Saturday, March 6, 2004
Lenten Fast
The Forty-two Martyrs of Amoria
Kellia: Genesis 28:10-17 Epistle: Hebrews 3:2-16 Gospel: St. Mark 1:35-44
Genesis 28: 10-17LXX, especially vs. 12: "...behold a ladder fixed on the earth, whose top reached to
heaven, and the angels of God ascended and descended on it. And the Lord stood upon it...." At the Great Vespers of
Annunciation (eve of March 25th), in the first sticheron intoned during the Psalm, "Lord I have cried..." (Ps. 140 LXX), the
Church exclaims to the Theotokos: "Rejoice, O lofty ladder whom Jacob did behold!" Hereby, we learn to recognize the
Mother of God in the type of the Ladder which Jacob saw; for in her birth-giving, she became the link between heaven and
earth, by which God descended to our mortal, human existence. In a similar way, a Catechism of the Church points out that
"elsewhere, she is called the 'Gate of heaven,' for it is through her that God makes His entrance among men in the person
of Jesus."
Earlier, this same Catechism observes that the identification of the Virgin as the "Ladder of Jacob" and the "Gate of
heaven" is "the first manifestation of Jacob's dream." Indeed, the great Manifestation of the Patriarch's vision descended
from heaven through her, and before men. He manifestly has united our race to God. He Himself declares to us: "Most
assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son
of Man" (Jn. 1:51). Hence, the Theotokos is the antitype of Jesus, Who is the Archetype of the Ladder, the One by Whom
the Lord has fixed upon earth the Way leading "to the Holy of Holies, [making] manifest the God of love."
See what we learn from Jacob's vision: "behold a ladder fixed on the earth, whose top reached to heaven" (Gen. 28:12
LXX). The Catechism reminds us that "When God becomes Incarnate, taking human flesh, heaven and earth become
reunited." In Christ, the gate to Paradise which was shut against Adam and Eve now is reopened for all men and women.
God provides us with a means of ascent - the Archetypal Ladder. The conjunction of God and Man lead St. Andrew of
Crete to prompt us: "You know, my soul, of the Ladder shown to Jacob reaching from earth to Heaven. Why have you not
clung to the sure step of piety?"
In his dream, Jacob saw "the angels of God" ascending and descending on the Ladder (vs. 12). Christ Jesus is "the Way,
the Truth, and the Life" by His own testimony (Jn. 14:6). God has fashioned an eternal means of communication between
the finite world and Himself, giving us knowledge of the Unknowable, allowing us to handle the Word of Life (1 Jn. 1:1).
Again, St. Andrew of Crete prompts us: "the great Patriarch...mystically set up for you my soul, a ladder of active ascent."
St. John of the Ladder adds: "Let him who has mounted it not turn back."
God promised to give the land on which Jacob lay and the ladder was "fixed" to his "seed" (Gen. 28:13 LXX). From the
Apostle Paul we learn that this "seed" which God mentions "is Christ" (Gal. 3:16). Through this Seed which is Christ,
multitudes of people who live on earth will receive strength to struggle up the Ladder to "reach the ineffable beauty of that
Countenance." Hence "shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 28:14).
Jacob's response to the dream is to awake in awe before a new potential for eternity in this life. He continued his life-journey with hope and great expectation, because he knew the Ladder existed, and so may we! On the one hand,
Metropolitan Philaret reminds us: "not [to] forget that, unless we employ our efforts in correcting ourselves and our lives,
we shall cease our ascent, and, most assuredly, we shall begin to fall." Conversely, St. Andrew of Crete encourages us:
"The ladder...my soul is a model of mounting by action and ascent by knowledge."
O Word of the Father, through Thine exceeding compassion Thou didst descend to us who fall here below, putting on our
humility: help us to ascend by the true Way to eternal Life.
