Lenten Reflections on 'God, Man & the Church'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

GREAT LENT: The Eighth Day
 

Vladimir Solovyov

 

I have been reading the book of an Orthodox religious  philosopher, Vladimir Solovyov who, in this particular book (God, Man & The Church), writes in a straightforward style that is not speculative or overly-laden with difficult concepts and vocabulary. He is outlining a life of prayer, almsgiving and charity within a biblical understanding of these practices. He begins the book with the type of statement that we do not encounter much of today, because he speaks openly of truth and immortality - almost taboo subjects within our secular world and postmodernism, and hardly even approached by today's "wise men." Then Solovyov sets out some of the basic principles of his approach in these few excerpts:

 

"Endless life without truth and perfection would be an eternity of torment, and perfection without immortality would be rank injustice and an indignity beyond measure. But if our better part, the soul, desires eternal life and truth, the order of nature as we know it deprives us of both. Left to himself, man is able to conserve neither his life not his moral dignity, he comes upon bodily death and spiritual death."

"Man the animal submits to such a fate in spite of himself, but the human heart will not do so, for it has within itself the pledge of another and different life."

"First of all man has to have a loathing for evil, to know it to be sin; then he has to undertake an interior fight against it; lastly, convinced of his own insufficiency in the contest, he has to turn to God and ask his help. So in order to receive grace there are required a reprobation of moral evil or sin, an effort to get free from it, and a turning to God ("conversion")."

"The human will cannot be forced: a man may be driven by fear or violence to do a wicked deed but he cannot be driven to have a wicked will, for the will is independent of external force; in the same way it is only of his own volition that man can turn his will from evil towards the only good ... If we don't want to believe, then we shall not believe: God does not will to be an external fact forcing himself upon us, but an interior truth whom we are morally obliged freely to recognize. To believe in God is a moral obligation: if man does not fulfill his moral obligation then he of necessity loses his moral dignity."

"We must, then, believe that good exists in itself, and that it is the one truth: we must believe in God. This faith is both a divine gift and our own free act."

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+  +  +

GREAT LENT: The Ninth Day

I am staying with the Orthodox religious philosopher, Vladimir Solovyov, a bit longer as he writes about prayer, almsgiving and fasting in his book, God, Man & the Church. Solovyov understands that the realization that God is the source of all goodness, and that the will of God is essential in guiding our own wills toward our immersion in the good. This realization, in turn, will lead us to prayer. He openly states that self-autonomy is nothing but "lunacy."  We can ask ourselves during Great Lent: what is the "highest wisdom?"

"He who does not associate his will with the Supreme Will, or who lacks faith in it, does not believe in good, or else esteems himself the absolute possessor of it, exalting his own will as perfect and almighty. Not to believe in good is moral death; to believe oneself the source of good is lunacy; the highest wisdom and the principle of moral perfection is to believe in the Divine Source of good, to pray to him, and to abandon oneself utterly to him."

 

+  +  +

 

GREAT LENT: The Tenth Day

In this brief passage, Vladimir Solovyov places almsgiving in the context of God's unmerited "charity" to all of us for the gift of grace and salvation:

 

"When God helps and saves us he does not inquire if we have a right to help and salvation; and when we give to one who asks, without enquiring whether he is deserving or not, then we are doing as God does: true alms-giving is the extension to others of the grace which God sends to us in answer to sincere prayer.

 

 

GREAT LENT: The Second Day

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Great Lent: The Second Day

 

 

I just received this from our good friend, Mother Paula. For those who never met Mother Paula, but who hear about her occasionally from me, she is a former parishioner who became a nun and is now living at the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Elwood City, PA. She explains the source of these brief, but very much-to-the-point insights that we would do well to follow during Great Lent.

Dear friends, 
   

Praying  that we will all have a blessed Lenten season and that the time given to us will be a one of joyful repentance, bringing us closer to Christ and to each other.

