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We have now
entered Great lent but very few people understand it full meaning. For
most it is a time to follow a few rules on fasting or an abstention from
dancing and certain other activities, but the purpose of Lent is not to
deprive us of certain foods or to force upon us certain obligations, but
to soften our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the
spirit. It is an atmosphere into which one enters and which for seven
weeks penetrates and saturates our entire life and revealing within us a
yearning and hunger for communion with God.
The whole
period of lent is a spiritual journey and its destination is Easter, the
Feasts of Feasts. It is the preparation for the fulfilment of Pascha. For
the actual Feast of Pascha we will talk at a later date. For now let us
see what this preparation involves and how the Church takes us into this
journey. The Orthodox liturgical tradition always announces in advance and
prepares for every major feast or season and lent is no exception.
Preparation
for lent began five Sundays ago with the Sunday of Zacchaeus. During the
Gospel reading for that day, we hear about the Chief publican called
Zacchaeus. Publicans were people who bought from the Romans, the rights to
collect the taxes from the people, but instead of collecting the proper
taxes that the Romans asked for, they burdened the people with double or
triple amounts and were therefore very much hated as despicable men. Now
Zacchaeus was a short man who couldn’t see Jesus because of his height,
but his desire was so strong that he climbed up a sycamore tree to see
him. Jesus responded to his desire and went with him to his house. From
that moment, Zacchaeus’ life changed drastically. Half of all that he had
he gave to the poor and to those he cheated by overcharging on the taxes
he gave back fourfold. So the Church teaches us that the first thing we
need to begin our journey is desire to see Christ. Zacchaeus desired the
right thing, he wanted to see and approach Christ. He is the first symbol
of repentance, because repentance begins with the desire for God, his
righteousness and for true life. Zacchaeus made that first move, in his
desire to see Christ he climbed that tree. If our desire is as strong as
Zacchaeus’ then Christ will also respond to our desire and come to our
house, he will come to live in our hearts and then our lives will also
change as drastically as Zacchaeus’ and Christ will give us the strength
and grace to climb even higher.
The next
Sunday of preparation is called the Sunday of the Publican and the
Pharisee. The Gospel for the day tells us about these two men who come to
the temple to pray. The Pharisee is self-assured and proud of himself and
justifies himself before God that he is righteous, and not like other men,
and especially not like the Publican who he saw standing nearby, and as we
have already seen, Publicans were hated and held in contempt as being the
lowest of all men. The Pharisee cannot see his own wretched condition; he
cannot see his own sins, but only the sins of other men. He keeps to the
letter of the law by fasting twice a week and contributes to the temple
according to what the law tells him to contribute. In contrast to the
Pharisee, the Publican, stood afar off, and because he recognized his sins
and felt his unworthiness before God, couldn’t lift his eyes up to heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. The
Publicans humility justifies him before God. So the Church teaches us that
the next step on our journey is to learn humility, something which is
extremely difficult since our society, our whole way of life teaches men
that humility is a weakness, a sign of a loser. But God himself is humble
and if we want to follow in Christ’s footsteps we must also learn to be
humble as Christ said ‘Learn from me for I am meek and humble in heart’.
It takes a strong man to be humble. It is not just turning the other
cheek; it means to have Christ-like love, to love all people and to be
able to forgive them deep down in one’s heart, to be able to truly say,
‘forgive them for they know not what they do’. Humility means not to blame
others for our own errors, not to look around and judge at what others do.
Many times in confession people try to justify their sins by blaming
other. They will say things like – I said this but the other person first
said that to me or, I did this, but it wasn’t my fault I was forced to do
it. In other words we try to justify our actions by loading them on to
others. It takes us back to the original sin of Adam who blamed God for
giving him the woman.
On the third
Sunday of preparation we hear the parable of the Prodigal Son. This is
probably one of the most touching stories which properly understood should
bring us to the brink of tears. It tells us of a man who had two sons and
the younger of the two asked his father to give him his share of the
inheritance that belonged to him. When he received his share he left and
went into a far country and there wasted all his inheritance by leading a
wasteful and reckless life. When he had wasted everything away, a great
famine arose in that land and he started to be in need and was starving.
So he went to work for one of the citizens of that land who put him to
herd the swine. But his hunger was so great that he wanted to fill his
belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one would give him to eat.
