St. Mark 10:32-45 (4/13) Gospel for the Sunday of Mary of Egypt, 5th of the Great Fast
The Life-Giving Cross: St. Mark 10:32-45, especially vss. 32, 33: “Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him: ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles.’” As we said yesterday, every human being will have to answer the Lord Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I Am?” (Mk. 8:29). When Christ first asked this question, Peter, spoke for the group, confessing the Lord Jesus to be “the Christ” (Mk. 8:29). Subsequently, the Lord stretched the disciples’ insight concerning Himself: as the Christ - that is, as the Messiah - He would triumph, but only through suffering and death - by rising on the third day. He did not, and still does not, permit “the Christ” to be used apart from betrayal, condemnation, death, and Resurrection. These are essential realities of His gift of salvation to us. This is how the God-Man defines Himself.
The assertion of a suffering Christ was one of three prophecies by the Lord concerning His Passion (8:31; 9:31; 10:32,33). This present reading is the final and most detailed of these. After this prophecy, James and John asked the Lord: “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory” (Mk. 10:37). How lightly they passed over the “delivery” to the chief priests and scribes, the condemnation, the surrender to the Romans, the mocking, scourging, spitting, and the execution! Still, St. John Chrysostom softens the appalling flippancy of these sons of Zebedee: “But let no man be troubled at the Apostles being in such an imperfect state. For not yet was the Cross accomplished, not yet the grace of the Spirit given.”
Grasp St. John Chrysostom’s point: after the Passion and the Glory, the disciples were very different men, humbled in themselves. We have the privilege of looking back at the Lord’s Passion “through” the Resurrection, but still the life-giving Cross must confront us in its double truth: the suffering of our Savior, and our suffering as sinners. The Gospels require us to “..look into the perfect law of liberty, and continue therein and not be forgetful hearers” (see Jas. 1:25).
What a timely reading this passage is! We have arrived at the last Sunday of Great Lent. Soon we will focus solemnly on the saving events of Great and Holy Week. May we, like the first disciples - as we participate again in the Lord’s Passion - see the price He paid to release us from the thrall of death and sin. How wisely the Holy Fathers of the Church crafted this Sunday with its dual focus on the Life-giving Passion and on the Venerable St. Mary of Egypt!
Why St. Mary? Because she embodies the true repentance that embraces the Passion. When she saw herself, she venerated the Life-giving Cross, and chose the life of struggle and repentance in the desert. Listen to the experience of that blessed former harlot in her own words:
“The holy day of the Exaltation of the Cross dawned while I was still flying about - hunting for youths....When the hour for the holy elevation [of the Cross] approached, I was trying to make my way in with the crowd....I was stopped by some force which prevented my entering....Having repeated my attempt three or four times, at last I felt exhausted and...began to understand the reason why I was prevented....it was my unclean life which barred the entrance to me. I began to weep and lament.” She, however, begged the Theotokos to intercede with Christ for her, and the weeping Mary received the grace to see the Cross: “I saw too the Mysteries of God and how the Lord accepts repentance.” Thus, she spent forty years in the desert repenting.
Having taken thee, O righteous Mary, as an example of true repentance, we beg thee implore Christ our God to grant us the same gift and grace, that in faith and yearning we may sing songs of deliverance unto thee.
