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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
WELCOME TO FEBRUARY!
Weather forecasters predict that February 2012 will be among the coldest in recent memory. Already today, tiny flakes of snow are falling outside my window. Sharp winds penetrate arthritic joints, freezing air enters asthmatic lungs. The exceptionally mild winter of 2011-2012 has begun to yield to a month whose name in Ukrainian, Lyutii, literally means fierce. For those of us from harsh, continental climates, such as Canada or Eastern Europe, the icy damp of the British Isles takes a toll that heavy snow seldom does. We long for the sunny shores of some southern clime, such as the eastern Mediterranean where Christianity was born. This very longing becomes deeply symbolic, above all at this time of the year.
Lent is around the corner. On 5 February, the first Sunday of the month, we open the Lenten Triodion, the book of liturgical services for the forty days of the fast before Great and Holy Pascha, the feast of the Resurrection. Ironically, the word Lent derives from the Anglo-Saxon for spring. On an icy day in February or March, it is hard to imagine the warm sun and the buds appearing on the trees. It is fortunate, however, that the English language persists in calling the greatest of all fasting seasons Spring. Lent is not a time of misery, breast-beating, bitter regrets and remorse. It is not an opportunity for pious hypocrites to boast how much they have ‘given up’. Rather, it is the dawn of spring. Only if the dry dead branches of winter fall, can the new green shoots of spring arise. This Lent, let us banish gloomy misery. Let us throw off the musty coat of hypocrisy, the burdensome load of the past. As we confess our sins, let us breathe a sigh of relief that we are free of them. The Resurrection of the Lord of Life is worth every cast-off branch. It is the day without evening.
Your Lenten fast will be pleasing to God if, every day of the fast, you look forward to the Feast of the Resurrection with the joy of a little child.
WARNING TO PHARISEES
Why does the Lenten Triodion open with the account of a complacent Pharisee and a sinful tax-collector? Weeks before we begin abstaining from animal foods, oil, and wine, the Holy Church reminds us how not to fast. For all we know, the Pharisee is an honest, hard-working, devout ‘church-goer’ who is sincerely grateful to God that he is so virtuous. He fasts twice a week, like an observant Orthodox, and gives one-tenth of his total income to the poor. (How many of us do that?) He is not a ‘bad’ man, like the crooked tax-collector hiding in the shadows. But Christ tells us explicitly that he went home empty-handed. What is his sin? No, not judging extortioners, adulterers, and frauds. It is praying ‘with himself’, not to God. His prayer never leaves the shrine of his virtue. The tax-collector offers only one prayer - ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner’ - but it goes straight to God.
Virtue is nothing, worse than nothing, if we fail to throw ourselves upon the infinite mercy of God. If we keep the fast to the letter but congratulate ourselves, we worship our virtue, not God. The Pharisees were a very ‘popular’ religious party, intent of making ‘holiness’ accessible not only to the priests but the common man. They did so by insisting on strict rules of conduct, a ‘poor man’s’ version of the elaborate rituals in the Temple. Certain sects of Christians have imitated them faithfully down the centuries.
What was the sin of the Pharisees? Keeping the rules? No: it was doing nothing more.
COMING HOME
Having warned the religious folk, the Church invites the irreligious: lazy, negligent, self-indulgent pleasure-seekers - like me. On the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, we hear one of the most famous and misunderstood of the parables of Christ. A young spendthrift demands his share of the inheritance from his father - in effect, saying: ‘You’re dead to me’. His father gives it without a moment’s delay. Having spent it all on booze and sex, he ends up doing the dirty work for a farmer in a far-off land. When he resolves to come home, he is terrified; but, better a servant who eats than a freeman who starves. When he is still on the horizon, his father rushes to embrace him. He throws him the grandest party that the house has seen. He asks no questions. When the boy’s dutiful older brother complains, the father explains: his child has come home. Nothing else matters.
