Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent with Commemoration of Saint John Climacus, Author of “The Ladder,” in the Orthodox Church

 

Hebrews 6:13-20; Mark 9:17-31

             If we have embraced the spiritual practices of Lent with any level of integrity, the weakness of our faith has surely become apparent to us.  Our minds wander when we pray and so much else seems more important than being fully present before the Lord, both in the services of the Church and in our daily prayers at home.   We often make excuses not to fast to the best of our ability and, regardless of what we eat and drink, routinely indulge our self-centered desires for pleasure.  We justify being stingy in sharing our resources and attention with our neighbors, especially when we fear that doing so will compromise our dreams of self-sufficiency and comfort.  By this point in Lent, we have all gained insight into how we have failed to entrust ourselves to Christ to the point that we can say with the brokenhearted father in today’s gospel reading, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

            In kneeling before the Lord and struggling to believe that Christ could deliver his son from a life-threatening condition, the father revealed the true condition of his soul.  He was bitterly disappointed that the disciples had not been able to help and did not fully trust that the Savior could do anything more.   Nonetheless, he could muster enough faith to offer the young man to Christ for healing, even as he pleaded for Him to “help my unbelief!”  That honest, humble, heartfelt plea was sufficient for his son to receive the Lord’s merciful healing. Despite his doubts, the father still had enough faith to receive healing for his son.  He entrusted himself and his beloved child to Christ as best he could, despite his imperfect faith. 

The word given by God to St. Silouan the Athonite applies to him as much as it does to us: “Keep your mind in hell and do not despair.”   On the one hand, we must not fool ourselves with an illusory, superficial spirituality that blocks us from experiencing the true state of our souls before God.  We must not lie to ourselves or make excuses for our failings. Instead, we must know from our hearts how far we are from fully embracing our Lord’s gracious healing and entrusting ourselves and all our earthly cares to Him.  On the other hand, even as we confront the tension between the infinite holiness of God and our corruption, we must refuse to despair by accepting the lie that there is no hope for us, our loved ones, and our neighbors in the mercy of the Lord.  Far better is the way of the father in today’s gospel lesson, for he confessed the weakness of his faith even as he paradoxically showed great faith in asking for Christ to save his son.   

He provides us a much better example than did the disciples, for they lacked the spiritual strength to deliver the young man from the demon.  The Savior told them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.”  He said that because they were spiritual weaklings who had neglected the most basic spiritual practices for opening themselves to receive healing and strength. Not one of them got the point when the Lord said, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and after He is killed, He will rise on the third day.”  At this point, they had a superficial faith focused on acquiring earthly power for themselves and vengeance against their enemies, not on entrusting themselves to the God-Man Whose Kingdom remains not of this world.  It was only after the horror of the Cross, the complete shock of the empty tomb, and the appearance and teaching of the risen Lord that they acquired the faith necessary truly to believe. 

The deliverance of the young man did not come easily, for the demon convulsed him and most of the bystanders thought that he was dead.  It can seem impossibly difficult for us to embrace Christ’s healing, for in order to do so we must die to the power of passions that have taken such deep root in our souls that they have become second nature. Our life in Christ invariably requires denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Him.   There is no other way truly to share in the life of our crucified and risen Lord.  

Today we commemorate St. John Climacus, a monk from the seventh century who wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a spiritual classic that is said to be the second most read book in Orthodoxy after the Bible.  Written as a guide to other monks, the book presents the necessary steps for following the upward path to the Kingdom.  There is one passage in which St. John advises people “who are married and living amid public cares” to pursue this goal in the following way:

Do whatever good you may.  Speak evil of no one.  Rob no one.  Tell no lie.  Despise no one and carry no hate. Do not separate yourself from the church assemblies.  Show compassion to the needy.  Do not be a cause of scandal to anyone.  Stay away from the bed of another, and be satisfied with what your own wives can provide you.  If you do this, you will not be far from the kingdom of heaven.[1]

 The father in today’s gospel lesson obviously had a family and lived a conventional life in the world.  It was precisely through those circumstances that he was able to gain the spiritual clarity necessary to cry out “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” such that his son was healed.  Remember that the path to the healing of our souls is open to us all, regardless of our marital status, family responsibilities, and work.  Regardless of the circumstances of our lives, let us continue the Lenten journey by embracing the daily struggle necessary to intensify our prayers, to deny ourselves, and to give generously to our neighbors as we take the small steps that we presently have the strength to take in reorienting our lives to toward the Lord.   When the battle even to take those small steps reveals our weaknesses and seems like a lost cause, that is when we must obey the command: “Keep your mind in hell and do not despair.”  It is only by doing so that we may gain the spiritual clarity necessary to cry out from the depths of our hearts, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”  Indeed, it is really the only time in which we can begin to see the state of our souls clearly, which is necessary in order for us to follow our Lord to His Cross and empty tomb through humble confession and repentance of our sins. In the remaining weeks of the Fast, let us refuse to be distracted by anything that would keep us from entering as fully as possible into the holy mystery of our salvation, for “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and after He is killed, He will rise on the third day.” 

 

 

 

 

           

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[1] St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Paulist Press, 1982: 78.