Monday, August 9, 2004
Dormition Fast Venerable Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker
Kellia: Joel 1:1-14 Epistle: 2 Corinthians 2:4-15 Gospel: St. Matthew 23:13-22
Joel 1:1-14, especially vss. 12, 13:
"The vine withers, the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the
field are withered; and gladness fails from the sons of men. Gird on sackcloth and lament, O
priests, wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth...." During the last
century, terrible days, unimaginable in horror and degradation, fell on peoples across the globe.
Sometimes these dark disasters were caused by the unforgiving upheavals of nature, but at other
times by the brute decisions of men, including the savagery of war and revolution. The images
that haunted the news photos and correspondents' reports still stagger the mind. How can we
speak of life's blessings, the artistry of men and women, and the promise of science, and then be
plunged into sudden death, plague, and gloom? The Prophets of Scripture, being filled with the
Spirit of God and alert to the word of the Lord, call us to heed God's judgment in life's
calamities, to lament and mourn and fast when "gladness fails from the sons of men" (vs. 12).
They also prompt us to look for God's restoration of His People and for the New Jerusalem.
The small collection of prophecies from the Prophet Joel reveals both aspects of the Lord's
activity in the fabric of history, "the blood and fire and columns of smoke" (Joel 2:30) as well as
"the sweet wine and the hills" flowing with milk (Joel 3:18). In the opening passage, Joel 1:1-14,
the Prophet describes a natural disaster that swept down upon Judah, withering life and
consuming everything before it, "the swarming locust" (Joel 1:4). Devouring the standing grain
crops in the fields and stripping the vineyards and fruit trees bare, this insect horde removed all
food from man and beast. The event was so striking that Joel urges us: "tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children and their children another generation" (vs. 3). He could
remember nothing like it in his lifetime nor in all of history (vs. 2).
The Prophet teaches us to wake up (vs. 5) and perceive "the word of the Lord" (vs. 1), to allow
all the events of life to rouse us, much as the locust plague awakened him (vs. 1). We learn to be
true historians from Joel, and not to reduce, in our minds, the events of life to mere "news
stories," nor to see what happens only with the eyes of the flesh. Indeed, "hear what the Spirit
says" (Rev. 2:7)! "Hear this, you aged men, give ear, all inhabitants of the land!" (vs. 2).
Attentiveness with the heart to what the Lord is saying opens our inner eyes to the deeper levels
of personal existence, as well as the meaning of all history for nations and peoples. We can be so
deadened by routine and drinking in the good things of life, that we have no interior blessing and
are merely dead souls walking about in dying bodies: "Awake, you drunkards!" (vs. 5).
The conditions of life often change overnight and catch us unaware. Locusts devastate a whole
region. HIV infects half the population of an entire nation. An annual physical exposes
metastatic cancer raging throughout the body. Friday afternoon comes, bringing an unexpected
pink slip and a final pay check. A note on the kitchen table announces, "I have left you and gone
away. I will not be back. Hug the kids for me." Oh, indeed, the sweet wine can be "cut off from
your mouth" (vs. 5) when you least expect it and you may not be prepared to face the aftermath.
Observe the admonitions of the Prophet. Let his experience be a wake-up call. Do not be taken
off guard by sore and unexpected calamities. Rather, let us "lament" (vs. 8), and "mourn" (vs. 9)
and "wail" (vs. 11), "gird on sackcloth" (vs. 13), sanctifying the Church's holy seasons of fasting
and Her regular week day fasts, and, then, let us "cry to the Lord" (vs.14). Grant, O Lord Jesus
Christ, that we may complete the remaining time of our life in peace and repentance, ending this
present life with a good defense before Thy dread Judgment Seat.
