PASTORAL LETTER: On the threshold of the Great Fast (02/25/01)

PASTORAL LETTER

On the threshold of the Great Fast

To the Very Reverend Clergy, the Venerable Monastic Orders, to our Beloved Faithful in the Lord, our archiepiscopal blessing!

At the threshold of the Great Fast as our Divine Savior calls to us through the teaching of the Church, we hear the words: "The time is fulfilled, repent and believe in the Gospel, for the Kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15).

The time is fulfilled, that is the time of our salvation. Jesus Christ, the Promised Redeemer, came to us and, because of His great love for us, "offered Himself for us" (Gal. 2:20), so that all who believe in His Gospel and the announcement of our salvation, would offer sincere repentance, turn to God, and thereby merit the Heavenly Kingdom, that is, eternal life in Heaven.

The confirmation of our salvation, eternal life in Heaven, is indeed the Cross, on which our divine Savior suffered. For this reason, the fathers of the Church directed that in the middle week of the Great Fast, the venerable Cross be revered, the Cross of our salvation. As the faithful venerate it, we "look upon Him whom we have pierced" (John 19:37) with our sins. St. Paul reminds us that because of our sins we "once again crucify the Son of God and deride Him" (Heb. 6:6).

In the Old Testament, we read that during their wanderings in the deserts of Sinai, the Israelites rebelled against God and wanted to return to Egypt. The Lord God, in His wrath, sent them "fiery serpents" as a punishment, and countless numbers of the people died. Moses, falling to the ground face down, implored the Lord to have mercy on His unfaithful people. The Lord did so, and directed Moses to fashion a bronze "fiery serpent" and place it on a wooden pole in the center of the camp, with the assuring words: "If anyone is struck by the fiery serpents, and then gazes with faith upon the bronze serpent upon the pole, he shall live" (Num. 21:8).

The bronze serpent was a prefiguration of the Crucifixion of the Son of God on the Cross, as the Lord Himself explained: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so too must the Son of God be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him, will live in eternal life" (John 3:14-15).

The fiery serpent who constantly attacks us and threatens us with the deadly poison of sin is the devil, who assumed the form of a serpent in Eden. As a consequence of sin - the sting of the serpent - countless people were condemned to the abyss of hell. The most gracious Lord God, however, took pity on His unfortunate people, and in the "fullness of time" raised another Cross on Golgotha, bearing the Son of God, who "offered Himself as expiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Since that time, the faithful, suffering from the poison of sin inflicted by the devil, look upon the Cross of the crucified Christ with faith and sincerely repent of their sins in the hope of salvation. In this manner they renew the grace of divine life within themselves, become worthy of being children of God and anticipate the blessing of eternal life in Heaven.

Beloved in Christ: let us not withdraw from the Cross, nor fear it; rather, let us courageously come to Golgotha, join the Mother of God and "the disciple whom the Lord loved" (John 21:20). There, gazing at the Son of God with the eyes of faith, we see "His side, pierced with a lance from which blood and water flowed" (John 19:31). Water becomes a symbol of our baptism, our faith in Christ; blood is a symbol of our redemption from the evil tyranny of sin. St. Peter reminds us we are redeemed "by the precious blood of Christ, the Immaculate Lamb" (1 Pet. 1:18-19). The Son of God offered His side to be pierced by a lance, to demonstrate His great love for us. He "loved us, to the end, he loved us" (John 13:1).

Having commended His spirit into the hands of His Heavenly Father (Luke 23:46), Jesus again speaks to us, as it were, in virtue of His pierced heart: "No one has greater love than he who offers his life for his friends" (John 15:13). Christ, however, offered His life not for His friends, but for us sinners. St. Paul, therefore, in awe, writes: "It is rare that someone dies for a just person, but someone might indeed for a just person. But Christ shows His great love for us in this, that he died for us while we were still sinners" (Rom. 5:7-8). The love of God is then revealed to us as "strong as death" (Songs 8:6), for it brought Christ to Crucifixion on the Cross. In a word, Christ was crucified for His love of us.

In the Book of Genesis we read that after Cain caused the death of his brother Abel, the blood of Abel called up to Heaven for vengeance (Gen. 4:10). However, the blood of "the Lamb of God, Who took upon Himself the sins of the world" (John 1:29), does not call to Heaven for vengeance, but for forgiveness. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do" (Luke 3:34). Christ, as the Prophet Isaiah declared, "took upon Himself our infirmities and was wounded for our sins. The punishment that redeemed us, fell upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed" (Is 53:4-5). St. John the Evangelist writes in a similar manner, "Jesus Christ loved us, and by His blood, cleansed us from our sins" (Rev. 1:5).

The Son of God redeemed us from the enmity of sin by His sufferings and death on the Cross and prepared the way to the Heavenly Kingdom. By our own sins, however, we once again stray from the path to salvation, wandering in error - "we are errant like lost sheep" (1 Pet. 2:25). We must all, then, repent for our sins and return to the path of our salvation; otherwise, as Our Lord admonishes us "we, too, will all be lost" (Luke 13:5). St. Theodore of the Caves (+1074) describes penance as the key to the Kingdom of Heaven, for without it "No one can attain to eternal life" (A. Welykyj Pech. Pateryk, p. 69).

Now, at the beginning of Lent, the Great Fast, the Church encourages, us all to sincerely "repent, return to God and perform good works worthy of penance" (Acts 26:20). And since every one of us, as the Apostle St. James writes, "have indeed sinned" (James 3:2), all of us are in need of repentance. This is the essential message of the Great Fast for all of us, as St. John Chrysostom so appropriately explains: "In the course of time, the faithful began to receive the Holy Sacrament (Holy Eucharist) casually, without proper preparation. The holy fathers, slaving perceived the great harm to us in consequence of the careless reception of the Holy Eucharist, prescribed the Great Fast as a time of reparation of purifying our hearts through prayer, fasting and good deeds. In this manner, the faithful, now prepared to do so, worthily receive the Holy Sacrament of Penance and the Holy Eucharist during the time of the Greatest Fast" (3rd Hom.). A reminder about a grave obligation is contained in these words: we are to receive the Sacrament of Holy Penance and Holy Eucharist at least once a year, during the Easter season.

Beloved in Christ: may this archiepiscopal blessing touch your hearts, so that understanding the merit of receiving the Holy Mysteries at this time, you worthily prepare yourselves for their reception, for they are for us an assurance of salvation and eternal life in the Heavenly Kingdom.

May the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always.

Ý Stephen (Sulyk) - Metropolitan-Archbishop
Archieparchial Administrator

Given in Philadelphia at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Mother of God, on the Fast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, the 2nd day of February in the year of the Lord 2001.

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