|
Written by Brantley Hobbs
|
|
Sunday, 08 March 2009 |
|
Dear Baba, Can you please explain to me why certain saints are commemorated during the Sundays of Great Lent? I know there are lots of incredible saints but why St. Gregory Palamas, St. John of the Ladder and St. Mary of Egypt?
My dear I’m so glad you’ve stopped by to visit me. Please sit down and have a nice hot cup of tea and we will chat. As I’m sure you figured out, these three saints have been given a special commemoration in addition to their feast day for very good reasons. In part we can understand it if we look at their key message and how that fits into our Lenten journey. It is very similar to why we have the particular Gospel lessons during the Triodion as we prepared to begin Great Lent.
St. Gregory Palamas lived in the first half of the 14th century and is known as the father of Hesychasm. We very much can associate him with silence and contemplative prayer – especially reciting the Jesus Prayer - as a means of growing closer to God. How very appropriate that we are silent and contemplative in our prayer during this holy season. There is another aspect of his life that is important for us to remember. He fought against heresy and at times was exiled and imprisoned before he was able to defeat the heretics. I’ll recommend you read a more complete explanation than I can give over a cup of tea but in a nutshell, he is especially known for his opposition to a man named Barlaam. Basically, Barlaam taught that God was distant and unknowable and at most we could learn about Him through study alone and nothing could be gained through contemplative prayer. St. Gregory used the arguments that had been well established in the Orthodox Church – that we could indeed have a very real and very personal relationship with God. We could know His energies even if we could not begin to understand His essence. It truly became an issue of the nature of Christ and it was so significant that St. Gregory is commemorated also on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent as a continuation of the proclamations of the Sunday of Orthodoxy – the victory over heresy.
St. John Climacus or St. John of the Ladder: I remember one young boy who was asked at coffee hour if he realized that Pascha was coming soon. “Oh yes,” he replied confidently, “I know Pascha is close because I saw the icon with the demons knocking the guys off the ladder with their spears.” What a good warning, don’t you think my dear, for all of us on this Lenten journey especially if we give way to thinking we can coast to the finish line as it were. St. John is well known for his book of instructions to the monks under his care called The Ladder of Divine Ascent written in around 600 AD. I will warn you now my dear, that book is not something for light reading or to be undertaken without the specific direction of your spiritual father. No one can climb that ladder solo regardless of their enthusiasm. I assure you even the first rung requires a complete transformation of your life – it is called “on renunciation of the world”. The icon is quite unforgettable - as it really should be. All those monks and priests being pried off the ladder by demons with spears and darts (representing our passions) and falling into the gaping open mouth of hell, most eager to devour them. We can never rest on our laurels as we journey to heaven for surely there is fiery dart being sharpened just for us the moment we do. The Lenten journey also takes a definitive turn this week. Where the focus had been on us, our repentance, now the focus shifts to the passion and we begin to see glimmers that grow in intensity as we complete the fast and enter into Great Week and the passion of Our Lord.
St. Mary of Egypt: Her story is one of lifelong repentance. We too must not think of Great Lent as simply a sprint to the celebrations of Pascha and then a return to ‘normal’ life. We must make a commitment to turn and walk away from those things that hold us captive. What a silly lot we are – voluntarily putting ourselves in captivity time and again. But it isn’t easy to stop and even St. Mary herself said the first 17 years were the hardest. Considering how poorly I’ve managed to keep on a diet for more than a few days, I find it sobering to think of struggling so hard for all those years. For her the struggle was against very dark passions. Despite how difficult it was, she allowed Christ to transform her life from utter darkness into radiant light to the point that if you look at the icon of all the saints, she is there among the virgins. That should also be a beacon of hope to all of us. We should not give up our own personal struggles or ever think we are hopeless.
You know me dear, Christ took the cross – the instrument of a torturous and humiliating death and transformed it into salvation. He did so for the express purpose of reuniting Himself with each of us. We each can reach out - just like the monks in the icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent – and Christ is there to meet our outstretched hands. With these saints as very special guardians of our Lenten journey, we can be inspired by their lives, refocused and re-energized. The Passion of Our Lord is nearing. His hands will soon be outstretched on the Cross. With the help of these saints, this invisible cloud of witnesses that surround us, we will enter into the radiant joy of the Resurrection.
With enveloping hugs;
Baba |
Living Faith 
