Over the past several weeks, we have seen how the ascetic life – the life of the Orthodox Church and faith; the life of prayer, and fasting, of giving, and struggling against our passions; the life of loving and serving God, and of loving and serving God in each other – this ascetic life is essential for us to see God, and to draw near to God. The ascetic life is essential for us to accomplish our own transformation, so that the life of Christ we have received in our baptism can be seen in us, in what we say and do and think and feel. We cannot fulfill our Lord’s command to take up our Cross and follow Him if we do not follow the ascetic way of life.
The ascetic way of life is of great importance to us. But we must not forget that it is only a tool for our transformation, and not the “ultimate” goal for which we strive. It’s easy to get so caught up in the rules and practices of the ascetic life that we forget that, above all, we are called to a life that is hallmarked by love.
Today, we remember and celebrate St. Mary of Egypt. Those who are familiar with her life – such as those who were here last Wednesday evening for the reading of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, in which the life of St. Mary of Egypt is read – will know that hers was, indeed, a life of love, in every sense. Certainly, there would be a place in today’s world, in our culture, for the St. Mary we meet at the beginning of her life, for she was totally given to love – at least, as the world often uses that term. She did not restrain herself from “making love”; she indulged every sexual desire that came to her mind. Of course, that isn’t really “love” – but we need to be able to see beyond the world’s perspective to realize that all she was doing was allowing her passions to reduce her from bearing the image of God to living as an animal.
But the love story takes an interesting turn when St. Mary takes ship from Egypt to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Holy Cross, which we mark in September each year. She wasn’t going for reasons of faith; she wanted to enjoy corrupting the pilgrims on the journey. But it was God’s love drawing her nearer, even though she didn’t recognize this; and it was God’s love that prevented her from entering the temple until she repented, and asked the help of the most holy Theotokos. When her prayers were answered, and she could enter the church, she experienced an understanding of the mercy and love of God, and left there to keep the promise she had made to do her part in the transformation of her life.
Her fleeing to the desert was her response of love to the love of God that had drawn her to Him. She went to be apart from the temptations that would distract her and defile her in the world she knew and in which she lived. There she did battle against her flesh, and its desires, and the habits of sin she had so easily acquired, but which, she found, were not so easy to put off. She suffered from hunger and thirst; from the heat and the cold; and from the torments of the demons, who sought to reignite in her flesh the desires for pleasures she had previously indulged; even the singing of songs that were related to her sexual passions. (Of course, there’s nothing similar to this in today’s popular music, right?) It was only by years of these ascetic labors that she was able to gain victory, to reach a state of being where she was not afflicted by the desires that had earlier governed her life, and her actions. Even so, she never forgot that she had been a sinner, and never thought herself worthy of the respect of another – even though she knew St. Zosimas by name, and that he was a hieromonk – knowledge given to her by God.
Who among us has fled to the desert? (I mean, that should be easy enough – it’s right outside the door!) Who among us has prayed and fasted, as did St. Mary of Egypt, that we might be freed of our sinful passions? We all could certainly follow her ascetic way of life; but we do not, because we have not yet come to a place where we are so filled with the love for God that we lose our love for the comforts and pleasures of this world. Even so, God loves each one of us with the same intense love He has for His saints – and patiently awaits our response to His love.
Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant, and so I remind you of what you should already know: God loves you, and desires a relationship of love with you, in a life that will never come to an end. I pray that you will be filled with this love, and so each of us will respond with love to God, and to all who are made in His image, and leave behind all the things of this world to pursue the life that draws us closer to God, and to each other. Let this be our goal as we draw to the end of this Great Lent, that we may be filled with the knowledge of the love of God for us in Jesus Christ; and let us love God, and God in each other, to the glory of His name, and the salvation of our souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment