By Fr. George Dorbarakis
“Having completed the soul-beneficial forty days, we beseech You, O Philanthropist, to see clearly the holy week of Your Passion, so that we may glorify in it Your greatness and Your ineffable economy for our sake, singing with one accord: Lord, glory to You" (Matins, Aposticha, Doxastikon, Plagal of the First Tone).
Lazarus Saturday, as is well known, marks the end of Great Lent. The blessed period that began on Clean Monday is now coming to an end – the same troparion is also sung at Vespers of the Feast of Lazarus. And what does the holy hymnographer tell us? First, that this period of Lent is “soul-beneficial”; second, that while it is an “end” as the completion of its forty days, it also functions as a starting point: the beginning of Holy Week – we are before a miraculous threshold. And it goes without saying, Lent was established by the Church in order for us Christians to prepare for this specific Week, the one in which those events that brought salvation to the human race are highlighted – the Passion of the Lord, His very sacrifice on the Cross. On the Cross, did not the Lord bear our sins and abolish the devil, trampling down death? “Behold, through the Cross joy has come to the whole world.” This is why it is characterized as “Great.” Not, as Saint John Chrysostom notes, because each day of it is longer, but because what it involves, the Passion of the Lord, is great and moving.
Therefore, in the face of the spiritual magnitude of these days, on the one hand, special and distinct preparation is required - no "uninitiated" and immoral person can seek the sacred mystery - on the other hand, the initiated and prepared, as faithful as possible, is challenged to glorify the Lord of glory, discerning not the surface of a suffering person, but the depth of the love of the Creator Himself. The preparation of the forty days, as a kind of initiation into the spirituality of Holy Week, also explains the term "soul-beneficial Lent" - everything that the Church offered during this period (with the multitude of its services, with the emphasis on true fasting, physical and spiritual, with the constant reminder of repentance as the only path that leads to the Kingdom of God), was for the nourishment and life of our soul! And despite all this, even with preparation, the grace of the Lord is still required for the proper journey through Holy Week! "We ask you to give us the grace to see clearly the content of the Holy Week of Your Passion."
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
