Sundays of Lent (and pre-Lent)

Justin Kissel · Post by **Justin Kissel** » Tue 18 February 2003 4:11 am

On the Traditional Orthodox Spirituality list I've been posting some comments about the Sundays we experience during Lent and pre-Lent. I'm going to post those here as well. (I hope this won't be a monologue... if someone has something to say, please do!)

Justin Kissel · Post by **Justin Kissel** » Tue 18 February 2003 4:12 am

The Sunday of Zacchaeus

Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, 'Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.' So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.' Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, 'Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.' And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.'" - Luke 19:1-10

Some thoughts...

This Sunday is to begin us in preparing for Great Lent. It's sort of a way of "easing" into Lent according to Fr. Schmemann: "Knowing our lack of concentration and the frightening 'worldliness' of our life, the Church knows our inability to change rapidly, to go abruptly from one spiritual or mental state into another. Thus, long before the actual effort of Lent is to begin, the Church calls our attention to its seariousness and invites us to meditate on its significance. Before we can practice Lent we are given its meaning." (Schmemann, Great Lent, [Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1990], p. 17)
"The Holy Fathers placed today's commemoration here to prepare us, little by little, for the dawning season of Great Lent. Knowing that we are basically slow to exhibit a desire for repentance, the Holy Fathers, by Zacchaeus' example, teach us in these preliminary weeks the need to recognize our sins and our need to turn away from them." - Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion, (HDM Press, 1999), p.7
"Yet when he [Zacchaeus] heard the Lord and Savior was approaching, he conceived a desire to see Him... But seeing Jesus is no easy matter. No one can see Jesus so long as he maintains an earthly standpoint... He therefore climbed up into a sycamore tree, showing his contempt for the foolish notions of dignity...and at the same time correcting the errors of his own former way of life." - Homily by Saint Ambrose, "The Lord Honors Zacchaeus' Repentance" (Synaxarion, pp. 9-10)
According to Tito Colliander, the example of Zacchaeus shows us that we participate in the spiritual life "not only by your power of thought or in a mystical, mental way," but also using our bodies. "If only we show our good intention, the Lord is always Himself our Guide, says Archbishop Theophylact from Bulgaria." "Truly, says the Lord, you have climbed up into a tree and conqured a part of your earthly desires because you wanted to see me, that is: you wanted to be able to perceive me when I passed that way in your heart." He added, though: "But make haste now to humble yourself lest you sit there thinking you are better than others, for it is in the heart of the humble that I must dwell." - Tito Colliander, Way of the Ascetics, (Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1998), pp. 86-88
"Ye know, then, that they which are of faith, these are the children of Abraham. But the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, pronounced before to Abraham that all nations should be blessed in him; therefore they who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.' Whence in the Gospel we find that 'children of Abraham are raised from stones, that is, are gathered from the Gentiles.' And when the Lord praised Zacchaeus, He answered and said "This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.'" - Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 62

Justin Kissel · Post by **Justin Kissel** » Tue 18 February 2003 4:14 am

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." - Luke 18:10-14

Some Thoughts...

"The Pharisee has made what might have seemed a reasonable prayer, if we strip away for a moment its uncharitable tone. He is not an extortionist, and gives thanks to God for this fact. He keeps justice, for which fact he again offers thanks. Nor is he an adulterer, nor a tax collector, the latter group being one known for fraud, deception and theft, especially of the poor and misfortunate. He keeps the fasts. He offers of his wealth in tithes to the temple. He seems in every way 'religious'.

But his prayer has said too much, has revealed something of him that he certainly did not intend, yet which is nonetheless true. It has made objects of the elements in his religious life, and thus shown that he does not understand their true and deeper purpose. He has judged another, even if in seeming 'justice', and thus brought judgement upon his own head. His ascesis has made him proud, and thus not only failed to serve its intended end, but counteracted it altogether. And from the very outset, the Pharisee's prayer has set him apart from his brethren. 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men'. Prayer, which by engendering union with God thus ought in purity to make men one, has been twisted into a divisive act that rends men apart.

Still, we must not judge the Pharisee. We must not hear the words of the Gospel and inwardly cry, 'Thanks to Thee, O God, that I do not pray as he did!', for then, by another great paradox, we pray exactly as he did. The holy Gospel does not recount the Pharisee's prayer that we may see how other, poorer men pray, but that we may see with objective perspective how we pray. Though we may be more familiar with the words of the Publican, we must admit with pained heart that, of the two men, the Pharisee is far more like unto our own selves than the humbled and humble tax collector." - An excerpt from a page of numerous insightful thoughts by Matthew Steenberg

