My beloved spiritual children in Chris Our Only God and Our Only Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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CHEESE-FARE SUNDAY - FORGIVENESS
The last of the preparatory Sundays has two themes: It commemorates Adam's expulsion from Paradise, and it is also the Sunday of Forgiveness. There are obvious reasons why these two things should be brought to our attention as we stand on the threshold of the Great Fast. One of the primary images of the Triodion is that of the return to paradise. Lent is a time when we weep with Adam and Eve before the closed gate of Eden, repenting with them for the sins that have deprived us of our free communion with God. But Lent is also a time when we are preparing to celebrate the saving event of Christ's Death and Rising, which has reopened paradise to us once more (St. Luke 23:43). So sorrow for our exile in sin is tempered by hope of our re-entry into Paradise.
The second theme, that of forgiveness, is emphasized in the Gospel reading for this Sunday (St. Matthew 6:14-21) and in the special ceremony of mutual forgiveness at the end of vespers on Sunday evening. Before we enter the Lenten fast, we are reminded that there can be no true fast, no genuine repentance, no reconciliation with God, unless we are at the same time reconciled with one another. A fast without mutual love is the fast of demons. As the commemoration of the ascetic Saints on the previous Saturday has just made clear to us, we do not travel the road of Lent as isolated individuals but as members of a family. Our asceticism and fasting should not separate us from our fellow men but link us to them with ever stronger bonds. The Lenten ascetic is called to be a man for others. (The Lains Triodion)
The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans (Romans 13:11-14, 4), read at the Sunday Divine Liturgy, exhorts us to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the armor of Light, to walk honestly as in the day, fleeing drunkenness, debauchery and the lusts of the flesh. Saint Paul links this theme of the flesh to the theme of fasting. One person believes that he may eat all things; another eats only herbs. Let not him that eats despise him who does not, and let not him who does not eat judge him who does. Who are you to judge another? Both you and he are dependent on the same Master.
The Lord Jesus advises those who fast not to look gloomy or to be of a sad countenance like those hypocrites who want to be noticed when they fast. "Thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face.' The Father, Who sees in secret, shall reward thee openly. Let thy treasure and thy heart be not on earth, but in heaven.
The chants for Vespers (Esperinos) and Matins (Orthros) contrast the blessedness of Paradise with the wretched state of man after the fall. But Moses, through fasting, so purified his eyes that they were able to see the Divine Vision. In the same, may our fasting, which will last forty days as did that of Moses, help us to repress the passions of the flesh and free us so that we may 'with light step...set out upon the path to heaven'. Let us pay attention to the words with 'light step'. Our penitence must not be something heavy and burdensome. We must go through Great and Holy Lent lightly, and airily, in a way that somehow makes us kin to the Angels.
(To be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George