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Catechetical Homily
On the Commencement of Holy and Great Lent
BARTHOLOMEW
By God¡¯s Mercy
Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch
To the Plenitude of the Church
Grace and Peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Together with our Prayer, Blessing, and Forgiveness
Beloved
brothers and sisters, children in the Lord,
Tomorrow,
we enter the period of Holy and Great Lent. In the Lenten vespers of
Forgiveness chanted this evening, we shall hear the sacred hymnographer urging
us to ¡°begin the time of fasting with joy, submitting ourselves to spiritual
struggle¡± in preparing to welcome the great Passion and joyful Resurrection of
our divine-human Lord.
Therefore,
what is demanded is a joyful disposition in order to embrace fervently the
spiritual struggle of this period of contrition in purification and
prayerfulness. Fasting, abstinence, frugality, restriction of personal desires,
intense prayer, confession, and similar ascetic elements are essential to the
period of Great Lent and should not be considered burdensome obligations or
unbearable duties that result in despondency or dejection. When doctors
recommend diet or exercise as necessary prerequisites for psychosomatic health
and vigor, the first advice they offer by way of a mandatory condition of
success is a pleasant mental disposition, which includes smiling and positive
thinking. The same also applies to the spiritual period of fasting that opens
before us. Great Lent should be regarded as an invaluable divine gift. It is a
sacred time of divine grace, which seeks to detach us from things material,
lowly and corrupt in order to attract us toward things superior, wholesome and
spiritual. It is a unique opportunity to remove from the soul every passion, to
rid the body of everything superfluous, harmful and mortal. Accordingly, then,
it is a time of immense rejoicing and gladness. A genuine feast and
exhilaration!
Nevertheless,
my beloved children, the fasting expected of us by the Church, as well as the
abstinence, frugality, restriction of personal desires and unnecessary
pleasures or expenses, literally constitute a prescription for salvation. This
is especially true this year, when our world has experienced a global economic
crisis, filled with imminent danger of bankruptcy not only for individuals and
companies, but also for entire nations throughout the planet, with destructive
consequences in skyrocketing
unemployment, the creation of entire hosts of people plagued by poverty,
depression, social turmoil, increase in crime, and other such tragedies. Great
Lent instructs us to journey daily with a little less, without the arrogance of
extravagance, waste and display. It encourages us to surrender all forms of
greed and ignore the challenges of commercial advertising, which constantly
promotes new and false necessities. It incites us to limit ourselves to what is
absolutely essential and necessary in an attitude of dignified, deliberate
simplicity. We are not to be a consuming or compulsive herd of thoughtless and heartless
individuals, but a society of sensitive and caring persons, sharing with and
supporting our ¡°neighbor¡± that is in poverty or recession. Finally, Great Lent
informs us about patience and tolerance in moments of smaller or larger
deprivation, while simultaneously emphasizing the need to seek God¡¯s assistance
and mercy, placing our complete trust in His affectionate providence. That is
how Christ envisions Great Lent. That is how the Saints lived Great Lent. That
is how the Church Fathers undertook the struggle of Great Lent. That is how our
faith has traditionally understood Great Lent. That is how the Church of
Constantinople, in its wide experience and unceasing vigilance, has always
projected and proclaimed Great Lent, and particularly in the current global
circumstances.
In
sharing these pastoral thoughts and words from the historical and holy Phanar,
we extend to all of you our paternal prayer and spiritual blessing for a
fruitful journey through the period of Great Lent.
Holy
and Great Lent 2010
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Bartholomew
Fervent
supplicant before God
St. Paul Orthodox Press www.orthodoxincheon.or.kr
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