Homily for the First Saturday Evening of Great Lent
By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
We, brethren, after the first week of Great Lent, which was supposed to be spent in sincere repentance, have come to the celebration of Orthodoxy, which opens for us the way out of our sinful condition and points the path that a person who has begun repentance must follow. If you have brought repentance, then by this you have only just begun to enter into true life. For God’s Covenant with man was established twice — in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. In the Old Testament it was established through Moses on Mount Sinai; in the New — through His Son — “This is My Blood of the New Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
The Lord now, and in ancient times, revealed His Covenant. But in order for the opportunity to be in His Covenant to be opened for us, we ourselves must enter into a Covenant with God. When the priest in the Mystery of Confession forgives the sins of the penitent, he asks in prayer to grant him the image of repentance: “Now, have mercy on Your servant and grant him the image of repentance” (Trebnik, p. 44, Rite of Confession).
We ourselves are created in the image and likeness of God. We ask for the image of repentance, the image of correction — it is that image in which we must live. Repentance is our covenant with God concerning the correction of our life. And if we do not enter into our covenant, the covenant of man with God, then God’s covenant with man is also invalid for us.
In the Old Testament, God gave His Covenant through Moses. “And the Lord said to Moses: ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you the stone tablets, and the law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction’” (of Israel) (Exodus 24:12). “And Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. And the glory of the Lord overshadowed the mountain ... Moses entered the midst of the cloud and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 24:15–16, 18). When the people saw that Moses did not come down from the mountain for a long time, they gathered to Aaron and said to him: “Rise and make for us a god who shall go before us, for we do not know what has happened to this man, Moses” (Exodus 32:1). Aaron commanded them to bring gold. “And all the people took off the golden earrings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took them from their hands and made a molten calf and shaped it with a graving tool. And they said: ‘This is your god, Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt’” (Exodus 32:3–4).
Notice that when the Lord desired to enter into a Covenant with man, and when He gave Moses on Mount Sinai the tablets of the Covenant, at the very same time the people were committing great lawlessness. And so, when Moses received the tablets of the Covenant, written not by anyone, but by the finger of God, and was descending from the mountain, he heard noise and saw the golden calf made. In anger, Moses dropped the tablets and broke the calf. But the Lord was angry with Israel and revealed to Moses that Israel would be erased from the Book of Life for their lawlessness. Then Moses assumed the image of repentance for his people. He began to pray and ask that the Lord forgive Israel, and if the Lord could not forgive the people, then let him, Moses, be erased from the Book of Life. And this entry of one person into the covenant with God saved Israel.
God’s covenant extended to the entire people, but only Moses, through the image of repentance, entered into that Covenant. He himself concluded a covenant with God. We see the same in the New Testament. The same people who cried to Jesus Christ, “Hosanna,” later cried: “Crucify Him.” The high priests who were supposed to accept Christ went against Him, and before them were tax collectors and harlots. And the first to enter into a covenant with God — who were they, brethren? — a thief. When Christ shed His blood on the Cross for all the people, at that time He alone entered into a covenant with God. He stopped the other thief, saying: “What are you doing? We receive what is due, but this One has done nothing,” and with a prayer turned to the Lord: “Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42). At that moment the covenant of man with God was concluded, opening the entry into God’s covenant with man.
In the Old Testament, sacrifices were performed by priests and prayers were offered on behalf of all the people. Outwardly they were in covenant with God, but in reality, they were not. An example of this can be seen in Hophni and Phinehas.
In the New Testament, Christ gives everyone the possibility to enter into a covenant with Him, but on one condition — repentance and constant remaining in it.
Now we celebrate Orthodoxy. We are accustomed to speak that there is the image of worldly life and the image of monastic life — the angelic image (schema). In the ultimate achievement, however, we must all be equally angelic, and this division is incorrect. Monastic life is pure repentance, and by no means angelic life. If we are not in the image of repentance, then all the mysteries are closed to us. There are seven mysteries, and one of them we perform above all — this is the Mystery of Repentance. Each mystery for its performance requires a particular substance. Baptism — water, Anointing — oil, etc. And in the Mystery of Repentance, we ourselves provide this substance — our tears, our contrite heart. This Mystery is performed in our soul; its Throne is the human soul. Each of us now, at this very moment, can check whether he performs this Mystery, and how he performs it. With all of us, brethren, God has concluded a covenant — we are baptized. But let us examine ourselves: have we entered into this covenant, and if we are in it, how do we bear the image of repentance, which we can sometimes lose and desecrate? But if we only bear it, all other mysteries will be open to us. If we have not fully repented and have not brought a contrite heart, we have not confronted our sins, and we do not perform other mysteries. For example, I do not perform the Mystery of Priesthood if there is no repentance in me.
In the Old Testament, brethren, it was also so. People constantly lost the covenant with God and constantly restored it. When King Uzziah sent to Jerusalem to one of the prophetesses, she said to him: “Because your heart was softened and you wept, I have heard you” (2 Kings 22:19 et seq.). Then Uzziah gathered the people and concluded a covenant to correct his life and the communal life. And Judah, brethren, was called into covenant with God, and even in the last moments of the earthly life of the Savior was nourished with His Body and Blood, but remained outside the covenant. I repeat again: the key to all mysteries is our covenant with God. Fulfilling our covenant with God is the work of our whole life. Only through it can we receive from the Lord fulfillment of His covenant. And if no one has a secret covenant with God, if someone has not yet concluded it, now is a good and suitable time. Remember, brethren, that only when we ourselves take upon ourselves this covenant do we gain the possibility to live with God.
Let us, brethren, think carefully about all this, and I hope that each of us, if he carefully examines his soul, will see that he wanted to receive everything from God, but himself gave Him nothing. And if we give the Lord our covenant and approach, asking forgiveness, we will receive it from Him.
Let us, brethren, not only think, but strive to fulfill everything about which we have just spoken. For the time is already very favorable. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
