5th Sunday of Great Lent-- the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt

The Lord’s rebuke

Brothers and sisters in Christ—

     Today we heard the account of the proud attempt of the son of Zebedee, the Holy Apostles James and John, to acquire the privileged places in the Kingdom of God.  When we reflect on this story, we have a tendency to think only about the pride of the Apostles without thinking about the contrary teaching, which the Lord gives in reply to their request.  The Lord is here teaching us concerning not only what we ought not to desire, but also what we should desire with all our hearts.  In fact, the Lord’s rebuke is so gentle that we scarcely notice it, but the Lord’s gentleness shows us the desire, which is dear to the heart of God.  Gently, He tells His holy Apostles that they ought to desire to share in His Cross and His suffering.

Love for the Cross

     Many generations of saints since then have discovered the necessity of praying for love of the Cross.  It should be our foremost desire to drink the Lord’s cup and to be baptized in the baptism of the Lord’s suffering, -- to imitate Christ for the sake of love.  For example, St. Chariton the Great, when he was a young man, journeyed to the Holy Land as a pilgrim.  In Syria, robbers attacked him.  He was taken prisoner, and they kept him bound and gagged in the depths of their cave.  In this place, he saw a serpent, which entered an amphora of wine. The serpent released its venom into the wine.  The saint saw all these things, and he tried to warn those, who had taken him captive, but it was impossible for him to speak or even to move.  They drank the poisoned wine and died.  After many days, Chariton was able to free himself.  Then he was free.  He could continue his pilgrimage, or he could do whatever he liked.  But he remained where he was in order to bury the dead.  After their burial, he decided to remain permanently in order to pray for the dead.  His captivity was his cross. He learned to love his cross, and bearing it, he followed the Lord to glory.

Suffering according to the world, and suffering according to God

     In the eyes of this world, to love the Cross is foolishness.  The world says, “Why suffer? Why love the Cross?” But the wisdom of God is not the wisdom of this world.  This world wants us to believe that suffering is worthless, and that euthanasia is a positive good.  How cleverly Satan tries to separate us from the example of the Lord Jesus.  He tries to use our sense of compassion against us.  No great work is every accomplished, except through suffering.

How to be similar to Christ

     In the 53^rd chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we read a description of our Lord: “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look ypon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” This passage is a challenge to us.  We are most like Him when the world hates us, when we bear the humiliation of the Cross.

True joy

     Many of the saints testify that they did not know peace or joy until they prayed for love of the Cross.  Afterwards, God gave them this love, and they received true joy, just as Lord promised His disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.  Whenever a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.  Therefore, you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

An example of those who are most similar to Christ

     We celebrate in the Church the feasts of a special category of saints, whom we call “fools for Christ’s sake,” because they attained a high degree of virtue simulating madness before the sight of the people, in order to convert them to Christ.  On account of Christ, they intentionally became despised.  For example, the Holy Fools for Christ’s Sake Symeon and John sat outside the great churches of Constantinople during the Great Fast and gorged themselves with sausage.  They even pelted the people with it as they left the church.  In this way, Ss. Symeon and John ridiculed the people’s fast, because, although they fasted, they still had enough to eat, but they neglected the poor.

     God does not call all of us to become intentionally hated by those around us, but he does call us to love our cross, which he has given us for our salvation.  He calls us to drink His cup and to be baptized with the baptism of His sufferings.