The midnight service concludes with each parish community’s Agape Feast, where we gather together in order grow in love for each other (agápe means ‘love’ in Greek) as brothers and sisters who have been redeemed by Christ, our Passover, and brought into His household by His Blood. This hearkens back to the earliest days of the Church, when the Eucharist was the conclusion of the Christian community’s Agape (Love) Feast. The Christians would come to gather and grow in love by eating a supper together, which climaxed with the celebration and reception of the Eucharist, Christ’s Body and Blood. However, this soon proved untenable, as many were more focused on filling their stomachs and drinking wine to excess than on the whole purpose of the feast: the Holy Eucharist. So, by the year 100 in some places, and universally by around the year 250, the Eucharist began to be celebrated in the morning, preceded by complete fasting (thus putting hope in the food of heaven, Christ’s Body and Blood, rather than on the food of this earth), and the Christians would then return to gather for the Agape Feast in the evening, giving thanks to God and to eating supper together, growing in love.

While many Christians eat together after Sunday morning Liturgy, the Sunday evening Agape Feast ceased to be part of the Church’s normal liturgical life by the 8th Century. The one exception to this is Pascha, on which we still keep this ancient element of the Church’s liturgical life. Our celebration of Pascha, beginning with our Vigil at midnight and climaxing with our reception of the Eucharist early on Sunday morning, is immediately followed by the only Agape Feast we still celebrate. Our baskets of rich food are blessed, and the Paschal Liturgy then truly continues as we gather together as a parish community and grow in love. We will have been journeying and fasting together for seven weeks, and then have passed through Christ’s Passion, Death, and glorious Resurrection together. Now, finally breaking the fast, the Church calls us to do so
together in love, so that we might grow in the bonds of friendship and love for one another. This is not just a normal “coffee hour” or “fellowship meal”, but is rather the continuation of our Paschal liturgy, and something the Church calls us to participate in if at all possible. We have had people celebrating the Agape together until 6 AM and beyond. Let’s all try to be there for as long as we can, so that we can grow in love not just as isolated families, but as a parish family, eating and drinking in joy!