Almost done with Lent – has it worked?
One more week of Great Lent. Almost through reading Genesis. Almost done with fasting. Almost done with all the extra services and all the extra prostrations. But are we ready? Have we allowed the Lenten disciplines to penetrate our hearts? Are we ready to experience the Passion and Resurrection of Christ in a way that moves us irrevocably closer to him? Or has this Great Lent been just another way to mark the time, with the 24th (the day of Pascha) coming as just another day on the calendar? If this is the case – if you have managed to preserve your heart and mind intact against the teachings of Christ, then you are not alone. The disciples did it, too. They weren’t listening – or if they were, they only noticed the things they wanted to.
One more week of Great Lent. Almost through reading Genesis. Almost done with fasting. Almost done with all the extra services and all the extra prostrations. But are we ready? Have we allowed the Lenten disciplines to penetrate our hearts? Are we ready to experience the Passion and Resurrection of Christ in a way that moves us irrevocably closer to him? Or has this Great Lent been just another way to mark the time, with the 24th (the day of Pascha) coming as just another day on the calendar? If this is the case – if you have managed to preserve your heart and mind intact against the teachings of Christ, then you are not alone. The disciples did it, too. They weren’t listening – or if they were, they only noticed the things they wanted to.
James and John wanted easy Glory
[Retelling of James and John’s request: “grant us that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory”.]
[Retelling of James and John’s request: “grant us that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory”.]
They were not listening or they would have known: just as the Son of Man came to offer Himself as an sacrifice for all; so are we to offer ourselves up in imitation of Him. Instead, we treat His offering – His humiliation, His suffering, His passion – as something akin to a “Get out of Jail Free Card”. He’s like the friend who got up early and stood in line to buy tickets for the show and gives them to us so that we can just walk right in.
But that is not the Gospel. Again, if this is our belief, then we have written our own Gospel and we have invented our own Christ.
Like James and John, we want God to bless us as we are; we want Him to glorify us. But this glory is not something that can be given, it must be earned. Only the holy can gain a place near the Source of Holiness; and Christ is clear: the way to holiness is through humility. The way to holiness is through the Cross.
Saint Mary expected Saint Mary did not seem to give much thought to holiness; like us, she was too busy. Like us, she assumed that God would accept her as she was (if she thought of Him at all). She found out different when she tried to visit the Cross of Our Lord in Jerusalem. She was prevented from even entering the Church by her selfishness. She opened her heart to this message and embraced the way of repentance. She transformed her life through asceticism – through the way of the Cross – and was blessed with holiness and a place at the right hand of Christ.
God’s Way for us: transformation through Christ and love for others
This is the Gospel: that our way is not good enough for anything but ourselves. That the way to glory, the way to holiness, the way to joy – is to allow Christ into our lives; to allow Him to transform us; to empty ourselves and take up the cross. To live our lives not for our own sake, but out of love and service to God and all the friends and enemies who surround us. How can we say that we have Christ within us if we do not live the way He does?
This is the Gospel: that our way is not good enough for anything but ourselves. That the way to glory, the way to holiness, the way to joy – is to allow Christ into our lives; to allow Him to transform us; to empty ourselves and take up the cross. To live our lives not for our own sake, but out of love and service to God and all the friends and enemies who surround us. How can we say that we have Christ within us if we do not live the way He does?
We act as if His love for us justifies our love for ourselves – rather we must take His love for us to give us the strength to BECOME love as He is love.
We act as if His sacrifice for us justifies us as we are – rather, we must accept His sacrifice for us so that we can BECOME a sacrifice for others.
This will be hard. We might prefer another way, an easier path. But this is the Gospel: that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. We believe – now may the Lord help our unbelief so that we can be transformed through Him.
