The Maronite liturgical calendar opens with the Season of the Consecration and the Renewal of the Church: a joint feast which goes back to the fourth century AD.
There is no real distinction between the two, usually being celebrated on one Sunday, unless the next season, that of the Announcements (commencing this Sunday), begins late enough to allow us to observe the Sundays of the Consecration and the Renewal over successive weeks. Only Syriac-tradition churches have this season, but only the Maronites and the Syriac Orthodox Churches begin the year with it; the others end with it.
In the Maronite tradition, the feasts pre-eminently celebrate the church as the mystical body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23).
This eternal reality is exemplified, for us, in two key moments in history: when Our Lord said to St Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I build my church”; and St Maroun’s exorcism and purification of a pagan temple which he re-dedicated as a Christian church. This season, following that of the Holy Cross, is also related to the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, a natural enough connection, as the Cross crowns our churches, and dominates their interior architecture.
These are the three aspects of the feast which are represented in the official icon of the Maronite Church for this feast.
This icon is centred on the transcendent Christ clothed in white (purity) and red (the sacrificial lamb of the Divine Liturgy), seated upon a dais (the altar), and enthroned in eternity (the concentric circles of the Trinity behind him).
St Peter looks at us, his right hand pointing upwards to Christ, directing us to the heart of the mystery of salvation. Conversely, St Maroun’s gaze is fixed upon his Lord in appeal, while the saint’s right hand points downwards, indicating we for whom he is interceding.
These images of Sts Peter and Maroun speak to the importance of offering worship in a pure and undefiled setting: a church, where the sanctuary represents the threshold of heaven, and the altar is related to the divine altar in heaven, evoked in the Book of Revelation.
This short season is therefore an ideal beginning to the liturgical calendar: it is a preparation for the celebrations which will follow, and the employment of the church for all of the sacraments. These saints also fix the church in history, as a reality and not merely an ideal.
Spiritually, this season points to the need to resolve to review the past year, see where we have sinned, and reform ourselves.
It is an auspicious period for approaching the sacrament of confession. It forms an appropriate precursor to the Season of the Announcements when we follow the steps of salvation history, culminating in the Glorious Nativity on Christmas Day.
Mystically, this season teaches us that the church has subsisted from eternity in God’s plan for the redemption of mankind.
The church had a hidden pre-existence; hence, when it appears in the most ancient Christian literature, it is sometimes depicted as an old woman.
The church is thus not a human institution but a divine messenger and servant, sent upon the earth to bring to humanity home.
Hence, in Semitic typology, the most ancient form of meditating upon the mysteries, the church, born of Christ, is prefigured by Eve, born from the side of Adam.
It is not an institution at all (or from another perspective, is only secondarily so) but is a living reality: the bride of Christ.
The church was created before the sun and the moon, but is manifested now, with the coming of Christ, just as he is the eternal Word.
The church is a virgin (developing St Paul’s hope, expressed in II Corinthians 11:2), and so was early identified with the Mother of God. It is the beloved bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-32). Since it was living, the church is also related to, but not identified with, the Holy Spirit, the “Lord and Giver of Life.”
More precisely, the Holy Spirit works through the church and the sacraments which it administers in faithful obedience to Christ its founder.
Therefore, through our participation in the life of the church, we are offered participation in the eternal life of Christ. We are invited to mystical marriage to the Lord of Hosts. We are united in the church, pre-existent before all creation in his intention to redeem humanity.
This is the mystical meaning of these two feasts, the Consecration and Renewal of the Church.