WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.059 As we begin our final week of Lent, Christ the 00:00:05.059 --> 00:00:09.980 High Priest sets his face toward Jerusalem, stating 00:00:09.980 --> 00:00:14.519 plainly that there in that holy city he will 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:17.780 be delivered over to the high priests and the 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:21.600 scribes who will condemn him to death and deliver 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:25.420 him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit 00:00:25.420 --> 00:00:29.780 on him, flog him, and kill him. Yet three days 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:33.460 later he will rise, having offered himself through 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:38.280 the eternal spirit to obtain our eternal redemption, 00:00:38.420 --> 00:00:43.320 to purify our flesh, and to cleanse our consciences 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:47.640 from dead works in order that we might serve 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:53.299 the living and true God. Today, as Christ proceeds 00:00:53.299 --> 00:00:57.520 toward the city, before we join him in this journey 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:03.210 next week, we actually proceed away from it with 00:01:03.210 --> 00:01:07.709 a certain priest monk, Zosima, into the desert 00:01:07.709 --> 00:01:12.430 beyond the Jordan. Today the church sets forth 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:16.530 St. Mary of Egypt, whose life we read in full 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:20.510 on Monday with the great canon of St. Andrew 00:01:20.510 --> 00:01:25.590 of Crete. The life of St. Mary culminates our 00:01:25.590 --> 00:01:29.599 entire journey of Lent. It's not by coincidence 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:33.239 that things we commemorate in previous Lenten 00:01:33.239 --> 00:01:37.659 weeks and the weeks leading up to Lent make cameos 00:01:37.659 --> 00:01:42.260 today. It's an icon of the Theotokos that confronts 00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:48.000 and turns Mary of Egypt's life upside down, recalling 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.739 the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the veneration of icons 00:01:50.739 --> 00:01:53.280 and their significance for the Christian life. 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:57.019 It's the precious and life -giving cross that 00:01:57.019 --> 00:02:00.680 Mary first mocks and eventually wants to see, 00:02:00.819 --> 00:02:04.379 but is prevented from entering the church because 00:02:04.379 --> 00:02:07.939 of her wanton sin, recalling the Sunday of the 00:02:07.939 --> 00:02:12.960 cross. It's her participation in the energetic 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:17.159 life of God that enables Mary to discern things 00:02:17.159 --> 00:02:21.300 clairvoyantly about Zosima, levitate off the 00:02:21.300 --> 00:02:24.879 ground in prayer, speak scripture without ever 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:28.860 having read it, and walk on water, recalling 00:02:28.860 --> 00:02:31.379 the life that flows out from the Sunday of St. 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:35.479 Gregory Palamas. It's the life of the prodigal 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:39.840 son that shapes Mary's as she rejects the love 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:44.939 of her parents and her baptism at age 12 to run 00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:48.460 away and feed her sexual appetites, only to be 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:51.539 confronted with her own filth. recalling the 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:56.219 Sunday of the prodigal son, we could go on. But 00:02:56.219 --> 00:03:01.300 today, I want us to recall the Pharisee and the 00:03:01.300 --> 00:03:05.620 tax collector, which we reflected on well in 00:03:05.620 --> 00:03:09.219 advance of Lent to frame our Lenten journey. 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:13.919 In that story, we meet the Pharisee and the tax 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:17.319 collector, the pride and self -righteousness 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:20.729 of the Pharisee. I thank you, God. that I am 00:03:20.729 --> 00:03:25.030 not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, 00:03:25.050 --> 00:03:29.849 or like this tax collector. And the sheer humiliation 00:03:29.849 --> 00:03:34.009 of the tax collector. God, be merciful to me, 00:03:34.090 --> 00:03:39.009 the sinner. We have a somewhat easy time tearing 00:03:39.009 --> 00:03:42.849 down the Pharisee in this story. I think sometimes 00:03:42.849 --> 00:03:45.710 we think of him as if he inhabits a different 00:03:45.710 --> 00:03:50.500 religion and faith altogether. But what if the 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:55.120 church, to close out Great Lent, brought this 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:59.900 story a little closer to home and told it fully 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:04.780 in an orthodox mode? What if the Pharisee and 00:04:04.780 --> 00:04:08.000 someone like the tax collector, perhaps worse 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:12.680 