A few of my notes from +Fr. Thomas Hopko's past homilies from Forgiveness Sunday:

 

• Just live one day at a time. All of our problems come from thinking, analyzing, figuring things out. Instead, we should think of God and have an awareness of Him. Don’t look back and don’t be anxious for tomorrow. 

• Forgive, fast with joy and lay up yourselves treasures in your hearts. 

• Pray to God to show mercy to one another, constantly forgiving. 

• Lent is a gift from the crucified Lord. Take it and say thank you! 

• Lent is a gift given to us by God for our salvation and for the glory of God. 

• We learn during Lent, hopefully to have a broken and contrite heart and to come to realize that it is all grace.

 

Bless and Forgive

Yours in Christ,

Mother Paula

 

Taking Lent Seriously

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

 

The gateway to divine repentance has been opened: let us enter eagerly, purified in our bodies and observing abstinence from food and passions, as obedient servants of Christ who has called the world into the heavenly Kingdom. Let us offer to the King of all a tenth part of the whole year, that we may look with love upon His Resurrection.

(Sessional Hymn, Matins of Cheese Week)

 

 

As Orthodox Christians, we will be pretty much on our own through this year's lenten journey, as the Western lent is already well along its course and the Western Easter will be on April 4 - only our Third Sunday of Great Lent! We have to "stay the course" as well as possible, by the grace of God.

Great Lent is the “school of repentance.” It is roughly equivalent to an“annual tithe” in which we offer ourselves back to God so as to be received with love as was the prodigal son. As such, Great Lent is a gift from God, guiding us toward a way of life we may be reluctant to assume on our own, suffering as we often are from spiritual apathy or a simple lack of focus. Great Lent is also goal-oriented, for it leads us on a spiritual pilgrimage of preparation toward the “night brighter than the day” of Pascha and the Risen Lord. Great Lent is “sacred” and “soul-profiting.” It is a key component in the Orthodox Way of living out the Christian life we have been committed to in holy Baptism.

During Great Lent we will recover the essential practices of prayer, almsgiving and fasting. These practices are the tools that can assist us in returning and remaining close to God. Liturgical services unique to Great Lent immerse us in a way of communal pray that is solemn and penitent; but which also lighten and unburden the soul through the mercy and grace of God so abundantly poured out upon us through these inspired services. You leave the church tired in body perhaps, but brighter inside – in the mind and heart.

Great Lent invites us to see our neighbors as children of God and of equal value in the eyes of God, and thus deserving of our attention, patience and care. Charity can be distributed through material means or through an encouraging and warmly-spoken word. Great Lent liberates us from the excessive appetites of our bodies through the discipline of fasting. 

Our diet essentially becomes vegan as we seek to be less weighed down by a body overly-satiated with food and drink. This is healthy for both soul and body. The human person does not live by bread alone as the Lord taught us as He Himself fasted in the desert for forty days. 

We also fast from entertainment, bad habits, obsessions, useless distractions, vulgar language and the like. We try and simplify life and redeem our newfound time through more focused and virtue-creating tasks. If approached seriously, perhaps we will be able to carry some of this over into the paschal season – and beyond.

What can we do? How do we not squander this time set aside for God?

 

• Prayer - Make provision to be in church for some of the Lenten services. Start with the first week of Great Lent and the Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete. Assume or resume a regular Rule of Prayer in your home. Read the psalms and other Scripture carefully and prayerfully. Pray for others.

 

• Charity – Open your heart to your neighbor. If you believe that Christ dwells within you, then try and see Christ in your neighbor. Make your presence for the “other” encouraging and supportive. Restrain your “ego” for the sake of your neighbor. Help someone in a concrete manner this Great Lent.

 

• Fasting – Set domestic goals about the manner in which you will observe the fast. Test yourselves. Resist minimalism. If you “break” the fast, do not get discouraged or “give up,” but start over. Assume that your Orthodox neighbor is observing the fast. Seek silence. Allow for a different atmosphere in the home.

