Thursday, April 1, 2004
Lenten Fast
The Venerable Mary of Egypt
6th Hour: Isaiah 65:8-16 1st Vespers: Genesis 46:1-17 2nd Vespers: Proverbs 23:15-24:5
Isaiah 65:8-16 RSV, especially vss. 15, 16: "His servants He will call by a different name. So that
he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth." St. Nikolai of Zica gives us the following eye-witness description of a Paschal Liturgy at Jerusalem: "When the Patriarch sang 'Christ is risen,' a heavy burden fell from
our souls. We felt as if we also had been raised from the dead....Coming out from the service at dawn, we began to regard
everything in the light of the glory of Christ's Resurrection, and all appeared different from what it had yesterday;
everything seemed better, more expressive, more glorious."
At the end of today's reading, the Lord describes the age to come: "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind" (vs. 17). Consider: today each Christian in fact blesses
"himself by the God of truth" (vs. 16), for in the Divine Liturgy he enters the timelessness of the new heaven and the new
earth in which everything is "better, more expressive, more glorious." Beloved of the Lord, it is this glorious and radiant
greater life which impels us to embrace the "joy-creating sorrow" of the Holy Fast. Therefore, let us strive to complete the
Lenten Fast, and come to Great and Holy Week blessing the true God, and saying, "Christ is risen!"even as we share in the
ages of ages with Him.
Today's prophecy from Isaiah ends by describing the unmerited inheritance prepared for God's New Covenant People
"who have sought Me" (vs. 10). Also, it reveals the cause of the bitter-sweet history of lost opportunity by the ancient
People of God. In addition, the prophecy explains why they have survived historically through centuries of affliction. The
reading also reminds the Faithful in Christ of our legacy from the Jews through the Apostles. While the ancient chosen
People hunger and thirst, we, through no merit of our own, are blessed to "sing for gladness of heart" (vs.14) to Him Who
has named us "My servants" (vss. 14,15).
In the Septuagint version (LXX), this prophecy begins: "Thus says the Lord, as a grape-stone shall be found in the cluster,
and they shall say, 'Destroy it not; for a blessing of the Lord is in it,' so will I do for the sake of Him that serves Me, for His
sake I will not destroy them all" (vs. 8 LXX). By this the Holy Fathers understood that Christ, that "stone" or Seed from
which the New Vine has come, was born of the former People of God, the Old Vine. The prophecy is accurate, for God
Himself led "...forth the Seed that came of Jacob and of Judah" (vs. 9 LXX). The Lord Jesus was a physical descendant
both of Jacob and of the tribe of Judah - "inheritors of My mountains; My chosen shall inherit it, and My servants shall
dwell there" (vs. 9).
Especially take note of the radical reversal of circumstances for 'the People of God.' In vivid metaphors, the prophecy
describes the flowering of the Church, "My servants." At the same time, the Lord interweaves this portrait of flourishing
with images of worsening conditions for the Jews, prophetic images which history has borne out: beginning with two
disastrous and failed revolts against the Roman empire, the Jews subsequently faced dispersion, exile, inquisitions,
persecutions, marginalizing, and death camps - century upon century after their rejection of Christ. Even their recent return
to the Holy Land remains fraught with violence and disorder. They appear destined "to the sword, and [to] bow down to
the slaughter" (vs. 12). Why? "because, when I called, you did not answer, when I spoke, you did not listen" (vs. 12).
Let us not be foolish, as some have, and despise Israel after the flesh, "but consider the goodness and severity of God: on
those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off"
(Rom. 11:22).
O Lord of hosts be with us for we have none other help but Thee. Have mercy on us!
