Sunday, April 17, 2005 Lenten Fast (Tone 5)
Mary of Egypt; 5th Sunday of Great Lent
Kellia: Nehemiah 12:43-47 Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-14 Gospel: St. Mark 10:32-45
St. Mark 10:32-45, especially vss. 32, 33: "Then He took the twelve aside again and began to
tell them the things that would happen to Him: 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed
to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles.'" The Lord
Jesus once posed a question to His disciples which, eventually, every human being must answer: "Who do you say that I
Am?" (Mk. 8:29). When the Lord first asked this question of His disciples, Peter, as spokesman for the group, confessed
Him to be "the Christ" (Mk. 8:29). After that answer, the Lord stretched the vision of those first disciples concerning "the
Christ." Historically, the Messiah would triumph only through suffering and death prior to rising on the third day. He did
not, and still does not, permit "the Christ" to be identified apart from betrayal, condemnation, death, and Resurrection as
essential realities. This is how the God-Man defines Himself.
This assertion of a suffering Christ was one of three prophecies by the Lord concerning His Passion (8:31; 9:31; 10:32,33).
The present reading is the final and most detailed of these. After this prophecy, James and John asked the Lord: "Grant us
that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory" (Mk. 10:37). How lightly they passed
over the "delivery" to the chief priests and scribes, the condemnation, the surrender to the Romans, the mocking, scourging,
spitting, and the execution! Still, St. John Chrysostom softens the appalling flippancy of these sons of Zebedee: "But let no
man be troubled at the Apostles being in such an imperfect state. For not yet was the Cross accomplished, not yet the grace
of the Spirit given."
Grasp St. John Chrysostom's point: after the Passion and the Glory, the disciples were very different men, humbled in
themselves. We have the privilege of looking back at the Lord's Passion "through" the Resurrection, but still the life-giving Cross must confront us in its double truth: the suffering of our Savior, and ourselves as sinners. The Gospels require
us to "..look into the perfect law of liberty, and continue therein and not be forgetful hearers" (Jas. 1:25).
What a timely reading this passage is! We have arrived at the last Sunday of Great Lent. Soon we will relive the solemn
and saving events of Great and Holy Week. May we, like the first disciples, as we participate again in the Lord's Passion,
see the price He paid to release us from the thrall of death and sin. How wisely the Holy Fathers of the Church crafted this
Sunday with its dual focus on the Life-giving Passion and on the Venerable St. Mary of Egypt!
Why St. Mary? Because she embodies that true repentance which embraces the Passion. When she venerated the Life-giving Cross, she saw herself and chose the life of struggle and repentance in the desert. Listen to the experience of that
blessed former harlot in her own words:
"The holy day of the Exaltation of the Cross dawned while I was still flying about - hunting for youths....When the hour for
the holy elevation [of the Cross] approached, I was trying to make my way in with the crowd....I was stopped by some force
which prevented my entering....Having repeated my attempt three or four times, at last I felt exhausted and...began to
understand the reason why I was prevented....it was my unclean life which barred the entrance to me. I began to weep and
lament." She, however, begged the Theotokos to intercede with Christ for her, and the weeping Mary received the grace to
see the Cross: "I saw too the Mysteries of God and how the Lord accepts repentance." Thus, she spent forty years in the
desert repenting.
Having taken thee, O righteous Mary, as an example of true repentance, we beg thee to implore Christ our God to grant us
the same gift and grace, that in faith and yearning we may sing songs of deliverance unto thee.