Brethren and fathers, the day of Easter is drawing near, since with Gods help we have passed the mid-point of the fast. But are we pressing forward to reach the Easter that comes and goes? Have we not achieved this year after year? The present Easter too will pass, for there is nothing lasting in the present age, but, All our days pass like a shadow, and our life travels like a rapid rider, until it has driven us to the final boundary of life. What, someone says, is Easter not to be desired? Of course, it very much to be desired. How could it not be? But we accomplish Easter every day. And what is this? Cleansing from sins, contrition of heart, tears of compunction, a clean conscience, the death of the parts of us that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and any other evil that is at work. One who has been found worthy in all this does not Easter and celebrate a much longed for feast to the Lord just once a year, but, we may say, does so each day. Someone, on the other hand, who does not have all the foregoing, but is held fast by the passions, cannot celebrate. For how can someone celebrate whose god is their stomach? Or who is aflame with fleshly lust? Or melted by the heat of jealousy? Or drowned by the love of money? Or enslaved to vainglory? Or caught up by the other passions. No one could possibly say that someone with a high fever was at rest, or that someone shipwrecked was making a good voyage. It simply isnt possible. It is impossible for someone who has become dark to be enlightened, or for someone possessed by sins to celebrate. But for you, brothers, we are confident of better things, ones that promise salvation. For our way of life is nothing other than preparation for a feast. ~St. Theodore the Studite~
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 19:40:33 +0000
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