Religious folk, whom the Lenten Triodion challenges at every turn, typically resemble the older brother. They set rigid standards for themselves, repress all desires, then bitterly resent it when less stringent souls go unpunished. The dutiful, hard-working brother cannot believe that his father will not lock the door or interrogate the failed playboy.
The father sees no playboy. Only his son, who is alive again.
No one who understands the parable of the Prodigal Son can imagine a harsh, punitive God, a grey-bearded tyrant who hides behind a code and delights in locking away poor, weak people, even infants, in a fiery prison called hell. Hell is real but it is we, not God, who lock the prison doors. Sin is real, as the Prodigal fighting the pigs for pods finds out. God the Father, however, is light, the light of an inexhaustible mercy, and in him is no darkness at all.
If everyone who came to confession remembered this parable, they would realise that it is not a time of fear but of joy.
THE DAY OF TRUTH
The last day that we eat meat (hence, Meatfare Sunday) calls to mind the event at the end of time, the last event before history comes to a close. The Last Judgement is incomprehensible without understanding the Parable of the Prodigal Son. When the sinner appears on the horizon, the Father does not interrogate him. He has already done it to himself. He has already seen himself among the swine, felt the pangs of hunger, longed for home - even if it must mean that he is a servant, no longer a son. He has dared to see the truth about himself. Only then is he ready to go home.
Whatever we repent of in this life, falls away like dry leaves or dead flakes of skin. After our bodies fall asleep, we have yet another opportunity to toss off the dry leaves. At the close of time, when Christ comes again in glory, we shall have no place to hide. Those who have faced the truth about themselves will run to greet him with joy - if he does not meet them already on the horizon. Those who still live with lies will see the truth. Christ our God is no god of the pagans, a Zeus or Woden, hurling thunderbolts from the sky.
As Saint Basil says, at the Judgement Christ will only appear before us as he is. Each of us will see our real self in his face, as in a mirror.
THE DAY OF FORGIVENESS
In the Orthodox Church, we do not begin the Great Fast with ashes on our foreheads to remind us of death. We begin by following on our hands and knees before each other, asking ‘Forgive me, a sinner!’, to remind us of life. The chanters sing ‘Christ is risen’ in hushed tones, a token that love is the foretaste of our own Resurrection from the dead, that is, the burden of the past. Love consists of saying ‘Forgive me, a sinner’ and replying ‘God forgives and I forgive’. He who does not forgive, does not love; he who invokes past grudges, even after exchanging the embrace, does not love; and he who does not love, is not of God.
We cannot enter the Great Fast without this Rite of Love. Unless we forgive, by a simple act of will, we carry our grudges into the fast. We pollute every bite of Lenten food and blaspheme with every breath of prayer. By letting past burdens fall from our souls, we are ready to enter, step by step, into the glorious light of the Resurrection.
Please make every possible effort to be in church on FORGIVENESS SUNDAY, 26th February.
If you ever asked yourself what love really is, come and find out. On this Sunday, we eat dairy (hence, Cheesefare Sunday) for the last time before Pascha.
FASTING FROM MALICE
In the Orthodox Church, during the forty days of Lent and the five days of Great and Holy Week, we abstain from foods that weigh down the body: animal fats from meat, dairy, olive oil, and wine. In Antioch, we are allowed wine on Sundays in moderate quantities. Why do we abstain? To punish ourselves? Far from it. To free ourselves. It is, therefore, worse than useless to abstain from all these foods but not from malice, gossip, bite-biting, and the many vices that darken our minds. It is better to eat a steak on Holy Friday than to keep the fast and hate your brother.
When the fast endangers your health of body and soul, for whatever reason, in whatever way, you are obliged to break it in body rather than in spirit. If you are weak and indulge in festive food some day of the Great Fast, turn your fall into victory by confessing to God and giving thanks that he is strong where you are weak. God does not need our fast. We do.