 

Jesus set the example of fasting for forty days. We imitate Him for the same period of forty days. If it was hard for Him, it will be hard for us; but not as hard as it was for Him. Jesus went to the Cross following His “holy week” in Jerusalem. We follow Him in our holy week observance and practices. Jesus was raised from the dead following His crucifixion, death and burial. We seek the resurrection of our spiritual lives here and now as we await our own death at the appointed time and the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

“Taking Lent seriously” (Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s phrase) is a concrete sign of taking God seriously. Our surrounding culture is not serious about taking anything too seriously. When serious issues arise, however, people have a difficult time dealing with them. Yet Jesus was very serious. Especially when it came to issues of life and death – and God and salvation, and so forth. Great Lent helps us to focus on these very themes, therefore making it meaningful and important for our lives.

 

May God be with you and with our entire parish community!

 

- Fr. Steven

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The living God who 'does not throw away people'

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

 

I was thinking about the words of Christ from the incomparable Gospel teaching that we call the Discourse on The Last Judgment heard this last Sunday:  "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." (Matt. 25:40) In the words of Jesus, the "least" would include people who do not have enough food to eat; or enough drink to satisfy their thirst; strangers in need of hospitality; those lacking proper clothing; those sick in hospitals; or those languishing alone in prison. We like the sound of this coming from Christ: His universal love for all of humankind. His identification with those Dostoevsky called "the insulted and the injured" (or sometimes "the humiliated and the wronged"), is deeply moving. His refusal to ignore those with no status and thus with no protection awakens our Christian sense of equality and justice.

But upon further reflection our ardor for these compassionate words of Christ may cool when we attempt to further objectively identify those described as "the least" in our contemporary setting. Just who are these "least of my brethren" - and "sisters," we should add, for the sake of clarifying the inclusiveness of the Lord's embrace? Are they the "unwashed/uneducated masses?" Perhaps the "proletariats" of George Orwell's 1984? Prisoners, drug addicts and/or prostitutes? Unwed mothers with nowhere to turn? The chronically unemployed? Neglected minorities? Undocumented immigrants? Even perhaps those dismissed as the undifferentiated "riff raff" drifting along the margins of society. These are descriptive terms for those countless human beings that are both neglected and dismissed as not counting for much. Or, with a bit more respect and regard, are "the least" just "simple people" who go through life without leaving a memorable trace (this possibility might be getting uncomfortably close). 

At the same time I was recently thinking of the dedication of Sister Verna Nonna Harrison's remarkable book, God's Many Splendored Image. I am currently reading my XU students' reviews of her book. My students have a genuine positive experience reading this book for the simple fact that they are reading about things they have never thought about up to this point in their young lives. And that would include the notion of human beings made "in the image and likeness of God." Or that not all Christians look at human nature as debased and inherently sinful. (This book is a "must read" for Orthodox Christians, in my humble opinion).

Getting back to her heartfelt dedication, Sister Nonna writes: "This book is dedicated to all those people whom other people have thrown away. It shows that God does not throw away people." What a unique and deeply moving dedication! A good part of human history is a dreary chronicle of horrific human suffering, as the strong throw away the weak with impunity and hardly a second thought: Man is a wolf to man as it has been said. Recent history makes this terrifyingly clear: Two World Wars; the Holocaust; the Gulag; the Cultural Revolution; Cambodian genocide. Step back one more century, and we face our own unconscionable national examples of slavery and the near-genocide of native Americans. Step into the contemporary world and we see slums, massive poverty, child abuse, human trafficking and endless other examples of "people whom other people have thrown away." We live with this, just glad that we and our loved ones are not part of this discarded humanity. 

The positive side of Sister Nonna's dedication is "that God does not throw away people." Each human person is as worthy as the next in the eyes of God - and the "range" traversed is from saint to sinner. Our eschatological hope is for the great reversal when the "least of these my brethren" are embraced by the love of God, transforming their sorrow into joy, "where the voice of those who feast is unceasing, and the sweetness of those who behold the ineffable beauty of thy countenance is beyond telling." (St. Basil the Great). What a wonderful expectation! But Christ in His teaching in Matt. 25:31-46, is concerned with how we treat the "least" here and now within the context and confines of our earthly existence.

