Back in 1983, while I was at St. Vladimir's Seminary,
we had this service, and Fr. Alexander Schmemann
gave the sermon that evening, and it was transcribed,
and I want to read just a little bit about what
he said on that day. Once more, we're about to
enter Great Lent. I'd like to remind us, myself
first of all, and all of you, fathers, brothers,
sisters, of the verse that we just sang, and
that the verse that says, let us set out with
joy upon the season of the fast. Only yesterday
we were commemorating Adam, weeping, lamenting
at the gates of paradise, and now every second
line of the Triodion, the hymn book of Lent,
and the liturgical books will speak of repentance,
acknowledging what dark and helpless lives we
live, in which sometimes we are immersed. And
yet, no one will prove to me that the general
tonality of great Lent is not that of a tremendous
joy. Not what we call joy in this world. Not
just something entertaining, interesting, or
amusing, but the deepest definition of joy, that
joy of which Jesus Christ says, no one will take
from you. Why joy? What is that joy? Lent is
a gift. Lent is a gift from God to us, a gift
which is admirable, marvelous, one that we desire.
Now a gift of what? I would say that it is a
gift of the essential. That which is essential
and yet which suffers most in our life because
we are living lives of confusion and fragmentation,
lives which constantly conceal from us the eternal,
the glorious, the divine meaning of life and
take away from us that which should push. Push
us and thus correct and fill our life with joy.
And this essential, what is this essential? Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving, the acceptance from God of the
life, as St. Peter says, created out of nothing.
Created exclusively by the love of God. For there
is no other reason for us to exist. Loved by
him even before we were born. We were taken into
his marvelous light. Now we live and forget.
When was the last time I thought about it? But
I do not forget so many little things and affairs
that transform my life into empty noise, into
a kind of traveling without knowing where. Lent
returns to me, gives back to me this essential,
the essential layer of life. Essential because
it is coming from God. Essential because it reveals
God. The essential time, because time again is
a great, great area of sin. Because time is the
time of what? Of priorities. How often our priorities
are not at all as they should be. Yet in great
Lent, waiting, listening, singing, you will see
little by little that time that is broken and
deviated, taking us to death and nowhere else.
without any meaning, you will see that time again
becomes expectation, becomes something precious.
You wouldn't take one minute of it away from
its purpose of pleasing God, of accepting from
him his life, together with our gratitude. It
is also the rediscovery of the essential link
among ourselves, the rediscovery that we belong
to each other. The rediscovery that no one has
entered my life or your life without the will
of God. And that rediscovery, there is everywhere
an appeal, an offering to do something for God,
to help, to comfort, to transform, to take with
you, with each one of you, that brother and sister
of Christ. This is the essential relationship.
Don't we understand? Don't we understand, brothers
and sisters? what power is given to us in Lent.
Lent in spring, Lent in beginning, Lent in resurrection.
All of this is given to us free. Come, listen
to that prayer. Make it yours. Don't even think
on your own. Just join. Just enter and rejoice.
And that joy will start killing those old and
painful and boring sins. And with that, you will
have that great joy. which the angels heard,
which the disciples experienced when they returned
to Jerusalem after Christ's ascension. It is
that joy which was left with them that we nobly
adopted. It is, first of all, the joy of knowing,
the joy of having something in me which, whether
I want it or not, will start transforming life
in me and around me. If we would think of the
real sins we have committed, We would say that
one of the most important is exactly the style
and tonality which we maintain with each other,
our complaining and criticizing. I don't think
that there are cases of great destructive hatred
or assassination or something. It's just that
we exist as if we are completely out of each
other's life, out of each other's interests,
out of each other's love, without having repaired
this relationship. there is no possibility of
entering Lent. Sin, whether you call it original
sin or primordial sin, it's broken the unity
of life in this world. It's broken time. It's
broken relationships. It's broken family. Everything
is diavolos, divided and destroyed. But Christ
has come into the world and said, and when I
am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all
men to myself. If there is a strict commandment
in the gospel, it is that commandment, if you
forgive, your heavenly father will also forgive
you. But if you do not forgive, neither will
your father forgive. So, of course, it is a necessity.
But the now of that, I repeat it once more, is
to be horrified by that fragmentation of our
own existence, by the pettiness of our relationships,
by the destructive words. by the abandonment
of reverence for one another. Now, we have to
forgive each other, whether or not we have any
explicit sins or crimes against one another.
That reconciliation, that forgiveness, is an
epiphany of the church as the kingdom of God.
We are saved because we are in the body of Christ.
We are saved because we accept from Christ the
world. And finally, we accept Christ when we
accept each other. Everything else is lie and
hypocrisy. So fathers, brothers, sisters, let
us forgive one another. Let us not think about
why. There's enough to think about. Let us do
it right now in a kind of deep breath. Say, Lord,
help us to forgive. Lord, renew all these relationships.
What a chance is given here for love to triumph.
For unity to reflect the divine unity. Let us
gladly accept it. This is the beginning of Lent.
This is our spring repair time because reconciliation
is the powerful renewal of the ruin. So please,
for the sake of Christ, let us forgive each other.
The first thing I am asking all of you, my spiritual
family, is to forgive me. Imagine how many temptations
of laziness, of avoiding too much, so on and
so forth. What a constant defense of my own interests,
of this or that. I know that I don't even have
an ounce of this self -giving, self -sacrifice,
which is truly a true repentance, the true renewal
of love. So let us forgive one another.