But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up like calves of the stall.
All Commentaries on Malachi 4:2 Go To Malachi 4
John of Damascus
AD 749
It is not without any reason or by any chance that we worship toward the east. On the contrary, since we are composed of a visible and an invisible nature, of an intellectual nature and a sensitive one, that is, we also offer a twofold worship to the Creator. It is just as we also sing both with our mind and our bodily lips, and as we are baptized both in water and in the spirit, and as we are united to the Lord in two ways when we receive the sacrament and the grace of the spirit. And so, since God is spiritual light and Christ in sacred Scripture is called “Sun of justice” and “Orient,” the east should be dedicated to his worship. For everything beautiful should be dedicated to God, from whom everything that is good receives its goodness. Also, the divine David says, “Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth; sing you to the Lord, who mounts above the heaven of heavens, to the east.” And still again, Scripture says, “And the Lord had planted a paradise in Eden to the east; wherein he placed man whom he had formed,” and whom he cast out, when he had transgressed, “and made him to live over against the paradise of pleasure,” or in the west. Thus when we worship God, we long for our ancient homeland and gaze toward it. The tabernacle of Moses had the veil and the propitiatory altar to the east; and the tribe of Judah, as being the more honorable, pitched their tents on the east; and in the celebrated temple of Solomon the gate of the Lord was set to the east. As a matter of fact, when the Lord was crucified, he looked toward the west, and so we worship gazing toward him. And when he was taken up, he ascended to the east, and thus the apostles worshiped him. And thus he shall come in the same way as they had seen him going into heaven, as the Lord himself said: “As lightning comes out of the east and appears even into the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” And so, while we are awaiting him, we worship toward the east.
