Romans 13:11-14:4; Matthew 6:14-21
The
gospel readings from the last few Sundays have called us all to return home
from our self-imposed exile. Zacchaeus was
restored as a son of Abraham when he gave more than justice required from his
ill-gotten gains to the poor and those whom he had exploited. The publican returned to his spiritual home
by humbly calling for the Lord’s mercy, even as the Pharisee exiled himself by
his pride. The prodigal son took the
long journey home after coming to his senses about the misery that stemmed from
abandoning his father. Last Sunday we
heard that the ultimate standard of judgment for entering into our true home of
eternal blessedness is whether we have become living icons of the Savior’s merciful
lovingkindness. Today’s gospel reading
reminds us to embrace forgiveness, fasting, and almsgiving in ways that direct
us back to the Paradise from which Adam and Eve were cast out when they stripped
themselves naked of the divine glory and entered into an existence so tragically
enslaved to the fear of death that their son Cain murdered his brother Abel. Within a few generations, their descendant
Lamech proclaimed that he would avenge anyone who wronged him seventy-seven
fold. (Gen. 4: 24) We do not have to
look very closely at our world, our personal relationships, and our own hearts
to see how we have followed their path
of corruption as we stubbornly persist in exiling ourselves from the eternal
blessedness which God intends for us all.
The season of Lent calls us to take
steps, no matter how small and faltering they may be, along the path back to
Paradise. As the Lord offered up Himself
on the Cross, He said to the penitent thief, “Truly I tell you, you will be
with me today in Paradise.” (Lk. 23:43) Hades and the grave could not contain
the Savior Who entered fully into death, for He is not merely human but also
God. The icon of Christ’s resurrection portrays
Him lifting up Adam and Eve from their tombs. The joy of His empty tomb places all our
wanderings and sorrows in light of hope for “the resurrection of the dead and
the life of the world to come.”
Our
first parents refused to fulfill their calling to become like God in holiness
and instead distorted themselves and the entire creation. We participate in the Savior’s restoration of
the human person in the divine image and likeness when we receive the garment
of light in baptism and rise up with Him into the new life of holiness for
which He created us. Christ covers our nakedness and restores us to the dignity
of beloved children of the Father who may know the joy of Paradise even now. Upon
being baptized and then filled with the Holy Spirit in chrismation, we receive
the Eucharist as participants in the Heavenly Banquet. In every celebration of the Divine Liturgy,
we return mystically to our true home.
Doing so reveals that our calling is nothing
less than to become perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. Because He is
infinitely holy, we must never think that we have reached that goal. So much of the corruption of the old Adam
remains within us, for we do not live daily as those clothed with a robe of light,
but prefer the pain and weaknesses of choosing our own will over God’s. We typically prefer to live according to our
passions in ways that direct us back to the misery of exile, not to our true
home of the blessedness of the Kingdom of Heaven.
That
is why we must all approach Lent with a deep awareness of how we far we are
from sharing fully in the New Adam’s fulfillment of our vocation to become like
God in holiness. The only way to escape
our self-imposed exile is to take intentional steps to share more fully in the
life of the One Who has opened up Paradise through His glorious resurrection. As St. Paul taught, we must “put on the armor
of light” and “make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” That means mindfully investing our energy,
time, and attention in ways that strengthen us spiritually as we conform our
character more fully to Christ’s. It means refusing to invest our energy, time,
and attention in whatever weakens us spiritually and makes us less like Him. Lent calls us to give ourselves so fully to
prayer, fasting, generosity, and other spiritual disciplines that we will have
nothing left for “the works of darkness” that fuel our passions and bring only
despair.
A
holy Lent is not about going through the motions of religion in order to gain
the praise of others or even of ourselves; such vain hypocrisy will never help
us gain the spiritual strength necessary to love and forgive our enemies. The
same Lord Who said from the Cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what
they do,” tells us that we must forgive others their offenses against us if we
want the Father to forgive our sins. (Lk.
23:34) Refusing to forgive others is a sign that we are not taking the journey
home from exile. If His merciful love is
not becoming characteristic of us, then we are not orienting our lives toward
Paradise. Forgiveness is certainly a difficult
struggle that will open our eyes to how strong our inclinations are to remain
estranged from God and neighbor. If we refuse
even to take the first small step of wanting to gain the strength to forgive those
who have wronged us, we will know only the misery of slavery to our own desires
and separate ourselves from the eternal joy of the resurrection.
Precisely
because it is so hard to forgive as we hope to be forgiven, we need spiritual
disciplines like fasting, prayer, and almsgiving to direct us to our true fulfillment
in God. Our first parents’ self-centered
refusal to restrain their desire for food enslaved them to death and
corruption. We have tragically
reproduced their spiritual and personal brokenness from generation to
generation. Struggling to abstain from satisfying
ourselves with rich food during Lent will help us see more clearly how far we
are from Paradise due to our addiction to gratifying our self-centered desires. It should also help us grow in patience and humility
in relation to neighbors who have treated us according to their passions. Humility fuels forgiveness, but pride makes
forgiveness impossible by blinding us to the truth about our souls. In
Forgiveness Vespers, we ask for and extend forgiveness to one another
personally. Since we are members together of the Body of Christ, we weaken one
another whenever we refuse to embrace the Lord’s healing. We do not have to give obvious offense in
order to do that, which is why we must all learn to see that pride invariably weakens
our ability to share in a communion of love with our neighbors. It is precisely
our pride that keeps us in exile from God and one another.
Even
as we stand on the threshold of beginning the Lenten journey that leads us back
to our true home, we must be prepared for our passions to fight back mightily
when we wrestle with them. Pursuing
spiritual disciplines brings our weaknesses to the surface, often leading to
anger at others as a way of distracting us from reckoning with our own
sins. As St. John Chrysostom asked, “What good is it if we abstain from birds
and fishes, but bite and devour our brothers and sisters?” We must mindfully struggle to keep our mouths
shut whenever we are tempted to criticize or condemn one another this Lent. Whenever we fall prey to our passions, we
must ask forgiveness of those we have offended and get back on the path to
Paradise with renewed commitment. No
matter how many times we wander from the narrow way, we must return to it.
Lent calls us to “put on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its
desires.” We must do so in order to return to Paradise
through His Passion. When we set out to
pray, fast, give, and forgive with integrity, we will learn quickly how much we
still share in the corruption of the old Adam.
That should help us see how ridiculous it is not to extend to others the
same mercy that we ask for ourselves. If
we refuse to do so, we risk shutting ourselves out of Paradise. In preparation for the struggles of the
coming weeks, let us humble ourselves and forgive one another so that we may
acquire the spiritual strength to “cast off the works of darkness and
put on the armor of light.” Let us begin our Lenten journey with the
joyful recognition that “now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. The night is far spent, the
day is at hand.” May every step of our journey
of repentance lead us further away from exile and closer to our true home, the
Paradise that our Lord has opened to us through His glorious resurrection on
the third day.