The question that looms over us is this: Are we, as Orthodox Christians and members of the Body of Christ, torn between our commitment to the Gospel, but also to an ideology - political, social or cultural - that does not leave much room in our minds and hearts for those considered "the least."  Are we indifferent to our fellow human beings who are marginalized and disregarded? Even worse, do we look down on them with (unspoken) disdain or contempt? Are we open to acknowledging that each and every human person is made "in the image and likeness of God," including those "whom other people have thrown away?" Do we resent it when our hard-earned "tax dollars" that may go to supportive programs for those in need - meaning the poor, the unemployed and the homeless? (Yet, are we as resentful toward the wealthy who know how to avoid paying their fair share of taxes or who are corrupt and steal the needed resources of others?). Am I troubled by childhood poverty though I live in the wealthiest country in the world?                                                           

I maintain that these are legitimate questions in the light of Christ's teaching that we just recently heard in the great Discourse on the Last Judgment found in Matt. 25:31-46. These words are directed to us as we stand in church and hear the Gospel proclaimed. The merciful and loving God that we believe in is also the One who will judge us, or perhaps we should say who will pronounce the sentence that we have "earned" throughout the years of our earthly existence. The Gospel is not about social programs but about the heart of each of us and how we treat "the least" that are so dear to Christ. If we fail to be neighbors to those in need, it is then that we need "safety nets" coming from our religious, social and political leaders.

On a personal level, we need to help the "the least" of Christ's brothers and sisters. And we need to feel deeply in our hearts a painful recognition and sorrow for "those people whom other people have thrown away." Can we even grasp for a moment what it will mean for us to hear the words of the glorified Son of man: "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 25:34) For we worship "the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," the living God (Matt. 22:32) who "does not throw away people." I, for one, am deeply grateful to Sister Nonna Verna Harrison for bringing this to our attention through her heartfelt dedication found at the beginning of her marvelous book. 

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Fr. Steven's Lenten Reading List

 

Fr. Steven has been preparing us for Great Lent over the past few weeks in part through a series of Zoom classes on Wednesday evenings, and he recently provided a list of suggested books for the journey. 

As we fast from certain types of food (meat, dairy) during Lent, so we also might strive to reduce our internet use and "screen time" in general, and replace those habits with the reading of the Scriptures and a good spiritual book or two.

Below is the handout from Fr. Steven for one of our recent Pre-Lent classes, which includes his brief remarks about each book. There is certainly something for everyone here!

Fr. Steven's Lenten Reading List

 

+  Great Lent by Fr. Alexander Schmemann — Recommended by Arch. Kallistos Ware as the best single volume about Lent in English, this book has become a “classic” that should be read by one and all.  After reading this book, you will never approach the Lenten services in exactly the same way.  In fact, you just may want to come to church more often during Great Lent. This book includes the great appendix chapter, “Taking Lent Seriously” which you will do after reading this book!

+ The Lenten Spring by Fr. Thomas Hopko — Also already something of a “classic.”  This is a series of forty three-four page meditations on a variety of lenten themes. A wonderful use of the Scriptures and the Church’s Lenten hymnography, together with Fr. Hopko’s endless stream of great insights.

+ The Way of the Ascetics by Tito Colliander, a Finnish Orthodox lay theologian, and another “classic”(!).  Short insightful chapters that are very challenging in today’s  world  about an “applied Orthodoxy” in our daily living.

 

+ Prayer: An Encounter With the Living God by Metropolitan Ilarion Alfeyev — A relatively new book by one of today’s most prolific and gifted theologians/spiritual directors.  Short straightforward chapters that yield many insights into the practice of serious and effective prayer.  Very practical and quite helpful for that very reason.

+ The Passion of Christ by Veselin Kesich —  This was my New Testament professor at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.  A compact and clearly-written account of the Lord’s death on the Cross. Prof. Kesich walks you through the Lord’s earthly ministry and all of the factors that led to the Lord’s Passion. In only about a hundred pages, this book will illuminate a great deal for you as we move toward Holy Week during Great Lent.