[In the Greek text, the word for husks is κερατίων which was in fact
something we have a great deal of in Cyprus. Κερατίων were the carobs from
the carob trees.] At some point, he came to his senses and said to himself
“how many of my father’s servants have more than enough to spare and I
perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more
worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he
arose, and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his
father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and
kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But
the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best [first] robe, and
put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And kill
the fatted calf, let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and
is alive again; he was lost, and is found. Now when his elder son came to
the house, he heard music and dancing and having learnt that his brother
had returned was angry, and would not go in: Therefore his father came
out, and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, All these
many years I have serve you, and kept your commandment to the letter: and
you never once gave me a kid, that I might have a party with my friends:
But as soon as this you son was come, who wasted everything you gave him
with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf. And the father said to
him, Son, you are forever with me, and all that I have is yours. It was
right that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was
dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. In the parable the
father is God himself and the two sons represent people similar to the
Publican and the Pharisee. The inheritance that God gives them are the
spiritual graces of the Holy Spirit which we receive at Baptism. The far
country is our self-imposed exile far from God and the Church, and the
younger son represents those who waste the spiritual graces of the Holy
Spirit living a reckless and sinful life. The point when the Prodigal son
comes to his senses is the time we realize our wretched condition, when we
realize that we are spiritually starved, it is the beginning of our
repentance and our desire to return to God. And we begin our small effort
to return to God with prayer and fasting and God seeing our desire,
doesn’t wait for us to reach home, but sees us while we are still a long
way away and runs to us and embraces us and kisses us. Notice in the
parable that the son said that he will go to his father and say: I have
sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. But the father doesn’t
allow him to say: make me as one of thy hired servants. He stops him
because he accepts him back again as a son and orders the servants to
bring forth the best robe, a ring and shoes. The best robe is in fact a
wrong translation. In Greek it is (την πρώτη στολή) the first robe, which
properly interpreted means the first body that Adam had before the fall
and together with the ring and the shoes signify the return of the
Spiritual graces of Baptism. The ring also signifies his reinstatement as
a son and heir because rings were worn by free men, by lords and masters,
by someone with authority and power and not by servants. The shoes again
represent wealth and power because servants had to go barefooted. The
fatted calf is Christ himself who is sacrificed for us and by whom we are
nourished through Holy Communion. St John Chrysostom in his Easter Sermon,
describing the joy of Holy Communion says: “The table is fully laden; all
of you delight in it. The calf is plenteous, let no one depart hungry. Let
everyone enjoy this banquet of faith. Let everyone take pleasure in the
wealth of goodness”. Now the older son represents all those who have
always been close to God, who have always been close to the Church and who
have never transgressed at any time the commandments. They keep the fasts
and everything the Church requires of them, in other words they appear
externally as good Christians, very much like the Pharisee who appeared as
a good Jew. They believe that they are righteous and better than other
people, but their true self, hidden until now, appears when they see a
sinner, who they know has led a wicked life, return to the bosom of the
Church and be accepted on an equal level as themselves. They see the grace
of the Holy Spirit shine brighter in them than in themselves and are
overcome with envy. They cannot understand why after all those years of
devoting themselves to the Church with prayer and fastings, they shouldn’t
shine brighter.
In
summary the theme of the parable is again repentance and our desire to
return from exile, to return to paradise. During the Mattins service for
the day we sing a psalm which expresses our exile from paradise and was
sung by the Jews when they were held captive in Babylon as they thought of
the homeland Jerusalem. You all know the psalm because it was made famous
many years ago by a group called Boney M. By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion... How shall we sing
the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my
right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue
cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief
joy.(Psalm 136 [137])
On the fourth
Sunday of preparation [Meatfare Sunday] we hear Christ’s parable of the
Last Judgement. In the parable Christ tells us what to expect at the Last
Judgement. At that time he will separate the people as a shepherd
separates the goats from the sheep, and some he will put to his right and
others to his left. But the criterion with which he will judge us will not
be whether we fasted, neither our prayers or how good a Christian we might
appear to be, but our attitude towards our fellow men. Christ said that
whatever help we offer even to the lowest man it is as though we offered
that help to him, and whatever help we didn’t offer to someone who was in
need it is as though we didn’t help him. In other words love is the
criterion by which we shall be judged. If we cannot love our fellow men
then in truth we don’t love Christ, because he has created each man in his
own image and likeness. Christian love transcends above someone’s physical
appearance, social standing, ethnic origin, intellectual capacity and
reaches the soul, the unique personal root of a human being where the
image of God is.
The next
Sunday (Cheesefare Sunday), the Sunday that just passed is called
Forgiveness Sunday was the last Sunday in preparation for Great Lent. It
has two themes: The first we hear in the hymns during Vespers and Mattins,
which is the Expulsion of Adam from the Paradise of bliss. Man was created
for Paradise, for knowledge of God and communion with Him. Man’s sin has
deprived him of that blessed life and his existence on earth is in exile.
Christ, the Saviour of the whole world, opens the door of Paradise to
everyone who follows him, and the Church revealing to us the beauty of the
Kingdom, makes our life a pilgrimage towards our heavenly fatherland. Thus
just before we begin our journey through Lent we are reminded of how great
a loss Paradise was for mankind and how much Adam must have wept bitterly
knowing what he had lost. A hymn from Vespers for the day says: “Adam sat
before Paradise and lamenting his nakedness, he wept: Woe is me! By evil
deceit was I persuaded and led astray, and now I am an exile from glory.
