THE MEANING OF THE HOLY AND GREAT FAST

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My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

THE MEANING OF THE HOLY AND GREAT FAST

"Let us out with joy…
Having sailed across the great sea of the Fast,
May we reach the third-day Resurrection of our Lord.
Let us hasten to the Holy Resurrection on the third day…
While our journey proceeds, as travellers we regularly call to mine
how far we have progressed…

THE FORTY DAYS. The two preceding Sundays, of the Last Judgment and of Forgiveness, together constitute – albeit in reverse order – a recapitulation of the whole range of sacred history, from its beginning pint, Adam in Paradise, to its end-point, the Second Coming of Christ, when all time and history are taken up into eternity. During the forty days that now follow, although this wider perspective is never forgotten, there is an increasing concentration upon the central moment in sacred history, upon the saving event of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, which makes possible man’s return to Paradise and inaugurates the End, Lent is, FROM THIS POINT OF VIEW, A JOURNEY WITH A PRECISE DIRECTION; IT IS THE "JOURNEY TO PASCHA." The goal of our journey is concisely expressed in the closing prayer at the Liturgy of the Presanctified: ‘…may we come uncondemned to worship at the Holy Resurrection.’ Throughout the forty days we are reminded that we are "ON THE MOVE", TRAVELLING ON A PATH THAT LEADS STRAIGHT TO GOLGOTHA AND THE EMPTY TOMB.

During each week of Holy Lent, our faces are set towards the objective of our journeying: THE SAVIOR’S SUFFERING AND TRIUMPHANT PASSOVER. The FORTY DAYS’ journey of Lent recalls in particular THE FORTY YEARS IN WHICH THE CHOSEN PEOPLE JOURNEYED THROUGH THE WILDERNESS. For us, as for the children of Israel, LENT IS A TIME OF PILGRIMAGE. IT IS A TIME FOR OUR LIBERATION FROM THE BONDAGE OF EGYPT, FROM DOMINATION BY SINFUL PASSIONS; A TIME FOR PROGRESS BY FAITH THROUGH A BARREN AND WATERLESS DESERT; A TIME FOR UNEXPECTED REASSURANCE, WHEN IN OUR HUNGER WE ARE FED WITH MANNA FROM HEAVEN; A TIME WHEN GOD SPEAKS TO US OUT OF THE DARKNESS OF SINAI; A TIME IN WHICH WE DRAW NEAR TO THE PROMISED LAND, TO OUR TRUE HOME IN PARADISE WHOSE DOOR THE CRUCIFIED AND RISEN CHRIST HAS REOPENED FOR US.

THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT. Monday to Friday. At Compline divine service on the first four days of Lent, the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete is read, divided into FOUR SECTIONS; on Thursday in the Fifth Week it will be read again, this time in continuous form. With a constant refrain, ‘HAVE MERCY UPON ME, O GOD, HAVE MERCY UPON ME’, the Great Canon forms a prolonged confession of sin, AN UNREMITTING CALL TO REPENTANCE. At this same time, it is a meditation on the whole body of Scripture, EMBRACING ALL THE SINNERS AND ALL THE RIGHTEOUS FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD TO THE COMING OF CHRIST. Here, more than anywhere else in the Triodion, we experience Lent AS A REAFFIRMATION OF OUR ‘BIBLICAL ROOTS’. Throughout the Great Canon the two levels, the historical and the personal, are skilfully interwoven. The events of the sacred history are revealed as events of ‘my’ life; God’s acts in the past as acts aimed at ME and MY salvation, the tragedy of sin and betrayal as MY personal tragedy.’ The appeal of the Great Canon is very wide.

SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK. After the penitential fasting of the first five days of Lent, Saturday and Sunday are kept as feasts of joyful thanksgiving. On Saturday we commemorate the Great Martyr Theodore Tyron or Tire, ‘the Recruit’, a Roman soldier in Asia Minor, martyred in the early Fourth Century under the Emperor Maximian [286-305 A.D.).


   There is a specific reason why Saint Theodore has come to be associated with the first week of Lent.  According to the tradition recorded in the Synaxarion, the Emperor Julian the Apostate [reigned 361-363 A.D.) as part of his campaign against the Christians, ATTEMPTED TO DEFILE THEIR OBSERVANCE OF THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT BY ORDERING ALL THE FOOD FOR SALE IN THE MARKET OF CONSTANTINOPLE TO BE SPRINKLED WITH BLOOD FROM PAGAN SACRIFICES.  Saint Theodore then appeared in a dream to Evdoxios, Archbishop of the city, ordering him to warn his flock against buying anything from the market; instead, SO THE SAINT TOLD HIM, THEY SHOULD BOIL WHEAT (KOLYVA) AND EAT THIS ALONE.  In memory of this event, after the Presanctified Liturgy on the first Friday, a Canon of intercession is sung to Saint Theodore and a dish of kolyva (boiled wheat) is blessed in his honor.

   But, quite apart from this historical association of the Great Martyr Theodore with the first week of the fast, it is also spiritually appropriate that he should be commemorated during these days.  The Great Fast IS A SEASON OF UNSEEN WARFARE, OF INVISIBLE MARTYRDOM, WHEN BY OUR ASCETIC DYING TO SIN W SEEK TO EMULATE THE SELF-OFFERING OF THE MARTYRS.  THEIR EXAMPLE HAS A SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE FOR US IN OUR ASCETIC EFFORTS DURING THE GREAT FORTY DAYS.  [Source: The Lenten Triodion]

(To be continued)

______________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George

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