+ The Power of the Name:  The Jesus Prayer in Orthodox Spirituality by Archbishop Kallistos Ware — Certainly the best short introduction to the Jesus Prayer by a lifelong student and practitioner of the great “prayer of the heart.” Arch. Ware distills years of study and practice into an unforgettable forty-page treatise.  Yes – another classic!

+ The Place of the Heart by Elizabeth Behr-Sigel —  The author has been described as the “grandmother” of 20th c. Orthodox writers.  A European lay theologian, Behr-Sigel’s book is subtitled “An Introduction to Orthodox Spirituality.”  This is a far-ranging description of how our immensely rich spiritual tradition developed from the Scriptures to the present day.  A very rich presentation. Actually, Arch. Ware’s essay on The Power of the Name is included here as an Appendix.

+ Becoming Human by Fr. John Behr — A marvelous and profound meditation – accompanied by iconographic images – on the Person of Christ and how Christ is the link toward our own true humanity.  Many great new insights here that Fr. John has put into a short meditative form based on his other scholarly studies of the early Christian tradition.  A profound link is made between Christ – the one true human being – and our own emerging humanity after His image.

+  God’s Many-Splendored Image by Nonna Verna Harrison — Verna Harrison is an Orthodox nun, known as Sister Nonna. She is also a highly-respected patristic scholar and theologian.  This book explores “theological anthropology for Christian formation.”  That sounds rather intimidating, but prominent readers have said that “clarity, simplicity, beauty, and depth” characterize the content and style of this book.  A truly wonderful exploration of what it means to be, as a human being, “God’s many-splendored image.”  Insightful observations are made in this book about figures ranging from desert fathers to Albert Einstein. Sister Nonna dedicated the book “to all people whom other people have thrown away. It shows that God does not throw away people.” Who would not want to read a book with a dedication like that?

+ The Sayings of the Desert Fathers – The Alphabetical Collection Benedicta Ward (editor and translator) — Here are the multitude of aphorisms, anecdotes and wisdom sayings of the great desert fathers arranged alphabetically (the Gk. alphabet, that is) from the letters Alpha to Omega, and everything in between.  These are the words of life from the great pioneers of Christian asceticism and the spiritual life.  We read the words of Sts. Anthony the Great, Arsenius, and Macarius the Great and a host of other spiritual guides.  An endless source of wisdom that can be read through the years.

How To Be A Sinner by Dr. Peter Bouteneff — This is an excellent new book that is endlessly insightful when answering the difficult question: What does it mean when I call myself a sinner?
Dr. Bouteneff takes us on a journey down the “royal road,” avoiding a dark, guilt-ridden path  of self-lacerating; and a superficial therapeutic approach designed to relieve us of any deep responsibility for our sins. Balanced and honest, this book will surprise you with its probing analysis.

Thirty Steps to Heaven by Vasilios Papavassiliou — Fr. Vasilios “walks” us up the Ladder of Divine Ascent by “translating” St. John’s classic monastic text The Ladder of Divine Ascent into a style and analysis that has a layperson living in the world primarily in mind. Yet, his commentary is not “watered down” so as to lose the depth and challenging vision of St. John. Very accessible and very practical for today’s Orthodox Christian.

First Fruits of Prayer – A Forty Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew by Frederica Mathewes-Green —  Similar in style and tone to Fr. Vasilios’ book mentioned right above. But here this prolific contemporary Orthodox author takes us through the classic Canon of St. Andrew, chanted on the first four evenings of Great Lent; and then again on the Thursday of the Fifth Week of Great Lent. Fine resource for rhe scriptural content of St. Andrew’s famous work.

As We Draw Near To The Fast . . .

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

 

Let us keep the Fast not only by refraining from food, but by becoming strangers to all the bodily passions.

