INNER UNITY OF THE TRIODION

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.

INNER UNITY OF THE TRIODION

THE MEANING OF THE GREAT FAST [Lent]

Fifth Sunday. This corresponds closely to the preceding Sunday: just as the Fourth Sunday of Holy and Great Lent is dedicated to Saint Climacus, THE MODEL OF ASCETICS, so the Fifth Sunday celebrates SAINT MARY OF EGYPT, the MODEL OF PENITENTS. Like that of Saint John Climacus, her feast has been transferred from the fixed calendar, where she is commemorated on 1st April. Her life, recounted by Saint Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem — it is read on Thursday in the Fifth Week — sets before us A TRUE VERBAL ICON OF THE ESSENCE OF REPENTANCE. In her youth Saint Mary lived in a dissolute and sinful way at Alexandria. Drawn by curiosity, she journeyed with some pilgrims to Jerusalem, arriving in time for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. But when she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with the others, an invisible force thrust her back at the threshold. This happened three or four times. Brought to sudden contrition by this strange experience, she prayed all night with tears to the Mother of God, and next morning she found to her joy that she could enter the church without difficulty. After venerating the Holy Cross, she left Jerusalem on that same day, made her way over the Jordan River, and settled as a solitary in a remote region of the desert. Here for 47 years she remained, hidden from the world, until she was eventually found by the ascetic Saint Zosimas, who was able to give her Holy Communion shortly before her death.

On this day the first Canon at Orthros (Matins) is based on the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31): like the Parable of the Good Samaritan on the previous Sunday, this is applied symbolically TO THE REPENTANT CHRISTIAN.

The Sixth Week of Holy and Great Lent. During the divine service of this week, and to a still greater extent during HOLY AND GREAT WEEK, the Triodion assumes the character of A HISTORICAL NARRATIVE. Day by day we accompany our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: we are with Him as He draws near to Jerusalem, as He reaches Bethany to raise Lazarus, as He enters the Holy City on Palm Sunday, as He approaches HIS PASSION. The daily Offices are marked by a sense of advancing movement and dramatic realism. Each day we call to mind, as exactly as possible, the thinigs that must have occurred on the corresponding day during the last year of our Lord Christ’s Earthly Ministry (Diakonia).

All this is NOT to be seen merely as the bare commemoration of occurrences in the distant past. On the contrary, through the liturgical celebration we RELIVE THESE EVENTS, PARTICIPATING IN THEM AS CONTEMPORARIES. We are raised from the level of secular time, as measured by the clock or calendar, TO THE LEVEL OF ‘LITURGICAL’ OR’ SACRED’ TIME; WE ARE TRANSFERRED TO THE POINT WHERE THE VERTICAL DIMENSION OF ETERNITY BREAKS INTO LINEAR TIME. This transposition of past into present, OF REMEMBRANCE INTO REALITY, is expressed in the liturgical texts above all through the word TODAY. So we chant on the Saturday of Lazarus, "TODAY Bethany proclaims beforehand the RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.’ ‘TODAY Christ comes to the house of the Pharisee’, we state on Holy and Great Wednesday, ‘and the sinful woman draws near and falls down at His feet… ‘TODAY Judas makes a covenant with the chief priests.’ ‘TODAY the Master of Creation stands before Pilate’, we say on Holy and Great Friday: ‘…TODAY He Who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon the Cross.’ So also at Pascha Midnight we affirm: ‘YESTERDAY I was buried with Thee, O Christ, and TODAY I rise with Thine arising. YESTERDAY I was crucified with Thee…’ We shall not understand the meaning of these last two weeks in the Tridion unless wew listen to this word TODAY that resounds at each service. It is not a mere metaphor or an instance of poetic licence, but EMBODIES A SPECIFIC SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. ALL that was witnessed by the crowds in Holy and Great Week, ALL the words addressed to the Holy Disciples and Apostles, ALL THE SUFFERING UNDERGONE BY OUR LORD, GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST — THE ARE ALL TO BE EXPERIENCED HERE AND NOW BY US. [Resources: The Lenten Triodion]

__________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos

+ + +



With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George