Cheesefare
“Yes, if you forgive others their failings,
your heavenly Father will forgive you yours;
but if you do not forgive others,
your Father will not forgive your failings either”
(Matt. 6:14)
Hydrophobia is said to be a very dangerous disease in animals because it will, for example, drive a dog mad with a desire to bite and tear when all the while it dreads the thing it really wants, a drink of water. So there are people who rush madly about, taking their spite out on everything and everybody, trying to find satisfaction in one thing or another, whereas they are afraid of the one thing they need, the forgiveness and mercy of God. As St. Augustine once put it, “0 Lord, our souls come from Thee, and they know no rest until they rest in Thee.”
Yes, we need forgiveness, but it is essential that we forgive as much as we need to be forgiven.
This Sunday is called the Sunday of Forgiveness. It is so called from an old age custom in the Orthodox Christian Church. It is still practiced in the active churches in Russia. On the last day preceding the Great Lent, Orthodox Christians pardon and embrace one another and as they leave for their homes each wishes the other future happiness. It is a tender scene and certainly one rich in meaning. People pardon one another transgressions, then kiss each other on the cheeks and part. It is a little ceremony which would seem to indicate that people were separating mid leaving for some distant country. What does the ritual man? Observed twice a year, before Lent and on Easter, it foreshadows our last parting on earth and resembles the great meeting in the future. Just as they ask pardon from one another before Lent begins, so shall they ask pardon when death approaches. Just as they greet each other on Easter, the day of the Resurrection of Christ, so shall they mutually greet one another on the day of general or universal resurrection.
The Lenten period is supposed to be a miniature of the life of a Christian from the grave up until Judgment Day. Therefore, if the time immediately preceding Lent is similar to the tine which precedes our death, then we must act accordingly. A person who is near death ignores worldly things; he forsakes that which is mundane. All sensual desires and passions seem to die out on him. So upon entering Lent we too must ignore worldly things; we must suppress in us all sinful inclinations and passions. Near death we tenderly and sincerely ask forgiveness from one another; so at this time we must ask pardon from each other, not for the sake of custom or propriety but do so from the heart and soul. On the verge of death, we are willing to offer a God a thorough repentance; we feel a deeper sorrow and heartfelt contrition. So now too before entering the Great Lent we must be determined to cleanse ourselves of sins and atone for them.
How must we conduct ourselves during Lent? We must imitate the life which continues beyond the grave. What happens to us after death? The body dies but the soul continues to live in the hope of another life, an eternal one. Our body is dead; it needs no food or drink. In imitation Mother Church asks those of us who are able to cut dawn on food and drink. Of course they who are sick and extremely weak are excused from the strict fast. Those who are able are required to fast from meats.
Our body after death is breathless or spiritless. In imitation during Lent we must expel from within us the “spirit of slothfulness, of despair, of vain talking” (Prayer of St. Ephraim) and the spirit of every impure lust. After death, the soul lives independently of the body. In imitation, it would be well for us to live, as it were, outside of our bodies, and work spiritually by abiding in prayer, by meditating on God and our salvation.
It is not a dogma in our Church, i.e., it is not compulsory to believe, but nevertheless the Church teaches that the soul, upon separation from the body, passes through a number of aerial trials wherein she gives an accounting of all her deeds. When the soul is exonerated or absolved from certain sins, it is lifted up to the next trial and so on up to the twentieth. In the event the soul is not exonerated because of insufficient good works, it is cast down into an abyss where it remains until Judgment Day. If it successfully passes through all of them, the soul is made worthy through the grace of God of appearing before the very person of Christ and is shown and shares in a state of partial or incomplete happiness. Therefore, during Lent we ought to mindfully examine our life in the past, then confess our sins and pass through the period of repentance by making amends and exhibit sorrow for sins committed. After we confess and rid ourselves of sins, Mother Church deems us worthy of partaking Christ our God in the communion of his most-blessed Body and life-giving Blood.
As I mentioned previously, happiness for a Christian beyond the grave is limited. It is not complete and perfect. The soul lives and enjoys partial happiness but its collaborator in earthly deeds, i.e., the body still lies under the earth lifeless without honor and often without a visible trace. However, the last day shall come; this present age will come to an end and there will be a universal resurrection. The bodies will again reunite with their souls. People who have been found worthy will appear in better, spiritual, and more glorified bodies; they will experience a new and endless life in the ever-blessed Kingdom of God prepared for Christ, their God and Savior, and his chosen ones.
There will be great joy, a solemn feast. What a great meeting it shall be! What greetings and embraces! We cannot in any way at this time understand or imagine the scene that will take place during those first few moments of eternal life. Only those initial joyous moments we experience at Easter give us an inkling of what it will be like at our future resurrection. At Easter everyone greets one another; everyone rejoices. Why? We rejoice at the thought of Christ’s Resurrection along with the thought of our personal resurrection. For Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection. Christ rose from the dead and we will rise with Him.
And so our Lenten Period ends with a ceremony of mutual greeting and embracing, but in this instance it is a more enthusiastic greeting than the first and a sweeter hug than the first. Then we will return home, --- spiritually healthy and exalted and supremely happy.
May the Lord find us worthy to relive once again those divine and heavenly moments and witness the glory and solemnity of that Holiday of Holidays, the Feast of Feasts! And may the good Lord enable us, as is mentioned in a prayer of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, during this Lenten Period to “fight the good fight, to accomplish the course of the Fast; to preserve inviolate the faith; to be accounted victors over sin; and to attain, uncondemned, and adore the Holy Resurrection.”
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