This is one of the Sundays of preperation for Lent: "the divine Fathers also sound the bugle in advance, calling us to the coming Lenten battle against the demons so that we might purge our souls of any passion or ailment that has possessed us over the past year. Furthermore, so that we may be earnest in acquiring whatever good we may lack, we must properly arm ourselves, thus standing in readiness for the contests of Great Lent." These "contests" are to be seen in their proper, christocentric light, though. They are struggles that we go through as individuals, but as Christians we are never alone, and we always rely on God, without whom we could do nothing. Another aspect of this time of year, then, is teaching us to not rely on our own (perceived) power and opinions: "So that we can learn to avoid the pride of the Pharisee by following our own self-imposed and self-directed fasting practices--instead of the moderate and time-tested fasting traditions of the Church--the following week is fast-free." - The Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion, (HDM Press, 1999), pp. 14-15
"And let not the worshipper, beloved brethren, be ignorant in what manner the publican prayed with the Pharisee in the temple. Not with eyes lifted up boldly to heaven, nor with hands proudly raised; but beating his breast, and testifying to the sins shut up within, he implored the help of the divine mercy. And while the Pharisee was pleased with himself, this man who thus asked, the rather deserved to be sanctified, since he placed the hope of salvation not in the confidence of his innocence, because there is none who is innocent; but confessing his sinfulness he humbly prayed, and He who pardons the humble heard the petitioner." - Cyprian, Treatise 4: On the Lord's Prayer
"But we more commend our prayers to God when we pray with modesty and humility, with not even our hands too loftily elevated, but elevated temperately and becomingly; and not even our countenance over-boldly uplifted. For that publican who prayed with humility and dejection not merely in his supplication, but in his countenance too, went his way "more justified" than the shameless Pharisee. The sounds of our voice, likewise, should be subdued; else, if we are to be heard for our noise, how large windpipes should we need! But God is the hearer not of the voice, but of the heart, just as He is its inspector." - Tertullian, On Prayer, 17

See also: Triodion, Sunday of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee; On Saturday Evening at Vespers

尼古拉前执事 · Thu 20 February 2003 7:24 pm

I'm sorry, I really do not have anything to add to these. They are great, but things that you sit back and just think about.

Just please keep posting these and the daily ones too, as I love them but do not respond, finding nothing more to add of yet.

Justin Kissel · Post by **Justin Kissel** » Sun 2 March 2003 2:07 am

Thanks $/\$ I'm sorry about being so very far behind... with all that's been going on over the past few weeks, I've sort of let posting stuff on this thread slip. I'll try to go back over the stuff again in the next few days and post some relevant info.

Justin Kissel · Post by **Justin Kissel** » Sun 2 March 2003 2:10 am

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Then He said: "A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. "But when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."'

"And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' "But the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry. "Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, "Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.' "But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, "Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.' "And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.'" - Luke 15:11-32

Some thoughts...

"I received from God wonderful riches... I received the knowledge of God, and in Him the knowledge of everything else and the power to be a son of God. And all this I have lost, all this I am losing all the time, not only in particular 'sins,' and 'transgressions,' but in the sin of all sins: the deviation of my love from God, preferring the 'far country' to the beautiful home of my Father. But the Church is here to remind me of what I have abandoned and lost... And as I remember, I find in myself the desire to return and the power to return..." - Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, (Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1990), p. 22
This parable "uproots the despair and faintheartedness to engage in good deeds and it exhorts anyone who has sinned like the prodigal son to repentance, which is indeed a very great shield that averts the enemy's arrows and a mighty means of defense. The parable also teaches us that we should not be troubled when sinners repent and are received by God when we ourselves are struggling, with God's help, to live a life of righteousness. We must not judge our neighbor's life--that belongs to God alone--nor God's bountiful mercy, but we must rejoice with Heaven when a sinner returns to the Father." - The Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion, (HDM Press, 1999), p. 20
"It is not merely a coincidence that the haunting words of Psalm 136 ('By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept') are sung for the first time during the Matins of the Sunday of the Prodigal Son: they are the words of a nation in exile, a nation dominated in a foreign land, weeping bitterly for the life which now stands afar off--a memory. So did the Prodigal weep from the stall of the swine, pondering the goodness of his Father's love from the mud and filth into which had had cast himself. At that moment, as he lay among the pigs, he longed for nothing more than a return home. This is the spirit of Lent. The whole journey into Pascha can become our own if we are able to stand in examination of our lives, see how far we have brought ourselves from the life God intends for us, and then long, truly long to return to our true home. Whatever our Babylon, wherever our pen filled with swine, we must turn with tears toward the home from which we have sinfully departed and resolutely start our journey back, begging God's forgiveness in our return." - Matthew Steenberg, All to No Purpose Have I Left My True Home
"That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father; no one so rich in paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked-just because you have returned; and will joy more over your return than over the sobriety of the other; but only if you heartily repent--if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father's 'hired servants'--if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd-if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, 'I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called Thine.' Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession is counselled by (a desire to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy." - Tertullian, On Repentance, 8
Tertullian also discusses the Parable of the Prodigal Son at some length in his treatise On Modesty.
Clement of Alexandria (and another) wrote a Commentary on the Parable of the Prodigal Son which can be found here.