than the tax collector, met and talked and interacted 00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:18.300 and changed one another's life? Today we get 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:22.019 the story of Zosima, the priest monk in Mary 00:04:22.019 --> 00:04:27.259 of Egypt. Zosima, a priest monk who does everything 00:04:27.259 --> 00:04:32.899 right with intention, dignity, and meaning, fasts 00:04:32.899 --> 00:04:37.319 well, always sings praises to God, never ceases 00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:41.500 to study the divine scriptures, adheres and accomplishes 00:04:41.500 --> 00:04:47.339 everything according to his ascetical rule. undoubtedly 00:04:47.339 --> 00:04:50.800 akin to St. John of Sinai's in the divine ladder, 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:55.480 is renowned for his spirituality and his status 00:04:55.480 --> 00:05:01.079 as a monastic elder, a staritz. For 53 years, 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:05.519 Zosima does these things. But all these things 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:08.740 bring him to a point where he believes he is 00:05:08.740 --> 00:05:13.439 perfect and doesn't need instruction. Is there 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:18.220 a monk on earth? Who can be useful to me? And 00:05:18.220 --> 00:05:22.920 show me a kind of asceticism that I haven't accomplished, 00:05:23.300 --> 00:05:28.019 that I haven't yet mastered. Is there a man to 00:05:28.019 --> 00:05:31.180 be found in the desert who has surpassed me? 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:38.240 Well, kind of. An angel comes to him. That's 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:41.680 how spiritually advanced Zosima is. And yet the 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:46.180 angel reminds Zosima that, no man has attained 00:05:46.180 --> 00:05:50.500 perfection but to leave his native land like 00:05:50.500 --> 00:05:55.180 Abraham and go into the desert so that the Lord 00:05:55.180 --> 00:06:00.220 can eventually bring Zosima to Mary, who is intentionally 00:06:00.220 --> 00:06:05.600 in this story not a man but a woman, and a sinful 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:08.699 woman at that, one who has never read Scripture. 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:12.319 who was baptized as a child and loved by her 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:15.160 parents, but scorned them and her life, who ran 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:18.339 away from home at age 12 to go to the city of 00:06:18.339 --> 00:06:21.420 Alexandria, where she squandered her life and 00:06:21.420 --> 00:06:25.600 her body in filth and gorged her sexual appetite. 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:30.680 We sometimes call her a prostitute, but that's 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:36.160 only partly true. It's much worse. She is a sex 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:39.680 addict, more like a nymphomaniac. The way she 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:42.000 frames her life is through the very words of 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:46.139 Ezekiel the prophet, Ezekiel 16, one of the most 00:06:46.139 --> 00:06:49.240 horrific passages in the Bible, worse than a 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:53.740 prostitute. She scorned and mocked payment. At 00:06:53.740 --> 00:06:56.600 least a prostitute provides for others, for her 00:06:56.600 --> 00:07:00.100 kids perhaps, maybe her family, a sinful and 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:03.800 heinous sense of sacrifice, but sacrifice nevertheless. 00:07:04.459 --> 00:07:08.240 In the words of Ezekiel, you gave payment. while 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:11.699 no payment was given to you. At the head of every 00:07:11.699 --> 00:07:15.839 street, every hill, you seduced and made your 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:19.420 beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any 00:07:19.420 --> 00:07:24.120 passerby and multiplied your whoring. That's 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:28.560 how St. Mary lived for 17 years, to the point 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.759 of joining a procession for the exaltation of 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.699 the cross, simply to seduce. and make to fall 00:07:35.699 --> 00:07:39.959 as many men as possible, and youths, might I 00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:45.819 add, away from Christ. She lives this way until 00:07:45.819 --> 00:07:48.100 she arrives at the church of the resurrection 00:07:48.100 --> 00:07:51.920 in Jerusalem, where the cross is set forth and 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:57.339 stands, and is prevented by the Theotokos as 00:07:57.339 --> 00:08:01.339 an invincible force through her icon from entering 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:04.290 into the church. And that's where everything 00:08:04.290 --> 00:08:08.689 comes tumbling down. Everything falls into place, 00:08:08.689 --> 00:08:12.589 or out of it, perhaps. She sees her life for 00:08:12.589 --> 00:08:16.490 what it is, and she resolves to change and give 00:08:16.490 --> 00:08:19.990 her life entirely to God, after which she's able 