LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXXII — The Mercy of God

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Having mercy is God’s most distinguishing characteristic. Pouring out his mercy, his steadfast love, upon his covenanted people is his main occupation. Mercy is at the heart of everything that God is and does and gives to his people. It is the people’s most treasured possession. The psalms, for example, describe the steadfast love of the Lord, which is the mercy of our prayer, in numberless ways. The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting and endures forever. It is higher and greater than the heavens, yet the earth is full of this steadfast love, and it extends to the heavens.

—Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko, The Lenten Spring

_____

In his inimitable style, Fr. Hopko is commenting on and expanding the meaning of the Hebrew word hesed. We certainly depend on it! And this is the background for our innumerable petitions: "Lord, have mercy!"

 

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXXI — 'Give rather the spirit of Humility to Thy servant'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

There is a glory that comes from the Lord, for he says: Those who honor me, I will honor (1 Samuel 2.30). And there is a glory that follows us through diabolic intrigue, for it is said: Woe when all men shall speak well of you (Lk 6.26). You may be sure that it is the first kind of glory when you regard it as harmful and avoid it in every possible way, and hide your manner of life wherever you go. But the other you will know when you do something, however trifling, hoping that you will be observed by men.

—St John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, as found in The Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox

_____

We commemorated St. John Climacus this past Sunday on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent. That, in turn, brings to mind his great classic, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Based on the Scriptures, St. John challenges not only conventional wisdom, but what may lie at the very core of our (fallen?) being: the need for praise, recognition, or the "glory that follows us through diabolic intrigue." That is why we pray for humility on a daily basis in Great Lent, through the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian. What a hard gift to acquire!

 

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXX — C.S. Lewis: 'Our Desires are Too Weak'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

—C.S. Lewis

_____

As is often the case, C.S. Lewis offers a fine twist to our usual perceptions.

 

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXIX — Desert Wisdom and Baptism

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Abba Moses of Petra was terribly embattled by porneia. No longer strong enough to remain in his cell he went and reported to Abba Isidore. The elder begged him to return to his cell but he would not accept that, saying: “Abba, I haven’t the strength.” So he took him and brought him up onto the housetop with him and said to him: “Look to the west.” He looked up and saw an innumerable host of demons; they were milling around together and shouting, ready for battle. Then Abba Isidore also said to him: “Look to the east.” He looked and saw innumerable hosts of glorious holy angels. Then Abba Isidore also said: “Here, these are they who are sent by the Lord to help the holy ones; those who are in the west are they who are fighting against them. These who are on our side are more numerous.” When he had given thanks to God for this, Abba Moses took courage and returned to his own cell.

—From Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers

______

I believe that Abba Isodore was assuring Abba Moses that essentially God is far stronger than the Evil One. No matter the temptation - in this case "porneia" means basically sexual lust - the Christian, armed with the sign of the Cross, which is the outward manifestation of faith in Christ, has the necessary weapons to engage in this  "spiritual warfare" and emerge victorious. 

 It is essential, however, that we do not fight  these battles depending upon our own strength and resources, but always humbly seek the Lord's grace and presence. The angels in the "east" are more numerous, then the fallen angels in the "west." That takes up back to our Baptism, when turned toward the west we (or our sponsor) renounced and even spit on Satan. We then turned back to the east and confessed our faith in the victorious Christ.

 

LENTEN MEDITATION - Day XXVI — 'Types of This Tree'

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

“Oh how did we not remember types of this tree! For of old they were shown forth in many and varied ways and saved the lost. By a tree, Noah was saved, but the whole world, unbelieving, was destroyed. Moses was glorified through one when he took a staff as a scepter, but Egypt, with the plagues that came from it, was drowned as though fallen into deep wells. What it has now done, the Cross showed forth of old in image. Why then are we weeping? For Adam is going again to paradise.”

—Dialogue between the devil and Hades on their fall by the Cross, in St Romanos the Melodist’s On the Victory of the Cross, a crucifixion kontakion for Wednesday of Mid-Lent, as found in Hymns of Repentance (Translated by Andrew Mellas)

____

St. Romanos the Melodist (his icon is on one of our deacon's doors) was one of the great masters of a kind of poetic theology, on full display in his magnificent kontakia. His use of typological interpretations of the Old Testament, together with his arresting metaphors - and a certain "daring" speculation - as is this dialogue between the devil and hades, has created a series of wonderfully resonant images that the Church has embraced now for centuries.