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Our Pope
Official Site of H. H. Pope Shenouda III
THE USE OF INCENSE IN THE COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH:
(Abridged from the book “Comparative Theology” by H.H. Pope Shenouda III)
Protestants do not use incense or censers, considering them part of the Old Testament worship which were mere symbols and have now terminated. Here we would like to display the history of incense in the past and present and see whether incense is a symbol or an independent spiritual performance.
1. The Lord said to Moses: “You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood” ( Ex.30:1). Here the Lord presents us an important point: The incense was considered a sacrifice in itself, offered on an altar called the altar of incense.
2. The incense was conditioned to be ‘ sweet incense’. The Lord says : “Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning” (Ex.30:7). And also at twilight “ he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations” (Ex.30:80).
The spices for making the sweet incense are mentioned in (Ex.30:34). It is said that this incense “shall be to you holy for the Lord” (Ex.30:37). Moreover, “It shall be most holy to you…you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition” (Ex.30:36,37).
3. Some people are mistaken and say that incense was presented with burnt offerings to absorb their smell. And as there are no animal burnt offerings now, incense is subsequently cancelled. This interpretation is unsound because incense was a form of worship independent in itself. It had its own special altar different from the altar of burnt offerings. It had its own rites in the way of offering it. It was meant and considered as a prayer in itself and not as a symbol of another thing.
4. We notice that when the Lord sent the plague on the Israelites, Aaron the chief priest, upon Moses’ command, took his censer, put incense in it and burnt it with fire from the altar to intercede for the people before God. When he ran into the midst of the assembly and offered the incense, the plague ceased. The Lord accepted the incense from Aaron as a prayer (Num.16:44-48) as though it were a sacrifice. We notice that Aaron did not offer a sacrifice for the Israelites, but incense alone. The incense was not offered to absorb the smell of a burnt offering but it was an offering to make atonement for the people (Num.16:46,47).
5. Because of the importance of incense, only priests were allowed to offer it. So incense is in a higher position than prayer because prayer can be raised by an individual to the Lord. When Korah, Dathan and Abiram dared to offer incense, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them with all their belongings. This happened not because they offered a sacrifice, but because they offered incense, even though they were of the tribe of Levi.
6. In the Book of the prophet Malachi, there is a prophecy about the continuation of the offering of incense and that it is not limited to the Jewish Era. The Lord says : “ For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations” (Mal.1:11). Of course, worship among the Gentiles did not happen except in the Era of Christianity. Thus the Lord included incense among the forms of Christian worship.
7. There are 2 examples in the New Testament showing the Divine concern about incense, and both are written in the book of Revelation:
(a) About the 24 priests, it is written: “and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev.5:8).
(b) St. John the Visionary says:”Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. And he was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense ,with the prayers of the saints , ascended before God from the angel’s hand” (Rev.8:3,4).
8. One of the important situations in the history of incense in the life of the saints is that the angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias the priest on the right side of the altar of incense while he was burning incense in his lot(Lk.1:8-11). This is proof of the sanctity of the place and the sanctity of the work of offering incense. This holy occasion was worthy to be associated with a Divine revelation. It is clear from the incident of Zacharias’ burning incense in his lot that offering incense was a separate work in itself; it was not connected with the offering of a sacrifice or burnt offering.
9. Because incense is important in Christianity, frankincense (which is a component of incense) was one of the gifts offered by the Magi to Christ. It was a symbol of His Priesthood and a profession from the Magi that He is a Priest, in the same way that gold was a symbol of His Kingdom and myrrh a symbol of His sufferings.
Spiritual meanings of incense
The first lesson we learn from incense is the Lord’s teaching : “ he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt.10:39).An example of this is the particle of incense , which burns and burns until it becomes perfumed pillars of smoke. You look for it in the censer as a particle of incense, but you do not find it because it offered itself as a burnt offering to God.
The second lesson in incense is its constant ascent. The burning incense does not accept to be kept down, but it rises to the sky, stretches and spreads and never ceases to ascend and spread. When you watch and follow it you cannot help raising your eyes to the sky. That is why incense always attracts people’s senses to above.