00:08:19.990 --> 00:08:23.569 to enter into the church, venerate the cross, 00:08:23.790 --> 00:08:27.329 and hear the Theotokos say to her, if you cross 00:08:27.329 --> 00:08:33.009 the Jordan, you will find glorious rest. And 00:08:33.009 --> 00:08:36.470 Mary does, not before she confesses her sins 00:08:36.470 --> 00:08:39.490 and receives communion in the church at the Jordan, 00:08:39.610 --> 00:08:44.029 after which she goes into the desert for 47 years 00:08:44.029 --> 00:08:48.490 with three pieces of bread and learns to live 00:08:48.490 --> 00:08:52.350 on the word of God alone, taught directly by 00:08:52.350 --> 00:08:55.470 Christ all the scriptures which she has herself 00:08:55.470 --> 00:09:00.269 never read. Despite who she is, the Lord changes 00:09:00.269 --> 00:09:04.309 Mary. And Mary enters into that change completely. 00:09:05.210 --> 00:09:10.529 She repents. She turns her life toward Christ 00:09:10.529 --> 00:09:15.250 completely. It isn't a magical one and done kind 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:19.470 of change. She counts the cost. She has to confront 00:09:19.470 --> 00:09:25.149 her sin. It takes 17 years just to do that, likely 00:09:25.149 --> 00:09:29.070 to offset the 17 years of debauchery until she 00:09:29.070 --> 00:09:32.470 begins to sense. the glorious rest of Jordan. 00:09:33.230 --> 00:09:36.990 The Lord answers Zosima's question, is there 00:09:36.990 --> 00:09:41.950 a monk, is there a man who can show me up with 00:09:41.950 --> 00:09:47.429 this woman, Mary, whom the Lord uses to bring 00:09:47.429 --> 00:09:52.169 the celebrated priest monk elder to his knees. 00:09:52.769 --> 00:09:57.889 As Zosima himself puts it, truly God has shown 00:09:57.889 --> 00:10:01.519 me through this thy handmaid. How far away I 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:06.779 stand from perfection. Perhaps we can distill 00:10:06.779 --> 00:10:12.139 the Sunday of St. Mary to two points. And they're 00:10:12.139 --> 00:10:14.820 really one and the same point when we juxtapose 00:10:14.820 --> 00:10:21.340 our lives vis -a -vis Christ. Brothers and sisters, 00:10:21.500 --> 00:10:26.500 there's no one that Jesus can't change, save, 00:10:26.820 --> 00:10:35.509 and heal. No one. No one descends below the grace 00:10:35.509 --> 00:10:40.950 and love of God. Not anything that we do. Not 00:10:40.950 --> 00:10:43.909 anything that we have done. Not anything that 00:10:43.909 --> 00:10:50.190 we will even do. No one. Full stop. But there's 00:10:50.190 --> 00:10:54.149 also no one who has reached perfection or should 00:10:54.149 --> 00:10:57.330 think of themselves as perfect and having arrived 00:10:57.330 --> 00:11:01.730 in this life. should think of themselves as more 00:11:01.730 --> 00:11:06.090 highly than we ought. No one ascends above the 00:11:06.090 --> 00:11:10.090 wisdom and mercy of God. That's not what Lent 00:11:10.090 --> 00:11:12.470 reveals to us, or at least that's not what it 00:11:12.470 --> 00:11:15.950 should reveal to us. We should not be feeling 00:11:15.950 --> 00:11:24.870 like we are doing well. 47 years, 47 years Mary 00:11:24.870 --> 00:11:28.210 lives in the desert by herself. before she meets 00:11:28.210 --> 00:11:35.309 Zosima. And 47 years, Zosima lives in the monastery 00:11:35.309 --> 00:11:39.169 of St. John the Baptist on the Jordan after he 00:11:39.169 --> 00:11:44.509 meets Mary. Zosima meets her when he's 53, and 00:11:44.509 --> 00:11:48.590 we're told that he dies at 100. You can do the 00:11:48.590 --> 00:11:53.710 math. That number, 47, in truth, it's 48 for 00:11:53.710 --> 00:11:56.789 St. Mary. is significant for us here, I think. 00:11:57.289 --> 00:12:01.830 In her 48th year in the desert, Zosima communes 00:12:01.830 --> 00:12:05.289 her on Holy Thursday, and she departs this life 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:08.610 on Holy Friday, anticipating the fullness of 00:12:08.610 --> 00:12:12.389 Pascha, the resurrection. For us, that number 00:12:12.389 --> 00:12:18.269 48 transfers not into years, but into days. Perhaps 00:12:18.269 --> 00:12:21.470 we will be given 48 years to contend with ourselves. 00:12:21.970 --> 00:12:25.220 Perhaps some of you have been. But we are most 00:12:25.220 --> 00:12:30.460 definitely given 40 and 8 days every year, the 00:12:30.460 --> 00:12:34.200 time of Great Lent and Holy Week, to confront 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:39.019 ourselves, the state of our hearts, to ask God 00:12:39.019 --> 00:12:43.799 and ourselves, what have we offered him, or perhaps 00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:48.980 not offered him, in our bodies? To ask God and 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:52.440 ourselves, how have we died to this world? Or 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:57.519 again, perhaps, not died at all, to juxtapose 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.220 our lives vis -a -vis the life of Christ, who 00:13:00.220 --> 00:13:04.639 today sets his face toward Jerusalem. How have 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:09.840 we set our face toward him? When situated in 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:12.200 the life of St. Mary, the questions in today's 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:16.399 gospel readings hit us all at once. Who will 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:20.820 love me more? The one who knows how much he has 00:13:20.820 --> 00:13:24.639 sinned and been forgiven. or the one who doesn't 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:29.759 think he's really done anything bad at all. Perhaps 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:32.419 that's given to us, who might be a little more 00:13:32.419 --> 00:13:36.539 experienced than others. As it is the question 00:13:36.539 --> 00:13:40.840 that our Lord asks Simon the Pharisee, as the 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:43.860 sinful woman washes the Lord's feet with her 00:13:43.860 --> 00:13:46.980 tears, something that Zosima, the celebrated 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:51.279 priest monk, does three times to Mary, the sinful 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:57.049 woman's feet. Or another question, what is it 00:13:57.049 --> 00:14:00.850 that you want me to do for you? Good question. 00:14:03.110 --> 00:14:07.049 The question the Lord asks James and John after 00:14:07.049 --> 00:14:10.710 they command Christ to do whatever they want 00:14:10.710 --> 00:14:14.870 to do for them. A demand that should make all 00:14:14.870 --> 00:14:19.370 of us cringe to sit at his right and left in 00:14:19.370 --> 00:14:22.860 his kingdom. Rather, the real question should 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:26.799 be the one the Lord asks James and John. Are 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:30.379 you able to be baptized with the baptism that 00:14:30.379 --> 00:14:35.100 I am baptized with? Are you able to drink the 00:14:35.100 --> 00:14:39.600 cup from which I drink? Maybe put toward the 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:42.940 catechumens who are preparing for holy illumination 00:14:42.940 --> 00:14:47.200 a little more pointedly. Are you ready to be 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:52.240 baptized? Are you ready to drink from the chalice? 00:14:53.740 --> 00:14:57.019 Because what Christ is really talking about is 00:14:57.019 --> 00:15:02.600 entering into his own death, into the cross where 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:06.600 he drinks the cup most truly, into the cross 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:10.679 where he is baptized most truly, drinks the cup 00:15:10.679 --> 00:15:13.139 most truly, and it's only through it that he 00:15:13.139 --> 00:15:16.519 gives life -giving blood and water for us to 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:21.909 drink. Catechumens, are you ready to enter into 00:15:21.909 --> 00:15:26.309 that life? A life that will require your death 00:15:26.309 --> 00:15:31.690 and genuine change. A life that will turn your 00:15:31.690 --> 00:15:34.870 former life upside down or perhaps already has 00:15:34.870 --> 00:15:41.409 begun to, like St. Mary's. A life where you will 00:15:41.409 --> 00:15:45.990 lose your life in order to gain it. A life where 00:15:45.990 --> 00:15:48.899 you will take up your cross. And deny yourself 00:15:48.899 --> 00:15:53.620 in order to feel the power of the resurrection. 00:15:54.740 --> 00:15:58.120 In order to experience the love of God coursing 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:04.440 even through you. And it's a reminder to us all 00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:09.179 here. The Christian life, Lent is in a sense 00:16:09.179 --> 00:16:13.799 designed for the catechumen. Preparing for baptism. 00:16:13.940 --> 00:16:19.519 That is its historic purpose. And yet, we all 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:24.120 enter into it to renew that baptismal vow, to 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:30.059 recall the vow we made to Christ. The cup, the 00:16:30.059 --> 00:16:33.039 chalice that we drink from. The Christian life 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:36.440 requires that from all of us. We never arrive. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.840 No one here should feel like they have arrived. 00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:45.639 No one should ever treat anyone else as if they 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:50.580 have arrived. And are beyond dying to self. Not 00:16:50.580 --> 00:16:54.279 in the way that we receive one another. Not in 00:16:54.279 --> 00:16:57.960 the way that we talk to one another. In no way. 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:01.340 Because it is only through that life. Our death. 00:17:02.059 --> 00:17:05.480 The world becoming crucified to us. And us to 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:08.920 the world. The taking up of our cross and denying 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:12.519 ourselves. The losing our life in order to gain 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:15.579 it. The emptying of ourselves. And all of our 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:19.140 pride. that we will be filled with the fullness 00:17:19.140 --> 00:17:24.039 of Pascha, that we will cry on Pascha. Christ 00:17:24.039 --> 00:17:27.779 is risen from the dead, trampling down death 00:17:27.779 --> 00:17:30.380 by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:34.680 life, the life of the resurrection. Through the 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:37.819 prayers of St. Mary, St. Zosima, and St. Sophronius, 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:39.740 Lord, have mercy upon us.