A HOMILY FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
About How It Is Necessary to Love Christ in Order To Be a Christian
Brothers and sisters,
Today is the final Sunday of Great Lent, when we commemorate our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt. The Gospel for this saint is a most fitting one, for in it, the Lord forgives a woman who anointed His feet with ointment, washed them with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Like Saint Mary, this was a woman of easy virtue. But Christ forgave the harlot woman on account of her faith and love, saying, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much, and He told her, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
Whom, dear brothers and sisters, did the harlot so love, that her many sins were forgiven? It was of course Jesus Christ Himself, Who in just a few sentences makes plain to Simon the Pharisee, at whose house these things happened, and to all men and every generation till the end of time, that at the very heart of Christianity lies His own person and love for Him personally. In other words, Christ the Lord indicates that our spiritual gaze must be focused above all on Him, on His spiritual countenance, on the story of His earthly life, on His presence among us in the Church and, especially, on His presence within our own souls.
Throughout history, there have been numerous teachers of religion, ethics, philosophy, and so forth who have taught many good and lofty things, such as love for others, care for those in need, and similar high principles. Christ did this also, above and beyond any of the others. But as central to our Christian life as these principles is Jesus Christ Himself. However much we espouse Christ’s teachings, we cannot count ourselves His disciples, if we pass by His person.
There have been and continue to be many who see in Christianity not much more than moral teaching. One such person was Thomas Jefferson, author of the American “Declaration of Independence.” He compiled a Life of Christ stripped of miracles and other elements he deemed irrational. Another was Lev Tolstoy, the famous Russian novelist, who rejected Orthodox Christianity, but regarded himself as a good Christian, thinking that he fulfilled the moral teaching of Christ. Like Jefferson, Tolstoy did not believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God, did not believe in the Lord’s Resurrection, and did not believe in the other miracles related in the Gospels. Arbitrarily diminishing Christianity in this way, these two famous men and countless others less prominent strip Christianity of its uniqueness as God’s singular revelation through the divine person of His incarnate Son, and reduce it to a set of human insights.
Such a view, however, is a fabrication, bearing little relation to the continuous, unanimous witness of the saints and the Church regarding the person of Christ, a witness which reaches back through the centuries to the eyewitnesses of the Saviour, the holy apostles. Not just Christ, but many other teachers have spoken in praise of love. But never man spake like this man when He said, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.[1] Christian principles and doctrines are true precisely because they are fully embodied in the person of the flawless God-man. Thus, we discover what is the fullest, the highest love for our brother and for God, not by speculation, but by coming to know the love of Christ for us, through the Gospels and personal experience. And by coming to know that love, we come to know Christ Himself.
Besides the one already mentioned, there was another Gospel lection that we heard today, a Sunday reading that relates to the forthcoming Passion. In it, Christ predicts to the apostles what would soon occur in Jerusalem: His sufferings, death, and Resurrection. Until now, He has taught primarily by word. But during the Passion, He teaches even more by His example and by silence. So doing, He shows that He, the new Adam, was born on earth not so that He could enjoy the things of earth, but to save us by suffering, dying, and conquering death. In the most forcible way possible, He shows by His Passion what is true love, and how much He loves us. He also teaches us the soul-saving value of our own suffering, both that which befalls us without our willing it, and that which we undertake voluntarily for His sake. In other words, He shows us the immense importance of bearing our cross nobly. Furthermore, by His Passion, Christ makes it easy for us to return love to Him for His love, and to embrace Him ardently with our heart.
If we fix our inner eyes on the person of Christ, both our spiritual and our everyday life will begin to revolve around Him. We will see Him in others, and this will enable us to love them in the love of Christ, as Christ commands. Even more importantly, it will enable us to begin to love Christ Himself as Christians should.
Why, dear Christians, do many monastics, and some layfolk as well, regard their chief task in life to be the repetition of the Prayer of Jesus: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”? They repeat this prayer dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of times a day, yet it does not bore or weary them. To someone not intimately focused on the person of the Lord Jesus, perhaps even to a conventionally religious person, few things could seem so pointless as this endless repetition. Better, such a person would say, to read a variety of prayers or to do various active good deeds, than to sit or stand for an hour or even two or three and repeat one and the same little prayer constantly, with or without prostrations.
Such is the viewpoint of human logic, but the Holy Fathers and Christ Himself, Who praised Mary over Martha, taught otherwise. To say the Prayer of Jesus as we have described is to sit before Christ, to stand in His presence. Moreover, if we strive to say the Prayer not mechanically, but with attention and devotion, then with the Prayer Christ will not just stand before us, but will enter into us. The experience of the Orthodox Church teaches that this practice, if undertaken with force and discipline, is the direct route to focusing one’s entire spiritual life on the person of Christ and to enkindling love for Him within oneself.
Along with the Prayer, it is necessary to steep oneself in the Gospel narrative. In the lines of the Gospels, we also encounter Christ, and we begin to understand what Christian faith and love for one’s Saviour really is. We begin to understand that one cannot really be a Christian without loving Christ. Acquaintance with the person of Christ, as revealed in every page of the Gospels, fills us with spiritual exaltation before Him, as before the God-man, Who came to save sinners, of whom I am chief,[2] as Saint Paul says. The accounts of the Passion which the Lord endured in the flesh indicate the heights to which Christ elevated human nature in His person. They also help us to understand the beauty and magnificence of the struggles and holiness of the saints, especially the martyrs. The saints did not endure such tortures or undertake such ascetical feats because of philosophical conclusions they had reached or because of abstract moral considerations, much less for show, but because Christ the Great Sufferer and Lover of mankind lived in their hearts, because they loved Him more than they loved anything in this life, and because they loved Him more than they loved this life itself. Therefore, they could say in very truth with the holy Apostle Paul, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.[3]
Dear Christians, as we approach the Great Week of the Lord’s Passion, let us fix our spiritual gaze upon the divine person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us read through the Gospels, especially the Gospel of Saint John. Let us focus on the accounts telling of the days between the Raising of Lazarus and the Resurrection of Christ. Let us read carefully, meditatively, and prayerfully, striving to enter into the meaning of the words. If we cannot understand something and are fortunate enough to own the wonderful explanation of the Gospels by Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid, let us look up the unclear passage. As much as we can, let us recite the Prayer of Jesus during these days. Most of all, let us clear our schedules, and be present at every one of the priceless services of this week and the next, or at least as many as possible. This way, as we complete the course of Great Lent, commemorate the Lord’s Passion, and celebrate His glorious Resurrection, Christ our Redeemer will be present before our spiritual eyes and will be alive in our hearts, which will fill with holy love for Him. Amen.
[1] John 13:34
[2] I Tim. 1:15
[3] Phil. 1:21
