"When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not present yourself to others as one who fasts....your Father who dwells in the hidden abodes sees all secrets and rewards openly!" (Matt 6: 18)
This Sunday Evening at the Service of Vespers (Evening Prayer) The Orthodox Church enters the Season of the Great Fast; from the glorious colors of white and gold that adorn her altars, icons and clergy, to the more mellow colors of royal purple and blood red.
Truly, the season of the fast has ushered in change or as the Greek word would have it (metanoia) change of mind where we are not so much told that we have to consider 40 hour famines in order to think of others, nor do we become morbid as today's Gospel stated where one makes a fuss of themselves hungry for attention that: 'others see you are fasting'
If anything, Lent is a time to look at ourselves, take care of ourselves, and focus on what we can do better as the Lord would put it 'strive for perfection' after all we are made in His image (ikon) thus we have a responsibility to our body and soul.
The West (Latin observance) would see this time as a penitential one where they focus on the tortured body of the Savior on the Cross and most definitely have their faithful focusing on their sins and in perfections..... Hence ASH WEDNESDAY....where the palms of last Palm Sunday have been burnt and their ash blessed and imprinted on people forehead symbolizing penance and repentance. On a practical note - in the old days where soap was scarce, ash was used to clean clothing which had fantastic results; garments were brighter, whiter and scented.....penance equals freedom from sin.
The East (The Orthodox Church) focuses on the icon of the placing in the tomb where MARIAM the Theotokos (Mother of God) Hold the STANDING body of her Son in the grave signifying the Anticipation of the Resurrection.......
In other words, the Orthodox Church views Lent in its proper context, after all the word itself in English signifies SPRING, thus its spring time for the soul as it were. Hence, a time where we look into the garden of our persona and unearth the weeds of impediments that block or in this case choke the vegetation of our progress in the hope that when the season of Easter or as it should be called Pascha (Passover of the Lord) dawns, we will have toiled the soil during lent to make way for a most abundant harvest.
At Pascha so as we have died with the Lord; died to our old selves, we may rise with Him - putting on the new person where we have excelled in such a way that we have progressed and are able to handle life and its complexities much better than we did before.
In our churches we offer candles to God, we place our intention before him while burning incense as an offering of sacrifice and as the vesperal (evening) psalm states ' Let my prayer arise to you as incense and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice'........ No matter how dark our world, our life, our depressions, our complexities are, we always have the Light of the Faith that guides us through the night that we may arise with joy at the dawn of Pascha morning and arrive at our destination singing with all the saints and good people of ages past "Christ is Risen!"
May this season be a fruitful time for all of us...hopefully clergy will get out of that bad habit placing hard penances on people; that is not what we are about....if anything they (clerics) are to support their people saying; my friend, I too bare the sufferings you are talking about...lets pray for one another and bare one another's burdens.....thus for what you have confessed have no further anxiety about it; the Holy Spirit has loosed your sins....go in peace!
Invoking the Lord’s blessing upon you in experiencing a truly authentic and energised Lent....
The doors of Holy Apostles Exarchate are opened to all should you need us!
With love in Christ the Caring Shepherd,
+Raffaele
Archbishop and Exarch
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