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| Christ at the Resurrection, drawing, pencil on tracing paper, by Father Sophrony, c. 1980.. |
' Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us and upon Thy world.'
The whole
world is split by dissension - between states with different social structures;
between races and classes; between different faiths and ideologies. Et al. With contemporary facilities for massive destruction
and annihilation everyone, everywhere, lives in an atmosphere of fear, 'looking
after those things which are coming on the earth. And here we are faced with a
tissue of paradoxes difficult to resolve. For the one part we
cannot continue untroubled since we belong to the human family with many
moments of fate in common. On the other, there are the words of Christ: 'When
these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for
your redemption draweth nigh. We need not linger here to make a more detailed
description of the state of already existing apocalyptic tension; but we will
not let go of the powerful weapon that the Lord gave us - PRAYER.
' O Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy upon us and Thy world.'
Nor, so
long as it remains practically possible, celebration of the Liturgical
sacrifice.
' ... And
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And we are drawn to
Him parched with thirst to be united with Him eternally. And He Himself awaits
us with love. Thirst for God imbues our earthly being and we mean to die so.
Christ Himself dying on the cross cried, 'I thirst. He 'hungered', too and thirsted,
and was 'straitened' that we should know the Father. And we, also, are
straitened on earth, grieved by the nightmarish, uninterrupted spectacle of
violence, slaughter, hatred, and we thirst to go to the Father, and we invoke
the Name of His only-begotten Son:
' O Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us.'
'Then
opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And
said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and
to rise from the dead the third day: And that REPENTANCE ...
Should be
preached IN HIS NAME among all nations. If His Name gives us the joy of knowing
the mysteries of the love of the Unoriginate for us, then, of course we love
His very Name, too. In It is contained 'the fellowship of the mystery, which
from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ ... who hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.
Prayer
over the years so transforms our fallen nature that it becomes possible for it
to be sanctified through the Truth revealed to us. And this before we depart
from this world.
'O Lord
Jesus, have mercy upon us.'
The
measureless grandeur of the task set before us instills fear in us. We are told
that 'the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the violent take it by
force. Long-continuing ascetic effort will show that in the Gospel revelation
everything relates to another loftier plane. The blinding Light of Divinity is
reflected on our plane as the commandment, 'Love your enemies ... Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father… is perfect. Only the indwelling in us
of Him Who gave this commandment will help us to fulfill this command.
Wherefore our cry to Him:
'Lord
Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy upon us.'
Invocation of the Lord's Name gradually unites us with
Him. This can happen to a certain degree when the one who is praying does not
yet understand 'WHO this and so far only vaguely senses the
sanctifying power that proceeds from the Name. Every step forward, however,
without fail entails an ever-deepening recognition of our sinfulness which
reduces us to despair. Then with ever-increasing energy we invoke the wondrous
Name:
'O Jesus, my Saviour, have mercy upon me.'
Sacred tradition, our most precious inheritance from
the Lord Himself through the Apostles and Fathers of the Church, teaches us to
continue in spiritual poverty, in recognition of the presence in us of sinful
death, if we really aspire to persevere in truth. 'If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his
word is not in us.
'O Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, a sinner.'
With the same tension - and sometimes even worse -
that people live in who are stricken by a deadly illness (cancer, for instance)
so do others experience the presence in them of sinful passions separating them
from the Lord. They do truly acknowledge themselves 'the worst of all men',
genuinely see themselves in outer darkness. Then they summon up within them
the utmost energy of prayer-repentance. Repentance can reach such a degree that
their minds come to a halt and they find no words other than
'Jesus, save me, a sinner.'
Reference:
On Prayer. Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov. 1996.