Woe is me! In my simplicity I was stripped naked, and now I am in want. O
Paradise, no more shall I take pleasure in thy joy; no more shall I look
upon the Lord my God and Maker, for I shall return to the earth whence I
was taken. O merciful and compassionate Lord, to thee I cry aloud; I am
fallen, have mercy on me”.
The
second theme of ‘fasting and forgiveness’ is taken from the Gospel for the
day. All the Gospels we heard in the previous weeks taught us how our
inner self should be to be saved. We must first have the desire of
Zacchaeus, the humility of the Publican, the repentance of the Prodigal
Son and the love of Christ. But to accomplish all these things is by no
means an easy task and each man needs a great deal of help to be able to
reach home to the Father. The help comes from Christ himself, but we must
first take that first step. Great lent is that period when the Church
gives us the opportunity to make these first and very essential steps and
gives us the means through fasting and the daily Lenten services. But the
Gospel for this Sunday of Forgiveness warns us to beware how we use these
means at our disposal. It tells us firstly that if we are to ask of our
heavenly Father to forgive our sins, we must also forgive those who have
sinned against us, and if we have not the love and humility to forgive
them then neither will our heavenly Father forgive us. And when we fast
let us not be as the hypocrites who make themselves look dismal, who
disfigure their faces, so that they may appear to men that they keep to a
strict fast. And if that is how you fast, don’t expect any reward from God
because you’ve already received your reward through the praises of men. In
other words let us not tell people that we fast so that they can say “oh
well done! how do you manage it?” Contrary to this, Christ tells us to
keep our fast a secret that only the heavenly Father who knows the secrets
of men can see and who will reward us openly. And he tells us also of one
more thing to beware of: not to collect earthly treasures which from one
moment to the next can be ruined by moths or rust or can be stolen, but to
store up treasures in heaven where we will have them for all eternity.
Thus our
preparation for Lent is complete, and we are ready to begin our journey to
Pascha to that Feast of Feasts. Lent actually begins on the evening of the
last Sunday of preparation during the Vespers service of Forgiveness.
About half way through the service the Priest announces the Great
Prokhimenon. This is the starting point of Lent and while this is being
sung he will take off his bright vestments and wear dark ones. Towards the
end of the service the priest will say for the first time the Lenten
prayer of St. Ephraim, which we will analyze in a moment, and then at the
very end of the service, we have what we could call the ceremony of mutual
forgiveness. The faithful come one by one to the Priest, kiss the Cross
and his hand and exchange a mutual forgiveness. Having done this the
faithful also asks forgiveness of one another. Thus we begin Lent by
asking forgiveness from everyone and not only from those who we know have
wronged us, because many times we upset our fellow men without realizing.
Sometimes an innocent comment, o joking word might cause reason for
misunderstandings because the other person was going through a difficult
patch that we weren’t aware of. Others might have bitter feelings towards
us because at some time they needed our help or our companionship, but we
were totally consumed with our own problems let alone have time for
others. At other times we might be estranged from someone we love, and
although both want to make up, pride doesn’t allow us to make that first
move, which very often is all it takes.
Now let us
take a look at the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian. It is called
the Lenten Prayer because it is said at the end of each Lenten service
Monday through Friday. It has three verses and at each we make a
prostration. This is followed by twelve bows saying: O God be merciful
unto me a sinner and then again the last verse of the Prayer.
The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian.
O Lord and
Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust for
power, and vain words.
But the spirit
of integrity, humility, patience and love, grant unto me Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord
and King, grant me awareness of my own sins and let me not judge my
brother: for blessed art Thou for ever and ever. Amen.
Then 12 prostrations saying:
O God be
merciful unto me a sinner
And again
Yea, O Lord
and King, grant me awareness of my own sins and let me not judge my
brother: for blessed art Thou for ever and ever. Amen.
This short and
simple prayer occupies such an important position in the entire Lenten
worship, because it contains all the negative and positive elements of
repentance and continually reminds us of the things we should be aiming
for with our Lenten effort. It begins by asking God to take from us the
spirit of sloth. Sloth or laziness is a disease which pushes us into
negative ways of thinking. It will appear during our Lenten effort telling
us we are wasting our time with fasting. We cannot change our spiritual
condition so why should we deprive ourselves of everything. Just because a
few monks decided that they wanted to suffer by fasting and these long
masochistic services, doesn’t mean that I have to as well. And so this
spirit of laziness poisons the spiritual energy at its very source. Next
we ask to be delivered from the spirit of despondency. Now despondency
follows on from sloth. And it is the state which the fathers consider the
greatest danger for the soul. Someone in this state cannot see anything
good or positive and his thoughts become negative and pessimistic. It is
in fact a demonic temptation trying to fill his mind with lies about God
and the world. And if accepted it leads to disbelief in God and brings
about a spiritual suicide, a death to the soul. Lust for power is a result
of both sloth and despondency because now God is no longer the Lord and
Master of my life. I am now master of my own life, from now I will
evaluate everything according to my own needs, my ideas, my desires and my
Judgment. Without the belief in God, life inevitable becomes self-centered
and it seeks satisfaction by having power and dominion over others. Which
brings us to the last of the negative petitions ‘Vain words’ or idle talk.
