Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Our Falls Are Foreseen and Provided For

Very Reverend Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org

(Meat-fare Sunday)

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, a contemporary Orthodox teacher, has said:

"Whatever we take, a verse, a commandment, an event in the life of Christ, we must first of all assess its real objective content. This is extremely important because the purpose of meditation is not to build up a fantastic structure but to understand a truth. The truth is there, given, it is God's truth, and meditation is meant to be a bridge between our lack of understanding and the truth revealed. It is a way in which we can educate our intelligence, and gradually learn to have "the mind of Christ" as St. Paul says (I Cor. 2:16). (Modern Spirituality: An Anthology, p. 27.)"

With this in mind let us hear Christ's words to the disciples on the evening before His crucifixion. He said: "You will all fall away because of Me this night" (Matthew 26:31). There is a valuable lesson to be learned here, one which will stand us in good stead as we strive to prepare for the Judgement we remember on Meat-fare Sunday. What is the Lord telling us?

When the disciples heard His words they were probably hurt and confused. How could the Master think that they, who had been with Him all along, would now turn away? Did He not see how faithful and courageous they were? However, the Lord's intention was not to wound them, but rather to dispel their illusion of personal strength, and to prepare them for repentance, so that they could find true strength.

Jesus' words were meant to give them hope. When that most difficult of times arrived for them, the time after Jesus' death upon the Cross, when they reproached themselves for abandoning the Lord to His enemies in His hour of need, they could remember that He had foretold that it would happen, and did not reject them. Thus He showed them that it was possible to repent, to return to Him and keep on following Him with a clearer vision of one's own deficiencies, and faith in the all-sufficient power of God.

The Lord shows us that He knows our weakness, and that He has come to save us and transform us. The final result of the process will be a truly perfect man and woman, the sort that God set out to create. There are many falls along the way, but also many occasions to repent, even with tears, and to learn how to be humble and submitted to God.

Fortified the recollection of His providential all-foreseeing love, let us prepare for the Judgement by keeping the Fast. He will not reject us. He will accept and help us.

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