Saturday, March 20, 2004
Lenten Fast
Photeini, The Samaritan Woman
Kellia: Isaiah 37:21-29 Epistle: Hebrews 6:9-12 Gospel: St. Mark 7:31-37
Isaiah 37:21-29 RSV, especially vs. 23: "Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised
your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!" St. John Cassian teaches that "when the vice
of pride has become master of our wretched soul, it acts like some harsh tyrant who has gained control of a great city and
destroys it completely, razing it to its foundations." He could have been referring to Sennacherib, King of Assyria (705-681 BC). Let us learn from God and His Prophet Isaiah what the source of pride is, how pride destroys fellowship with
others, and, above all, how pride invites God's rebuke and leads to the ultimate destruction of the proud one.
This reading amply demonstrates that pride begins with a loss of awareness. The king of Assyria could accurately list the
success of his military conquests west to the Mediterranean and south along the coast into Egypt. In mountains, desert, and
across the branches of the Nile at its delta - his armies triumphed (vss. 24,25). He conquered all. However, as St. John of
the Ladder says, "It is shameful to be proud of the adornments that are not your own. Pride in his successes deceived him.
How readily one can forget our utter dependence on God. As John Climacus reminds us: "only such victories as you have
won without the cooperation of the body have been accomplished by your efforts, because the body is not yours, but a work
of God."
The Lord Jesus corrected Pilate for his prideful claim: "I have the power to crucify You and the power to release You," by
pointing out to the august procurator, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from
above" (Jn. 19:10,11). And God said the same to Sennacherib: "I planned from days of old...that you should make fortified
cities crash into heaps of ruins" (Is. 37:26). Beloved of the Lord, let us consider for ourselves the Apostle Paul's question:
"And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not
received it?" (1 Cor. 4:7). Let us extinguish all pride and give thanks to God. May God give us the grace of a constant
remembrance of our dependence.
Pride truly makes one lonely, for the proud person is cut off from the warmth of human companionship. As the Lord spoke
concerning Sennacherib: "She despises you, she scorns you - the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you -
the daughter of Jerusalem" (Is. 37:22). "The daughter of Jerusalem" can be understood in three important ways: first, as the
community of Jerusalem - which certainly despised the proud Assyrian conqueror, for the people of Judah experienced
bitter impoverishment because of the tribute he extracted from them - what today we call "protection money." There was
no fellowship between him and Jerusalem.
Second, if the verse is applied to others and not tied historically to the king of Assyria, the daughter of Zion may be
understood as certain members of the Church. Let us remember that the proud, caught in the clutches of the demon of
pride, certainly "cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons" (1 Cor. 10:21). As the Apostle Paul says, they
drink judgment for not recognizing the Body (1 Cor. 11:29). Third, and finally, the proud cannot expect their pleas for
prayer to be answered by the humble Virgin of the New Jerusalem - the Holy Theotokos.
The mocking, the reviling, the raised imperious voice, and the haughtily lifted eyes which mark the proud, may seem
directed to their fellow human beings, but God says that pride rages against Him, and that men's arrogance comes to His
ears (Is. 37:29). Hence, the destiny of the proud is Divine rebuke and, short of true repentance, certainly is destruction (vs.
29). Let us turn quickly away from pride and not dally with it, lest we be given to the merciless (Pr. 5:9).
My eyes are weighed down by loathsome pride, but do Thou accept me penitent, O Lord.
