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| Saint Sophrony the Athonite. |
Today
and yesterday my heart aches, and aches in a strange way... And I entreated
God: "Not now. Grant me to fulfill my life's work". And here it is.
Walking towards the completion of my life's work I shall begin speaking with
you on how we should pass the period of fasts.
I have already spoken to you about my
method, which I urge you to imitate. This method is the following: to see
our final goal and to walk towards it beginning with the "a. b. c".
As regards Great Lent, we should set ourselves precisely this same principle,
but condensed. We must understand that we are being offered fifty days of
fasting as a preparation to receive the Resurrection of the dead. And we shall
build our vision in this way: Now begins our spiritual striving. Our
inspiration is multiplied with the thought that millions of Christians will
keep this Fast. The way to the Resurrection, even for the Incarnate God, passed
through sufferings. The mystery of the Passion we will understand only later.
From the beginning we accept this as a condition for our growth in God, as a
condition for the acquisition of the word of God and the imitation of His ways
in our daily life.
Thus, let us set for ourselves such
an image of Great Lent and we shall see how one Man on earth decided to climb
alone Golgotha and break the iron collar of the curse, due to the sin of Adam.
He decided to endure everything in a positive way, which no one on earth
understood, and no one in reality accepted. And when He completed His
"work"[1],
He said: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"[2].
"Through one man sin entered
the world"[3],
says the Apostle Paul, and through one Man comes salvation. If before us
rises such a goal, we shall receive Great Lent as a holy period in the life of
the whole year. And when with joy, we undertake physical striving in
abstinence from foods, this doesn't harm us, but in the contrary helps us on
all levels both the spiritual and the physical.
Truly, I can say now, in my old age,
that the enjoyment of Great Lent has been taken away from me. On the Holy
Mountain, when I was living at the monastery, which was the poorest and most
severe from the view of fasting, I used to endure the fasts with joy and ease.
Now I cannot do this. I have been deprived of the blessing and the joy of this
striving.
In an ingenious system of a fixed cycle
of services, this Fast holds a special place. The services of Great Lent,
in which a significant part contains texts from the Old Testament, comprise a
teaching which often is expressed through an unbelievably sublime poetic talent.
I shall bring as an example the irmoi
of the Great Canon which we shall chant: "Helper and shield to me has
He become unto salvation, He is my God and I shall praise Him, the God of my
Father and I shall exalt Him, for gloriously indeed has He been
glorified". These are words which inspire and contain within them great
meaning, that which we call Tradition.
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| "In older times there were many ascetics able to pass without food for weeks, months"... |
And despite it being so, nowadays,
unfortunately, the strength of our physical constitution, which from our
childhood has been damaged on the level of the nervous system, has been reduced
terribly. In older times there were many ascetics able to pass without food
for weeks, months, imitating Christ's restraint, His fast in the wilderness for
forty days prior to His departure to preach[5].
Today this is quite rare amongst ascetics. Furthermore, I observe with heartache
a very tragic phenomenon: for health reasons people are able to endure a long
and strict diet, but for God they are not disposed to keeping the consecrated by
the Church Fast, because there is a certain spirit which obstructs every attempt
by man to follow Christ.
In older times, at the monasteries,
those who were able abstained until Friday or even until Saturday. But this was
not for everyone.
Another strange phenomenon: the first
days pass with much difficulty. The second day, that is Tuesday, the head
begins to ache. After this, on Wednesday, the interruption or alleviation of
the Fast is possible depending on the person's physical strength. For the ill however
there is not even one day of fasting possible, due to their illness.
On Athos, the first day of fasting was
harsh for many, because they were hard-working laborers. The release of acids for
digestion, unable to find material in the stomach, began to disturb the stomach
itself. In this case on Monday one had to find something to eat, in order to
not damage his health. I am not now in the position to enumerate all the
particularities of the human body, what is needed and what is possible for
each.
We hold the following method: Total
restraint is not compulsory during the whole week. Full abstinence from food
and water is held the first three days until the first Pre-sanctified Holy
Liturgy. Those who cannot last, on Tuesday afternoon can have tea and toast
at table. Those who cannot endure even this, can take something discretely even
also on the first day. Each one chooses according to his strength, without
looking at what the other is doing. Let each one with a free will walk
towards the striving which is opening before us, so that in this way we may be
in a position to cross Lent, without losing its real goal, that is to meet in
our corruptible flesh the grace of Resurrection.
Every year we are given the opportunity
to experience the following paradox: Great Lent with all its ascetic practices
of grieving, repentance, night-vigils, and all the rest, we can bear for fifty
days. Easter however, the joy of Easter, we can only live for a short time, and
subsequently we no longer have any strength for joy. More natural would seem the
contrary; that is, fasting stirs up contrition of heart, a crushing of spirit,
whilst afterwards follows the enthusiastic joy of the Resurrection, which
vivifies man.
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| Church practice recommends prostrations to the ground. |
The Apostle Paul says: "If anyone
will not work, neither shall he eat"[6].
However, in one of my letters to the Exarch Metropolitan
Nikolai* I once wrote; "... And we, as with everything now, changed
this as well: He who will not eat, neither shall he work". When food is
not given, neither is work required!
God has given us a special privilege;
we are free to determine our own rules for ourselves. We are not affluent from the
view of space. We don't really possess enough space to reside comfortably.
Nevertheless however, if we keep the commandments of Christ, grace will not
abandon us. And when grace does not abandon us, then prayer flows under any
circumstances: at work, in the isolation of the cell, at church. I have
spoken to you then, with a few words about the coming Great Lent.
I am returning once again to the
same things, in order to imprint better on your conscience what I consider essential
par excellence: to have a final goal and to stretch ourselves towards it. Then
the insignificant aspects of our daily life will be surpassed, without
particularly disturbing our physical neither our psychological constitutions.
And this not only during Lent, but also after it and always, every day. We need
to remember the aim and the meaning of our residence here. We gathered
together in the same place, so that with the same spirit of love towards Christ
we may follow in His steps, supporting one another. Remember that in the
Gospels it is written: "Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem,
and Jesus was going before them", at quite a distance, whilst they (the
disciples) "were amazed, and following Him they were afraid"[7]. So
we too, with fear, shall follow Christ during all this Great Lent, so that
afterwards the hymn "Christ is Risen" will be experienced as
"life in abundance"[8]
within us. A very beautiful custom is to chant the Canon of the
Resurrection during the Vespers Service of Sunday of Forgiveness.
(to be continued)
[1] Jn. 4,34; 17,4.
[2] Jn. 16,33.
[3] Rom. 5,12.
[4] Rev. 14,4.
[5] See Mat. 4,2.
[6] 2 Thes.3,10. See also 1 Tim. 5,18.
* Bishop of Kherson Nikolai Ieremine, Exarch of the Patriarchate of
Moscow at Paris, from 1954 to 1963.
[7] Mk. 10,32.
[8] See Jn. 10,10.
Reference:
BUILDING
THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITHIN US AND IN OUR BRETHREN by Archimandrite SOPHRONY (Sakharov), Vol. 1-3, Translation from Russian to Greek by Archimandrite
Zachariah, St. John the Baptist Monastery, Essex, England, Third Edition, 2014.
Translation
of the above Homily from Greek to English by Holy Trinity Family, Douma, Lebanon.
The
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian from: THE
GREAT HOROLOGION translated from Greek by the HOLY
TRANSFIGURATION MONASTERY, Boston, Massachusetts, 1997 and THE LENTEN TRIODION translated
from Greek by Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware, St. Tikhon's
Seminary Press, South Canaan, PA, 2002.