During the Great Lent the
Church makes an effort to wake us up to repentance. Heart-penetrating services,
canons and frequent readings from the Old Testament are the tools for coming to
realization of our sinfulness. The examples from the Old Testament caution us
and, based on the experience of thousands of years, point us to the only way of
grace: the way of communion with God.
God led the Jewish people to His Truth and Righteousness by means of various
tribulations, long years of slavery and devastating diseases. All of the Old
Testament is the story of God’s Righteousness punishing for sin and showing
mercy. But despite such a multitude of punishments, the Jewish people often
hardened their hearts and did not want to receive God’s rebuke.
Such hardening of heart can also be observed amongst us today. The Lord
strikes us with tribulations, pours grief upon the stone-like ground of our
heart, so that it may be ploughed and made ready to receive the seed of God’s
grace; i.e. our hearts are often not receptive to the mercy of the Lord, even
when He is showing us mercy in obvious ways. Like animals, we are still
possessed by the fear of death, but do we fear God’s Judgment? The Lord is
waiting for us to see in our troubles the axe and mercy of God, not just a
coincidence.
Thus comparing the Old Testament with our time, we can see than both then
and now the Lord cares for His people, not allowing them to perish in
carelessness and iniquity. In various ways He leads us to repentance, calls us
to again be united with Him, Who is the Source of life. Truly the love of God
surpasses human understanding! His love goes to the extent that, according to
the prophet Isaiah, for the sake of His chosen ones, for the sake of a small
part of the people, He spares the whole people. For the sake of a few saints
the kingdom shall stand. Thus God was leading his servants, showing Himself
sometimes as a terrible and rebuking Judge, and
sometimes as Merciful and All-Forgiving for the sake of man, to establish
righteousness on the earth. (Indeed, there is yet another aspect of love, its
protective power.)
If the Lord cared so much for his servants, does he not care even more for
His sons? The Old Testament is slavery; the New Testament is sonship. We are no
longer slaves in the Master’s house, but sons in the Father’s home. A slave
strives only to please his master, and their relationship is measured by the
slave’s work. But a son has a closer relationship with the father and is afraid
of insulting him not only by action, but also by intention, lest he be
separated from the love of the father; his relationship with the father is
measured by feelings and thoughts. Yet to whom more was given, of him more will
be asked. "We are children of God, but it has not yet been revealed what
we will become,"-says the apostle; we have been given a lot, and it is up
to us to multiply the Lord’s gift. It is up to us to set our feet on the
warrior path, the path of the warriors of Christ, fighting on the battlefield
of our hearts for the Truth and Righteousness of God. It is up to us to make a
good beginning, since the Lord appreciates even our intentions, and everything
else we will be able to do with the help of God’s grace.
Our weapon is frequent prayer, creative prayer beyond a mechanical
repetition of memorized words. The Holy
Church offers such prayers to us in
the touching services of the Great Lent. The goal of our struggle is to acquire
the inner peace of the soul. When peace finds home in our hearts, then we begin
our blessed journey toward communion with God. The state of communion with God
is so great, that this communion itself is our reward, the Kingdom
of Heaven inside of us. This is
what the Lord has called us to, so that here on earth we could in separate
moments acquire eternity for ourselves. Amen.