A PRACTICAL NOTE ABOUT CONFESSION
Many people, if not most, like to come to the holy mystery of confession during the Sundays of Great Lent. Please remember that Father Alexander is not made of steel. I am not physically robust, afflicted as I am with astigmatism, asthma, and arthritis since I was quite young. I have no assistant priest or deacon to help carry the load. Please book your confession well in advance.
As a rule, I can hear only two (2) confessions per Sunday. An Orthodox Christian who is experienced in coming to holy confession does not prepare an exhaustive list, in the style of the Latin Church. He states the one matter that weighs most heavily on his heart. All else will follow. Allow yourself a maximum of 15 minutes for confession. If you are aware of your inner life and truly repent, it usually lasts about 5 minutes at most. I am happy to discuss personal matters with anyone, confidentially, outside the mystery of confession - by phone, email, or in person. Confession should be a time only to confess the essentials and to receive the grace of absolution.
BAPTISM
God has showered his blessings on us in the form of exceptional catechumens, that is, ‘listeners’ to the voice of God calling them into the communion of the Orthodox Church. On the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, our current catechumens - Gail, Jacek, Raymond, Brenda, Serena, and Rachel - will begin the first formal lesson that guides them, step by step, into the Body of the Church of Christ. Please keep them in your prayers.
On the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (or Daughter, as the case may be), we will have the joy of receiving our good friend Shervin by water and the Holy Spirit. Having prepared the old fountain outside and three large tubs of water, Shervin will drown and rise again as Christina - the true meaning of holy baptism. Having sojourned with us since our server Seraphim was a catechumen (!), Shervin is known and loved by so many of us that it is strange to recall that she is not yet baptised. This first baptism among us of a person with roots in the Middle East is richly symbolic, a turning point in the life of Antioch in London.
Please make every effort to arrive PROMPTLY on PRODIGAL SUNDAY, 12th February
We should show our love, respect, and support for our future sister, who has waited so long for the day of her New Birth in Christ.
PILGRIMAGE TO WASINGHAM
Through the efforts of Andy Pantelli and Michael Kendall-Torry, our hard-working treasurer, we shall have the first opportunity in our history to travel on pilgrimage to the shrine of Little Walsingham on Saturday 24 March, the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. Since the early Middle Ages, this was the most revered shrine dedicated to the Mother of God not only in England but across Northern Europe. Pilgrims came from afar to drink the healing waters and ask our Mother’s prayers.
If you are English or live in England, you will not miss this opportunity to visit ‘England’s Nazareth’. We shall leave early, celebrate Divine Liturgy, explore Little Walsingham, dine, and return to London or elsewhere. More details to follow in March. Please contact Michael (0208-504-4598) to arrange to join us. The cost per person for our coach is approximately £15-£20.
MINISTRIES IN THE PARISH
At our recent Annual General Meeting, several parishioners, including Emmanuelle and Philippa, offered to help with some of our most important ministries: greeting newcomers, overseeing lunches, cleaning up afterwards, and other tasks which make our parish a family. I say ministries, not tasks. As the People of God, each of you has a part to play in making our parish the model of the future for the Orthodox Church in London.
If anyone is interested, attends St. Botolph’s most Sundays, and is able to commit to singing, serving, hospitality, the bookstall, and other valuable ministries in our community, please contact either me or a member of the parish council, such as Subdeacon Chris the chairman (0208-841-4662, chrisparsons@blueyonder.co.uk), Perpetua (0208-594-9295, faithfulsoldier@hotmail.co.uk) and Terence the lay administrators (tezjp@hotmail.co.uk), or Michael the treasurer (0208-504-4598, angelatorry@hotmail.com).
IN CONCLUSION
As this most holy season of early Lent begins, I ask you to pray for me, the Priest Alexander, frail in body and soul. We who carry your burdens as well as our own often are much weaker than the laity, painfully aware that we have no strength to serve unless God supported us in the holy altar. Please pray for my vision, my spine, and my lungs - not to mention, my soul - so that I may serve your salvation to the best of my powers.
Yours faithfully in Christ,
Fr. Alexander.
