liturgy. Our hourly prayers, and the liturgy of our sacraments and our holy days were composed by them or other fathers like them. When we ask ourselves whether we use the liturgy and pray today just as they intended,we will get some insights. We can congratulate ourselves if we are following their path, and we can continue to move on in the same path with confidence. But if we find that we have deviated from their path, we have the responsibility to correct ourselves and return to the original path they have shown us.
We firmly believe that our life is grounded upon the faith and tradition of the church fathers. We compare ourselves to the reformed churches, and claim that unlike them we stick on to the faith and tradition of our fathers. We justify ourselves and blame them for deviating from the path of the fathers. But before we try to pick the speck from their eyes we need to make sure that we don't have any rods or specks in our own eyes.
Reformation happened just a few centuries ago. How were we before the reformation? There were no reformed churches then to compare ourselves to them. Were we in the path of the church fathers in the fifteen centuries before the reformation? When we ask this question to ourselves, we can discover that we had already deviated from the path of our fathers even before the reformation, which is what really caused the reformation. I am pointing out a few things that come to the surface of my mind as examples.
1. Mor Ephrem composed the hymns and prayers in Syriac. Syriac was the language that people used at that time, and it seems that there was no liturgy in Syriac then. Their liturgy seems to have been in Greek and Hebrew. But Hebrew was already a dead language, and Greek was not their native language. Mor Ephrem realized that people need to worship in a living language of their own in order to worship meaningfully. He knew that worshiping in a dead language is nothing but a lip exercise, against which our Lord warned. He did not even translate hymns and prayers from Hebrew and Greek to Syriac, he composed original hymns and prayers in Syriac. In the following centuries, Mor Balai, Mor Semavoon Kookkoyo, Mor Jacob of Edessa, and Mor Severios followed his example and composed prayers and hymns in Syriac. By eighth century, Syrian Christianity ceased to be active. No more prayers and hymns were composed. The ones composed by the above fathers got fossilized, and the Syriac liturgy continued to be used for centuries even after Syriac was a dead language. Bar Hebraes of 13th century made some liturgy revision but nothing original was composed.
Here in Kerala, our liturgical language was Syriac a century ago. Today we have got the prayers and hymns translated to Malayalam, English, and other languages we use. I think that if Mor Ephrem lives today among us, he would compose original prayers and hymns in our living languages such as Malayalam and English. He wouldn't want to translate them from Syriac.
2. Our fathers prayed seven times a day-- every three hours except the time after midnight. It was an exercise for them – they centered their mind and kept it clean from the temptations that constantly attracted their attention to ways away from God. Behind their success was their regular hourly prayers. But it seems that after the eight century, the hourly prayers turned into a meaningless ritual. They began to combine the prayers of various hours and reduced the number of prayers from seven to three and two. Our Sunday school children learn that we pray seven times a day, but in practice, we pray only two or three times even in our seminaries and monasteries. We eat three times a day, and combining them into one time won't be the same. Doctors ask us to take medications several times a day, and we don't combine them. Our fathers prescribed seven times of prayer with a purpose. We combined them when we lost sight of the original purpose. We usually hear the excuse that the hourly prayers were combined for convenience. Well, then why didn't our fathers think of the convenience?
One wonders how we can pray all the seven times a day in our present life style. How can a child pray the noon prayer if he is in the classroom at that time? Does he have to go outside the classroom to pray? Or does he have to pray the noon prayer also when he gets home? Neither. If he can center his mind for a moment and turn his mind to God, that would serve the purpose of the noon prayer. Our fathers haven't told us how much time we may spent for the hourly prayers. All they decided was prayer every three hours. Each hour, we may pray depending on how much time is available to us. If only a moment is available, pray for a moment. If we have enough time, we may pray everything in the book.
There is nothing wrong in praying only two or three times a day, which is what was done in the Jewish tradition. But claiming to pray seven times a day, and praying only two or three times is hypocrisy.
If Mor Ephrem and Mor Balai live in Kerala now, I think they would reestablish the system of seven hourly prayers a day. They would put and end to our system of combining the prayers of various hours.
3. Before we conduct an event, we plan it and write down a schedule. Such a planning will help conduct the event smoothly. When a group of people worship together, it is an event that needs advance planning. The congregation, the leader, and the leader's assistants – all have their roles. Worship includes singing, scripture reading, scripture exposition, prayer, and meditation. Our fathers created an order of worship (liturgy), so that worship will have an order and pattern.
It seems that after the eighth century, the purpose of the written order was forgotten. People failed to distinguish between worship and its planing. Uttering everything in the liturgy book began to be considered worship. Liturgy of our fathers is slavishly followed even today. Nothing outside it is permitted in worship. The Heavens and Earth may pass, but even a slight change in the liturgy is not permissible.
If Mor Ephrem and Mor Balai live today, they would reestablish the liturgy to its original purpose. The recitation of the order of worship won't replace the real worship itself.
4. We usually stand during the worship except for very short breaks when we sit. We see ourselves as standing before the throne of the king of kings. It is natural that we stand when we present a request to the king of kings. But our worship consists of other things besides prayer-- singing hymns, scripture reading, scripture exposition etc. The word Qawmo means standing, which seems to be an instruction to the congregation before that prayer. Qawmo being a prayer imitating the angels in heaven, standing during this prayer was natural. It implies that our fathers did not stand all the time. They stood and sat alternatively.
The leader and his assistants have the opportunity to walk a little bit and turn around from time to time during worship, but the congregation have to remain in the standing position for long periods of time. Such long standing could be unhealthy for a lot of sick and old people. It could be boring for children as well.
If Mor Ephrem and Mor Balai live today among us, I think they will bring back the custom of standing and sitting alternatively. We may stand when we pray, but sit when we sing. We stand during gospel reading but may sit when we listen to the other parts of the scriptures.
Conclusion
It seems that the Christian churches of the east and west deviated from 9th to 15th centuries from the liveliness of the fathers. It seems to have been a dark age. When the Christian church was moving in the wrong path, movements arose in revolt against it-- Renaissance, Reformation, and the Enlightenment. They are like huge cranes that tried to bring back the derailed train of Christianity. If Christianity had not deviated from the path of the fathers, these movements would not have arisen, and the history of the world would not have been the same. The traditional churches need to refrain from looking down upon the reformed churches as well as communism, the movement that rose from enlightenment. Christian churches need to show the good will to admit their mistakes; also they need to forgive the mistakes of others. Returning to the path of the fathers is the one primary responsibility of the Christian churches today.
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