Friday, February 20, 2004
Meat Fast
Leo, the Bishop of Catania in Sicily
Kellia and Sixth Hour: Zechariah 8:7-17 Reading at Vespers: Zechariah 8:19-23
Zechariah 8:7-17 LXX, especially vs. 15, "so have I prepared and taken counsel in
these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: be ye of good courage." In
today's reading the Lord God proclaims a new era in which He will do good to His Church. Too
long have His People struggled without profit and found no peace, for affliction fell upon "him
that went out or to him that came in"(vs.10). Now, by the Prophet Zechariah, God announces a
reversal of circumstances: "I will not do to the remnant of this people according to the former
days, saith the Lord Almighty" (vs. 11). Instead, God declares, "I will shew peace: the vine shall
yield her fruit, and the land shall yield her produce, and the heaven shall give its dew: and I will
give as an inheritance all these things to the remnant of My People" (vs. 12).
Along with God's announcement of new circumstances, He exhorts His people to "be of good
courage, and strengthen your hands" (vs. 13). When faced everywhere with defeat, conflict, and
affliction, one finds it is easy to become resigned, to settle for muddling through, and to think
always in a defeatist mode. But here, God is calling His people from lethargy to renewed
diligence - with a promise: "I [will] save you, and ye shall be a blessing" (vs. 13).
As an example recently of such a time, consider the new circumstance of the peoples of Eastern
Europe. They lived under Communism for many years. Abruptly, their political, economic, and
social conditions changed. But the life that followed has not been a golden era. Many facets of
life have become more difficult, even stringent. But a new era exists in Eastern Europe. "Strong
hands" and diligence have a much greater opportunity of reward than before.
Now, Beloved of the Lord, let us ask, "To whom is this word of God directed?" Why does the
Church give us this lesson at the threshold of Great Lent? Though this message was given in
time past through the Lord's Holy Prophet Zechariah, today it is for our Lenten journey. In
Christ, the Prophet of the Lord calls us to the work of the Lenten Fast. We must look into the
situation of our life in Christ. What were our former conditions? And more important, what is
the new circumstance that now is in place as a result of God's intervention?
The old conditions, as the reading describes them, are these: "the wages of men could not be
profitable, and there could be no hire of cattle, and there could be no peace by reason of the
affliction" (vs. 10). If we heed the prophetic message from the perspective of the Apostles and
the Holy Fathers, we shall hear St. Paul speaking of those fallen conditions under which we lived
before we received the grace of God: "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).
True, at times sin appears to pay well, yet God's Prophet David prays, "deliver my soul from
ungodly men...yea, with Thy hidden treasures hath their belly been filled. They have satisfied
themselves with swine and have left the remnants to their babes" (Ps. 16:13-15 LXX). The
Psalmist Asaph gives us the reason: "Surely, for their crafty dealings Thou has appointed evils for
them" (Ps. 72:17 LXX). Evils are the wages of sin of which the Apostle Paul speaks.
Beloved of the Lord, we live under new circumstances. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us" (Rom. 5:8), and our Lord and Savior bids us, "Come unto Me, all ye that travail and are
heavy laden, and I will refresh you" (Mt. 11:28). Let us turn from our sins and their deadly
wages and receive refreshment. Let us use this Lenten season to "make our hands strong" for the
things of God. Listen: "These are the things which ye shall do; speak truth every one with his
neighbor; judge truth and peaceable judgment in your gates: and let none of you devise evil in his
heart against his neighbor; and love not a false oath" (Zech. 8:16, 17).
Lord, grant us to pass the days of Lent in diligence that Thy kingdom may come upon us.
