They are three saints. The first is Saint Gregory Palamas, Bishop of Thessalonica, whose feast we celebrate on the second Sunday. The second is Saint John, author of the Ladder of Virtues, whose feast we celebrate on the fourth Sunday. And the last is our righteous mother, Mary of Egypt, whose feast we celebrate on the fifth Sunday.
We will not, in this haste, go into the details of their lives. They are published in a booklet translated into Arabic by Al-Noor Orthodox Publications, and those who have not yet read it can go back to it and read it during this fast, to benefit from their love and devotion to God.
What concerns us here is celebrating them. Celebrating the saints is one of the foundations of our life in Christ. This means that the victorious and militant Church is one, and that holiness is possible and belongs to us. What we must always know is that the goal of ecclesiastical commitment is holiness, and that the saints are therefore present in our history to intercede for us before God and help us to lift us from the density of history and every distance, so that we may extend, “now and here,” into eternity, and taste its flashes with obedience and love.
The Church places us before people like us who have dedicated their lives to God and urges us to follow the path they took, each in his or her place, so that we may taste their victory and become stronger. The Church is an educator, and her education is based on one foundation, which is the divine teaching embodied in life. She tells us her things and presents to us those who believed that Christ is stronger than the world, so that her communication may be complete. The aim of celebrating the saints or learning about them is not to despair of our own conditions, but rather to repent, seek closeness, and believe in the action of the grace of the Spirit of God that dwells within us. Saint John Climacus says: “Whoever hears news of the supernatural virtues of the saints and despairs of himself is very foolish. For this news, on the contrary, is likely to benefit you greatly in one of two ways: either it urges you to imitate them with holy courage, or it brings you to know yourself greatly and subsequently to rebuke yourself with thrice-holy humility, as it reveals to you the depth of your weakness” (The Ladder of Virtues, Article 26/126).
These three saints were all hermits, that is, people who lived for God alone. It is true that they, or two of them, did not, in one way or another, cut themselves off from people (Mary, at the end of her life, met a holy monk named Zosimas), Saint Gregory could not refuse the episcopate and defended the Orthodox faith in the face of some who distorted the true heritage, and Al-Salami mingled with monks like himself and left us a very important book (also translated into Arabic by Al-Nour Publications). But they were seekers of unity with God first and foremost. Perhaps the Church chose to celebrate their feast at this time to say this special matter, which is that if we do not unite ourselves with God completely, we will not be able to extend His true image to people so that they may seek His closeness, nor will we be able, subsequently, to defend the correct doctrine.
The emphasis on asceticism, in the Lenten journey, is the Church’s invitation to us to return to God and seek His closeness first. Fasting is not just abstaining from certain permissible foods, but, in essence, it is reconciliation with God and seclusion with Him. It also presupposes a position towards the world. We fast to say, all of us, monks and laymen, that this world is fleeting, and that what remains is the face of the Lord.
This is because the Church does not address its members with discrimination, that is, it does not say one thing to some and something different to others. Asceticism concerns all of us, and it is the backbone of our spiritual journey. This requires a firm conviction and a new behavior, that is, a life position that is not limited to a period of time (the period of fasting). What God asks of us during this period, He always asks of us. That is, He wants us to maintain His love and maintain our position in this world, even if the fasting season is over.
This means that fasting helps us establish a new life, so we choose the Lord as its master in all its details. For example, if our life is different, we do not accept that after the end of the fasting period we return to what we were before. This, of course, does not mean that we do not eat, drink, or wear clothes after Easter. But we should know that our life is not based on all of that, but on the love of Jesus who gave himself for us. The Lord’s work of salvation requires our whole life to be understood. This is, in fact, what acceptable asceticism assumes.
The Church calls us, on this triple feast, to stand with these saints in the same line of loyalty. If we believe that holiness does not belong to us, as most people say, we are deviating from the only truth that Gregory, John, Mary, and all the saints believed in an amazing way. But if we correct our belief, our feast will be an anticipation of the day when God will gather us with them, so that our joy in the Holy Lord alone will last.
From my parish bulletin 2002