A third lesson in incense is that it resembles the sweet aroma. The Holy Bible conditions incense to be sweet incense. Whoever smells the incense remembers that man’s life should be a fragrant perfume before God. The Holy Bible says : “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ..through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place “ (2 Cor.2 :14,15).
Lastly, we say that there is not one single verse in the New Testament commanding the cancellation of incense.
LIGHTS AND CANDELS IN THE COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
(Abridged from the book of “Comparative Theology” by H.H. Pope Shenouda III)
The Orthodox Church is characterized by its lights. We use candles in our prayers, during the Bible reading, in front of the icons of the saints, on the altar and the church remains lighted constantly.
The church itself is called in the Holy Bible the golden lamp stand. This is clear from the Book of Revelation. St. John the Visionary saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of seven golden lamp stands and the Lord said to him: “…the seven lamp stands which you saw are the seven churches’” (Rev.1:20).
The church resembles heaven because it is the house of God. This is nearly the expression used about the first house of God. Jacob the Patriarch said: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Gen.28:17). Since the church resembles heaven, it must have lights to illuminate it like the stars of heaven.
The lights in the church may represent the angels in heaven or the angels whom Jacob saw in his vision ascending and descending the ladder in Bethel (House of God) (Gen.28:12). The lights symbolize the angels because the angels are also called angels of light (2 Cor.11:14).
The lights of the church also symbolize the saints, to whom the Lord says:”Let your light so shine before men” (Matt.5:16). On this occasion the Lord likens the saints to lighted lamps put on lamp stands (Matt.5:15).
Also, the Holy Bible says: “the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”(Matt.13:43). And the Lord Jesus Christ said to the Jews about John the Baptist as an example of those righteous: “He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light” (John 5:35). Since the church is full of angels and saints then it ought to be full of lights.
Primarily the church ought to be filled with lights because of God’s presence in it: God is light (John 1:5) and the Lord Jesus Christ says of himself: “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).
The church is lighted by lights after the pattern of the tabernacle and the Sanctuary. They were full of lights and their lamps were never put out. The Lord commanded that the lamps be lighted by pure olive oil under the supervision of Aaron and his children as an everlasting statute. The Lord says: “And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually. In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil, which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to their generations” (Ex.27:20, 21)
The lamps, which are lighted by oil, have a spiritual meaning. The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It was used for anointing, after which the spirit of the Lord descended: When Samuel anointed David, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power (1Sam.16:13). The Holy Bible also tells us about the anointing from the Holy One (1 John 2: 20, 27). Even the candles which we light in church are made of oil, and the lamps in church are lighted by oil for the same symbolic significance.
We notice that the Lord commanded that lamp stands be made in His house, whether the Tabernacle or the Sanctuary. The lamps and the lamp stands were made of pure gold (Ex.25:31), (Ex.37:17). All these are proof of God’s concern about the existence of lights in His house.
The lamps were lighted continually upon God’s command. Extinguishing the lamps’ light or negligence in lighting them were considered as treachery to the Lord and deserved severe punishment. Concerning this, the Holy Bible says: “For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him. They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, and have not burned incense… therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to astonishment” (2 Chr.29: 6-8).All these show us how God cares for lights in His house.
Lighting lamps has a special profound spiritual meaning. It symbolizes constant readiness, perpetual watchfulness and preservation of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Concerning this readiness, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us: “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching” (Lk.12:35). The Lord Jesus Christ gives us the parable of the five wise virgins whose lamps were burning whilst the lamps of the five foolish virgins went out (Matt.25:1-12). The oil of the lamp symbolizes the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The constant burning symbolizes the constant watchfulness in keeping the heart tied to the work of the Holy Spirit within it.
With regard to lighting candles during the Gospel reading, this is undoubtedly better than reading the Gospel without light. It reminds us of the verse: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps.119).
The Early Church, ever since the Apostolic Era, has given importance to lights and their symbols. The Book of Acts tells us about the upper room from which St. Paul was preaching after the breaking of the bread:” There were many lamps…where they were gathered’ (Acts 20:8).
The candles that we light before the saints’ icons remind us that the saints were lights in their generations; they were like candles, melting in order that their light might shine before people.
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