- Forgiveness Sunday Vespers

 
As we draw near to the Fast, I would like to share a few passages from two of our recent or contemporary Orthodox thinkers/writers on Great Lent: Fr. Alexander Schmemann and Archbishop Kallistos Ware. They both understood the importance of Great Lent within the Tradition of the Church as it leads us toward the paschal mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, and the joyful cry that "Christ is Risen!"

__________

 

To take Lent seriously 

means then that we will consider it first of all on the deepest possible level - as a spiritual challenge which requires a response, a decision, a plan, a continuous effort.

We can say without any exaggeration that although Lent is still "observed," it has lost much of its impact on our lives, has ceased to be that bath of repentance and renewal which it is meant to e in the liturgical and spiritual teaching of the Church. But then, can we rediscover it; make it again a spiritual power in the daily reality of our existence? The answer to this question depends primarily, and I would say almost exclusively, on whether or not we are willing to take Lent seriously.

And indeed, it is the truth and the glory of Orthodoxy that it does not "adjust" itself to and compromise with the lower standards, that it does not make Christianity "easy." It is the glory of Orthodoxy but certainly not the glory of us Orthodox people.

So much in our churches is explained symbolically as interesting, colorful, and amusing customs and traditions, as something which connects us not so much with God and a new life in Him but with the past and the customs of our forefathers, that it becomes increasingly difficult to discern behind this religious folklore the utter seriousness of religion ... what survived was that which on the one hand is most colorful and on the other hand the least difficult. The spiritual danger here is that little by little one begins to understand religion itself as a system of symbols and customs rather than to understand the latter as a challenge to spiritual renewal and effort."

From Great Lent - Journey to Pascha 

by Fr. Alexander Schmemann

__________ 

 

The human person is a unity of body and soul,

'a living creature fashioned from natures visible and invisible,' in the words of the Triodion, and our ascetic fasting should therefore involve both these natures at once. The tendency to over-emphasize external rules about food in a legalistic way, and the opposite tendency to scorn these rules as outdated and unnecessary, are both alike to be deplored as a betrayal of true Orthodoxy. In both cases the proper balance between the outward and the inward has been impaired.

Even if the fast proves debilitating at first, afterwards we find that it enables us to sleep less, to think more clearly, and to work more decisively. As many doctors acknowledge, periodic fasts contribute to body hygiene. While involving genuine self-denial, fasting does not seek to do violence to our body but rather to restore equilibrium. Most of us in the Western world habitually eat more than we need. Fasting liberates our body from the burden of excessive weight and makes it a willing partner in the task of prayer, alert and responsive to the voice of the Spirit.

If it is important not to overlook the physical requirements of fasting, it is even more important not to overlook its inward significance. Fasting is to be converted  in heart and will; it is to return to God, to come home like the Prodigal to our Father's house. In the words of St. John Chrysostom, it means 'abstinence not only from food but from sin.' 'The fast,' he insists, 'should be kept not by the mouth alone but also by the eye, the ear, the feet, the hands and all the members of the body: 'the eye must abstain from impure sights, the ear from malicious gossip, the hands from acts of injustice. It is useless to fast from food, protests St. Basil, and yet to indulge in cruel criticism and slander: 'You do not eat meat but you devour your brother'."

From "The Meaning of the Great Fast"

by Archbishop Kallistos Ware

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Re-centering Until Our Last Breath

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,

"God requires of us to go on repenting until our last breath." (St. Isaias the Solitary)

"Repentance ... It means not self-pity or remorse, but conversion, the re-centering of our whole life upon the Trinity ... It is to see, not what we have failed to be, but what by divine grace we can now become; and it is to act upon what we see." (Archbishop Kallistos Ware)

