Monday, March 22, 2004
Lenten Fast
Hieromartyr Basil of Ancyra
6th Hour: Isaiah 37:33-38:6 1st Vespers: Genesis 13:12-18 2nd Vespers: Proverbs 14:27-15:4
Isaiah 37:33-38:6 RSV, especially vs. 35: "For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake and for
the sake of My servant David." St. Nikolai of Zica encourages us in the trials and afflictions of life with a reminder:
"There is no danger in which God cannot help, and no enemy who could in his own strength and without God's permission,
gain the victory."
Brethren, let us awaken to the constant and unremitting lovingkindness we receive from God, at this moment and at every
turn in our lives. Read and re-read today's passage. Take its message to heart: God sustains His People because He loves
us. His covenant with His Church, including every member of it, never will be withdrawn to the end of time, unto the ages
of ages.
As today's reading shows, Jerusalem was delivered by means of a devastating outbreak of plague in the camp of the
besieging Assyrian army. With no alternative left to him, "Sennacherib, King of Assyria, departed, went home, and dwelt
at Nineveh" (vs. 37). How and why did this happen? Isaiah explains: "Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you
have prayed to Me" (Is. 37:21), and, God adds this further word, "for My own sake" (Is. 37:35).
Of course, we know that Jerusalem, the physical bastion of the People of the Old Covenant, was later destroyed and that her
citizens were enslaved by the Babylonians. Furthermore, even in the last century when great segments of the Church of the
New Covenant were enslaved, tortured, and killed, God continued to defend His Church and to save Her, by the prayers of
the Faithful and for His own sake. Hell "shall not prevail against it" (Mt. 16:18).
Listen to the Prophet Moses: "There is none like God, O Jeshurun, Who rides through the heavens to your help and in His
majesty through the skies....Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord!" (Dt. 33:26,29). When,
for His sake, insults, attacks, and death come upon us, or any segment of the Church, let us recall the Lord Jesus' words to
His martyr, St. Theodore the Recruit, "Fear not, Theodore, I Am with thee."
Isaiah shows that God, likewise, is concerned for each particular problem or affliction that may come upon any individual
member of His Church. When "Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, the Lord said to him, 'Thus says the
Lord: Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover'" (Is. 38:1). Despite the seemingly irreversible nature
of this message and that it was brought to him personally from God by God's holy Prophet, Isaiah, yet the king "turned his
face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord" (vs. 2).
Counting his covenant relationship with God to be of infinite worth, the king prayed and wept. Knowing in himself that he
had walked "in faithfulness and with a whole heart," he was able to weep bitterly before the Lord at the word of the Lord
(vs. 3). Can we say, then, that God, Who is the same (Ps. 101:27 LXX) and Who does not let the words of His servants
"fall to the ground" (1 Kngs. 3:19 LXX), speaks by a Prophet and does "not make it good?" (Num. 23:19).
Without doubt the Lord tests His sons and daughters. He places hard facts and words before us and shows us likely
outcomes so that we might weep. Terrible diagnoses are declared. Inevitable death looms. Do we rage and rail against the
Lord, or do we "turn our face to the wall and pray" and weep, confessing our sins, acknowledging our frail, dependent
existence?
In this life, even death is limited, for "the Lord shall keep thee from all evil, the Lord shall guard thy soul" (Ps. 120:7
LXX). Let us cast all our care upon Him, for He cares for us (1 Pet. 5:7); and with the righteous Job, let us say, "Though
the Mighty One should lay hand upon me...as He has begun, verily I will speak, and plead before Him" (Job. 13:15 LXX).
O loving God, help us to discover that which is necessary to our eternal salvation.
