A HOMILY FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE GREAT FAST
About How the Course of Life Resembles That of Great Lent
Brothers and sisters!
Today is the fourth Sunday of the Great Fast. Three weeks remain until Pascha. It seems like it was just yesterday that we served the Vespers of Forgiveness, that we read the Great Canon with Great Compline, and that we celebrated the Sunday of Orthodoxy. And yet, almost without our noticing it, the better part of Lent has passed, and we are nearing the week of the Lord’s Passion. This is how things go in this earthly life: time passes quickly; some would say it “flies.” It flies by briskly and usually unnoticed. Our childhood flew by in this way, our school years, the vacations; the grades and years flew by, each one faster than the last. Man’s entire lifetime is consumed thus, quickly and unnoticed. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk says that as water races down a stream, so our lives and everything that happens in them races past us. I was a child, and that passed; I was a youth, and that ended. I was a young man, full of plans and energy, and that too came to an end. Now my hairs are white, I am old, and my decline has begun. This too will pass, and I will reach the end of my course. I have been well, then ill; then well again, and sick again. Everything passed. I had successes and failures; I had joys and sorrows. Time passed, and with it, everything floated away. People honored and praised me, then I was criticized and undermined; I was joyful for a time, and sad for a time. Everything passed, absolutely everything; for such is this world and our life in this world.
Why does our life here go by so quickly? The answer is simple: because God did not create man for this world, this place of exile for sin. He created us for another world: for eternity, not for time. Our true homeland is heaven, and we are foreigners and pilgrims on earth. The fast-running little stream of time flows into the boundless ocean of eternity and carries us to harbor. We are citizens of the ages of ages, subjects of an everlasting kingdom, which is not of this world.
Like everything in life, the Great Fast races by almost without our noticing it. Like our whole life, Lent is a time of battle, trial, and toils; a time of testing. And as the Fast concludes with the joy of Pascha, so for those who labor for the Lord, this life ends with the Kingdom of Heaven, the General Resurrection, and infinite, everlasting bliss in union with God, the Source of all blessing. As Christ put it to His apostles: I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and sit on thrones.[1]
The Lord made this promise on the night before His Passion, prefacing it with these words: Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations.[2] For us this means, “You are they who have shared labors and sorrows with Me, who have emulated My great struggle for the salvation of the whole world by your little struggles for the salvation of your own souls. For this I promise to grant you My eternal Kingdom, as I promised My apostles.”
Herein lies the mystery, the hope, and the joy of all our Lenten labors and of our entire Christian life.
A little labor, a little sorrow borne for God, says Saint Isaac the Syrian, is better than a huge endeavor accomplished without endurance of sorrow and suffering for the Lord’s sake. Fasting; benevolence towards others; almsgiving according to our means; regular prayer at home; and diligent attendance at church services, with their accompanying exertions, sacrifices, and temptations – these things may seem to be trifles, but they are actually the little labors, the little sorrows Christ seeks from us. If we devote our lives to carrying out these little labors and enduring these little sufferings with faith, patience, and humility, the Lord will accept them as a precious gift, as testimony to our love for Him and devotion. He will accept them as He did the two mites of the poor widow, and in return grant us our true homeland, His everlasting Kingdom. Amen.
[1] Luke 22:29-30
[2] Luke 22:28