I believe that we should think of the Sunday of the Prodigal Son extending itself throughout the week, thus giving us the Week of the Prodigal Son and the possibility of meditating upon this extraordinary parable carefully and thoughtfully. This parable is perhaps "the parable of parables," and thus deserving of a great deal of attention on our part. Sundays come and go perhaps too rapidly and we find ourselves back in our "routines," and living in a world far different than the one we are given a glimpse into through the Liturgy. That fleeting glimpse, which is actually a vision of life that is Christ-centered and Spirit-guided, may thus appear to be "ideal," but not "real." However, it may actually be the vision of the one underlying Reality of all that exists and which makes everything else not only tolerable or endurable, but meaningful and embraceable. If our liturgical and eucharistic experience is forgotten the moment it is over, as we move on to Sunday's entertainment, and then prepare to endure Monday morning's responsibilities; perhaps then we are "cheating" ourselves of "the one thing needful." And in the process we lose sight of the riches of the Gospel if we only absentmindedly await next Sunday's. That certainly applies to the Parable of the Prodigal Son!

Yet, before briefly looking into some of the riches of this well-known parable, perhaps we should place it within the wider context of its setting in the Gospel According to St. Luke. For the evangelist Luke places the Parable of the Prodigal Son as the climax of a series of three parables in chapter 15 that reveal the "joy in heaven" when sinners are "found" following an implied or clearly stated repentance. In fact, these parables are told to a group of "tax collectors and sinners" who "were drawing near to hear him." (LK. 15:1) The first of these is the Parable of the Lost Sheep:

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (15:3-7)

The Parable of the Lost Coin follows immediately:

Or what woman, having ten silver coins, is she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.' Just so, I tell you , there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (15:8-10)

These are wonderful parables that serve as images of our heavenly Father rejoicing when He "finds" a sinner who has returned to Him through repentance. This "rejoicing" links together these two shorter parables with the masterpiece to come that closes out this trilogy of repentance-oriented parables. For the father of the parable will command his household to "make merry" with the return of his wayward son. (15:24, 32) Repentance is not simply a time of hand-wringing, regret and guilt. It is the beginning of a new life and an open-ended future that is a radical change in direction from the "no exit" of sin and alienation from God. The somber and stultifying atmosphere of sin is driven away by the "breath" of the Spirit, which "blows where it wills." Of course, repentance is hard work - for old habits die hard - but sustained by the grace of God and the promise of salvation, the entire process to this day is most perfectly described by St. John Klimakos as "joy-creating sorrow." Remorse for the past devoid of forgiveness will only produce sorrow - if not despair. The acceptance of divine forgiveness produces joy - both for God and the sinner. A profound awareness of God's gift of salvation as the only meaningful release from the sorrow of sin led to the "gift of tears" of the saints. Their weeping was the expression of an inner joy that was overwhelming.

If (or As?) we squander our "inheritance" from our heavenly Father, we resemble that representative figure of the prodigal son. We too, then, "journey into a far country" there to waste our wealth in "loose living." (15:13) Unlike the prodigal son, though, we can do this without moving a step away from our homes. We need only retreat into the seemingly limitless space of our imaginations where fantasies entice us with unrealizable visions of "self-realization" or "pleasure." Then, there are the murky recesses of our hearts; uncharted territory that if not filled with the grace of God will "fill up" with "inner demons" that will eventually frighten us by the sheer audacity of temptations we never thought ourselves capable of entertaining. Or, perhaps a bit less dramatically, there are "the pods that the swine ate" (15:16), symbolic of philosophies and worldviews totally foreign to the Christ-centered life of the Church. The end result will be an emptiness and desolation that will exhaust our own inner resources. Our humbled minds and bodies will begin to search elsewhere for more satisfying nourishment. Anyone in such a predicament will only hope to be blessed - as was true of the prodigal son - with that mysterious process that leads to repentance. Described simply as, "he came to himself." (15:17) Then, in words that have an urgency far greater than in an entire book of theology, we too may cry out, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants." (15:18-19)

We all know what follows: the compassionate father who runs to embrace his son in love; the clothing of the son in festal garments; the orders and preparations for a sumptuous banquet of joy; and the solemn words: "for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." (15:24) As this parable repeats itself endlessly until the end of time, with its finely-etched descriptions of sin, repentance and redemption; we continue to witness some of the "mini-resurrections" that make up the meaningful dramas of everyday life.