FOS Summary: 8 April 2008
“St. Mary of Egypt” - The Power of Repentance
(5th Sunday of Great Lent)
St. Mary of Egypt, a beautiful “woman of the world” became a prostitute at a young age. With her charms, she secures passage to Jerusalem to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with the intent of taking men’s souls through seduction. An invisible force bars her from entering the Church. She then becomes transfixed by an icon of the Panagia and has a transformational conversation and encounter with her. At that moment, she repents of her ways and her life. She is then baptized, receives Holy Communion and goes to the desert to live out the rest of her life (~40 yrs) with the intent of giving her soul through repentance.
Repentance and Humility
St. Mary becomes an icon of repentance and her life a model for us. A monk priest, Zosimas, who felt was at the peak of his spiritual growth is told in a dream to go into the desert to find a teacher to teach him more. He encounters St. Mary. She asks for his blessing. Moved by this holy woman’s stance, his arrogance is transformed and he is compelled instead to ask for her blessing. His journey, like ours, began on the first day of Lent and he meets St. Mary on Day 20, mid-way through Lent. He returns in time for Pascha, transformed. The Church Fathers insert this feast for the final Lenten Sunday as a reminder that the truly spiritual person never sees him/herself as holy. We have come full circle having starting with the Gospel reading of the Publican (humble) and the Pharisee (arrogant). As this story also shows us, the sinful person who is repentant and humble is more pleasing to God than the one who has done everything right but is arrogant.
The Power of Tears
True repentance is accompanied by tears (similar to St. Peter who “wept bitterly” over his repentance). There is power in tears according to the Church. They are a release, a cleansing of the soul from pain and suffering. Tears are the 2nd baptism. The Church Fathers saw tears as a gift from God, as an expression of His Power and Presence.
In Confession, when tears flow, at that moment, what was burdening us is lifted. All other Confessions without tears were in preparation for the one where tears flow. That is when we become fertile for God, for Him to enter our souls.
St. Mary shows us that there is lushness (in terms of regaining and living the relationship with God) in the aridity of the desert. Tears are the real water in the arid recesses of our heart. By contrast, in the lushness and plenty of city living, there could be aridity in one’s soul.
Dependence on God
The desert experience is the greatest example of what we can become with nothing. By realizing our dependence on God, we participate in what flows out of Him to us: His Power, His Glory and His Life. We are called to be child-like, not because children are pure, but because they are dependent beings. The proper posture for taking Holy Communion is “I need this for strength, not I have done all the work and now I am worthy. There is never enough one can do to earn Holy Communion. Rather, it is laying aside the ego and asking for help and strength that is the impetus for receiving.
Faith vs. works
Likewise, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s forgiveness. The fact is all of humanity has already been forgiven and saved by the Cross, by Grace; and not by works. Forgiveness and salvation are there for the taking. Therefore, salvation in the new life offered by Christ’s Resurrection is through faith and acceptance. We participate in it by accepting it. Once we accept it, we live by God’s commandments, not easy though they are life-giving. This is also where our works come into play. On the Cross, Christ did the work of salvation and the greatest act of kindness. We have to imitate Him by then also doing the work by being loving, kind, charitable, generous, welcoming, hopeful, and in service to others etc. Christ gives us the power to do this by His Grace and through our relationship with Him in Holy Communion.