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Dear Parish Faithful,
The meaning of all this is clear. We are in mid-Lent. On the one hand, the physical and spiritual effort, if it is serious and consistent, begins to be felt, its burden becomes more burdensome, our fatigue more evident. We need help and encouragement.
On the other hand, having endured this fatigue, having climbed the mountain up to this point, we begin to see the end of our pilgrimage, and the rays of Easter grow in their intensity. Lent is our self-crucifixion, our experience, limited as it is, of Christ’s commandment heard in the gospel lesson of that Sunday: If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8.34). But we cannot take up our cross and follow Christ unless we have his Cross which he took up in order to save us. It is his Cross, not ours, that saves....
The emphasis shifts now from us, from our repentance and effort, to the events that took place “for our sake and for our salvation.
—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent
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This fine passage from Fr. Schmemann prepares us for the second half of Great Lent. We hope and pray that there is still something "in the tank" as the original zeal and commitments for these "all revered days" perhaps begins to wane. It is precisely because the Cross of Christ saves us that we are privileged to sing at every Liturgy: "For through the Cross, joy has come into the world." That joy is sourced in the following: When Jesus prepares His disciples for the Cross (Mk. 8:31; 9:31-32; 10:33-34), He also simultaneously reveals to them, that "after three days he will rise."
