Today, for the first time since the 25th of January (yes, that’s 19 weeks ago!), the Liturgical schedule of the Church returns to some “normalcy”. This does not mean that the previous 19 weeks were “abnormal”. Rather, the church measures its yearly cycle from the Sunday of Pentecost. Today is the “first” Sunday after that great Feast—the ‘birthday’ of the Church.
Over the past 19 weeks, we have found ourselves in the throes of ‘preparation’ - knowing that the Great Fast would be coming upon us, we prepared ourselves for that entry by a period of normal fasting, no fasting, a return to regular fasting, increased fasting, and ultimately severe fasting. After the preparation on the fasting front, we then found ourselves going inward, becoming introspective, looking for those things in our lives that separate us from the ideal that our Lord has set for us (“Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect,” Mat 5:48). The introspection led us into places that caused us to seek forgiveness, both of those whom we might have offended (which we did formally on Forgiveness Sunday—the first Sunday of the Great Fast), and also of the Lord Himself through the sacrament of confession. We found ourselves walking the paths with our Lord to the Cross. We agonized as He offered Himself thereon. We cried as we entombed His Precious Body. We felt the confusion of the apostles. We empathized with the denial of Peter, knowing that we too have not lived up to our own expectations of following the Lord, even if it were to lead us to our own deaths. We were overjoyed as we heard the words announcing His Resurrection. We basked in the joy of that event for 40 more days. We were present for His Ascension to heaven. We awaited and were granted the grace to witness the working of the Holy Spirit, establishing the Church on earth, and establishing Himself within our very beings, just as He came to fill the apostles. We too have received our own measure of the Spirit, and we are now called to bear witness to that gift by sharing our faith with those who will receive it.
But now, we again find the hymnology returning to the “familiar”. We sing from the Octoechos, the eight tones, for all the services that are not otherwise related to specific feast days. Yes, it is also true that most years we now (again) would enter a fasting period—the only one in the Church’s liturgical cycle whose duration is not fixed, but rather extends from the Monday after today’s commemoration of “All Saints” until the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul (June 29th).
As we find ourselves “returning to normal”, now is an appropriate time to again look inward, to become introspective, and to guard against becoming complacent in our spiritual lives. Simply because we have no focus by way of Presanctified Liturgies, or by way of singing of “Christ is Risen”, or by reminders of NOT being permitted to kneel, we now need to redouble our efforts to guard our spiritual wellbeing, walking in caution, assuring that we carry with us even now the spiritual tools that we attempted to hone during the Great Fast.
Did we learn anything during that time that will last? Did we find the strength (granted by the Spirit) to resist the temptations of laziness (sloth), worry (despair), passions (lust for power), and gossip (idle talk)? Do we even call to remembrance the Prayer of Saint Ephraim, now that the joy of the Resurrection has come and gone? Or, will we allow our return to “normal” to carry with it the tools the Church gave us during the Great Fast, putting them into the closet with the prayer books that contain the prayers for that Holy Season?
God forbid! Each year that we pass through the Great Fast, we must strive to carry from that ascetic effort things that will change us—things that will cause us to live differently AFTER this day on the Liturgical Calendar as compared to that day that carried us INTO the Holy Season 19 weeks previous.
So, from this day let us recall our focus from the Great Fast. Let us focus on praying, and on seeking the aid of the Spirit to give us the ability to remain pure (chaste), humble, to be patient, and to love all—especially those who misuse or hate us. For those were the “positives” from the same prayer of St. Ephraim.
Lord, grant us the ability to carry Your love to all!