Justin Kissel · Post by **Justin Kissel** » Sun 2 March 2003 5:50 pm

Sunday of the Last Judgment

"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.'" - Matt. 25:31-46

Some thoughts...

"The Church begins now to 'adjust' us to the great effort which she will expect from us... She gradually takes us into that effort--knowing our frailty, forseeing our spiritual weakness..." On the eve before this Sunday, "the Church invites us to a universal commemoration of all those who have 'fallen asleep in the hope of resurrection and life eternal.' This is indeed the Church's great day of prayer for her departed members... It is love again that constitutes the theme of 'Meatfare Sunday'. The Gospel lesson for the day is Christ's parable of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:31-46).

When Christ comes to judge us, what will be the criterion of His judgment? The parable answers: love--not a mere humanitarian concern for abstract justice and the anonymous 'poor,' but concrete and personal love for the human person, any human person, that God makes me encounter in my life. This distinction is important because today more and more Christians tend to identify Christian love with political, economic, and social concerns; in other words, they shift from the unique person and its unique personal destiny, to anonymous entities such as 'class,' 'race,' etc... Christian love is sometimes the opposite of 'social activism' with which one so often identifies Christianty today. To a 'social activist' the object of love is not 'person' but man, an abstract unit of a not less abstract 'humanity'. But for Christianity, man is 'lovable' because he is a person. There person is reduced to man; here man is seen only as person.

Christian love... aims beyond 'this world.' It is itself a ray, a manifestation of the Kingdom of God; it transcends and overcomes all limitations, all 'conditions' of this world because of its motivation as well as its goals and consummation is in God. And we know that even in this world, which 'lies in evil,' the only lasting and transforming victories are thsoe of love. To remind man of this personal love and vocation, to fill the sinful world with his love--this is the true mission of the Church. The parable of the Last Judgment is about Christian love." - Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, (Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1990), pp. 23-26

"The most-godly Fathers placed the present commemoration of the Second Coming of Christ after the two parables of the preceding Sundays so that no one, having learned of God's love for mankind, might lead a life of negligence, saying to himself, 'God loves mankind, and when I finally cease sinning, everything will go easily.' Hence they appointed the remembrance of that fearful day in order to frighten the negligent with the thought of death and the anticipation of the future torments and rouse them ot the acquisition of virtue so that they will not merely trust in God's love for man but also bear in mind that He is a just Judge who rewards everyone according to his deeds." - Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion, (HDM Press, 1999), pp. 33-34
"He who is without anxiety waits without fear until his Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear His coming? Brothers, do we not have to blush for shame? We love Him, yet we fear Him coming. Are we really certain that we love Him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins and love Him who will exact punishment for them... 'He will judge the world with equity and the peoples in His truth.' What are equity and truth? He will gather together with Him for judgment His chosen ones, but the others He will set apart; for He will place some on His right, others on His left. What is more equitable, what more true than that they should not themselves expect mercy from the Judge, who themselves were unwilling to show mercy before the Judge's coming. Those, however, who were willing to show mercy will be judged with mercy... He reckons to their account their works of mercy: 'For I was hungry and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink.'" - Augustine, Let Us Not Resist the First Coing, So That We May Not Dread the Second (In: Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion, [HDM Press, 1999], pp. 38-39
"Time and again in the hymnography for the day, we are called to be fearful before the Lord; to remember with fear the appointed judgment; to acknowledge in fear the sinful state of our lives. Words and terms that bring discomfort abound in the texts: terror, judgment, fire, torment, pain, suffering, hell[:] 'I lament and weep when I think of the eternal fire, the outer darkness and the nether world, the dread worm and the gnashing of teeth, and the unceasing anguish that shall befall those who have sinned without measure, by their wickedness arousing Thee to anger, O Supreme in Love. And among them in misery I am first...' (From the Vesperal Stichera)" - Matthew Steenberg, The Sunday of the Last Judgment

"It were indeed free to us to understand that it is Christ in every poor man whom we feed when he is hungry, or give drink to when he is thirsty, and so of other things; but when He says, 'In that ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren,' He seems to me not to speak of the poor generally, but of the poor in spirit, those to whom He pointed and said, 'Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother.'" - Jerome (In: Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea, Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25)

Other resources:

Cyprian, Treatise 8: On Works And Alms, 23
John Chrysostom, Homily 79 on Matthew

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