Of all created beings, man alone has been endowed with the gift of speech.
The fathers see in it the seal of the Divine image in man because God
himself is revealed as Word as St. John says in the beginning of his
Gospel “In the beginning was the Word”. But words can be used positively
or negatively. They can do good or they can harm, they can speak the truth
or they can lie, the word can save but it can also kill. When the word is
used in its negative power then it becomes idle or vain. The fathers liken
it to a darkening of the mind. St. Isaac the Syrian in his Ascetical
Homilies says this of the tongue: "He who guards his tongue will never be
plundered by it unto the ages. A silent mouth interprets God’s mysteries,
but the talkative man is distant from his creator.[hom.
15] The more a man’s tongue flees talkativeness, the
more his intellect is illumined so as to be able to discern deep thoughts;
for the rational intellect is bemuddled by talkativeness.[hom.
15] If you love truth, love silence. This will make
you illumined in God like the sun and will deliver you from the illusions
of ignorance. Silence unites you to God himself".[hom
64]. So these are the four negative objects of
repentance which must first be removed and because we cannot remove them
on our own, we beseech God to remove them and ask that he replace them
with the positive objects which again are four. Integrity, humility,
patience and love.
In translation
of the Greek word Sofrosini, I have used the word Integrity which more
properly translated should be whole-mindedness. Others used the word
Chastity but this leads the mind to think to sexual purity. Integrity I
think comes close to the meaning because it means honesty and goodness but
also completeness and wholesomeness. And this is want we are now asking of
God. A wholesomeness of the mind: the complete opposite to sloth which is
the brokenness of our vision and energy. The gift of integrity restores
our vision to be able to see what is good for us. It allows God to
illumine our minds taking away all traces of darkness. Humility we have
already spoken of in the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee.
Humility is the Queen of virtues and when it makes progress in our souls
by spiritual growth, we regard all the good deeds accomplished by us as
nothing. He who has been united with humility as his bride is above all
gentle, kind, easily moved to compunction, sympathetic, calm, bright,
compliant, inoffensive, vigilant and free from passion. Repentance raises
the fallen, mourning knocks at the gate of heaven, and holy humility opens
it. If the pride of some of the angels made them demons, no doubt humility
can make angels out of demons. [Ladder step
25]. Patience is truly a divine virtue and is the
fruit of humility. But to have patience with others we must first have
patience with ourselves. Many begin leading a spiritual life and after a
small effort expect to see in themselves the virtues that many monks have
not acquired even after many years of struggling with the passions. Others
become angry and fainthearted and grieved, thinking that the heavenly
Father is slow in answering their prayers: They want their request to be
fulfilled like lightning. But this is not how things are. God hears us
immediately when we cry out to Him, He hears us even before we ask and
knows what we have need of. God always helps. He always comes in time, but
not in accordance with our own way of thinking. So patience is necessary.
The Lord wants patience. He wants us to show our faith. We cannot just
pray like a parrot. It is necessary also to work towards whatever we are
praying for, it takes prayer with all our soul, and then to learn to wait.
It will definitely happen and when we have forgotten our request and have
ceased asking for it, it will come to us as a reward for our patience and
endurance. And finally we ask God to grant us the virtue of Love. Love is
the crowning of all virtues. It is the result of all our efforts and as we
said earlier love is the criterion by which we shall be judged. If we
cannot love our fellow men then in truth we don’t love Christ. All this is
summarized in the concluding petition: Grant me awareness of my own sins
and let me not judge my brother. In other words, let me see my own errors
and not the errors of others. Let me see the wooden beam that is in my eye
before I try to remove the speck that is in my brother’s eye. And we
repeat this petition because with all our spiritual struggles there is
always the greatest danger that we will be overcome with the passion that
is the source of all evil: that we will be blinded by pride and all our
efforts will then have been in vain. The fathers are forever warning us of
this evil which conceals itself in a false piety, in a false humility. We
think that because we have kept the fast, because we went to church more
often, because we prayed at very opportunity, because we fulfilled
everything the Church required of us that it makes us a good Christian, or
at least better than that person standing in front of me as we approach
for Holy Communion on this Easter night and who I know didn’t even fast
one day.
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