April: Day 1: Teaching 2: Venerable Mary of Egypt

 

April: Day 1: Teaching 2:
Venerable Mary of Egypt
 
(A Model of Repentance)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Who does not know the wondrous life of Mary of Egypt? Who does not know into what depth of evils she descended, to what height of virtues she afterward ascended, and how this astonishing transition took place? Let us not recount what is probably known to all, but rather set forth only the principal truths, relating to the labor of repentance, which this instructive life reminds us of.

II. a) The first truth is that repentance is always possible for us. However great and numerous our vices may be, however long we may have already served lawlessness, however deeply rooted and inveterate we may have become in evil — we can always come to our senses and turn to God with a prayer for mercy. For seventeen years, the freshest and most flourishing years of her life, Mary gave herself over to sins without repentance. And how did she give herself over? To what sins? It seemed that she had lost all shame; it seemed that she had completely driven the fear of God from her heart and entirely stifled the voice of conscience within herself. The name of Mary was covered with universal disgrace. Yet even this soul, seemingly lost, was able to repent: why then should we not repent? Perhaps our sins are less than Mary’s sins — then repentance is all the easier for us. And even if not less, even if greater? Mary came to herself and began to repent when she was striving to enter the church to venerate the life-giving wood of the Cross of the Lord: the Holy Cross — this anchor of salvation for sinners — is always with us; the blood of Jesus Christ, crucified on the Cross, is able to cleanse us “from every sin” (John 2:1). Let us only cry out to Him, like Mary, with living faith in His merits on the Cross and hope in His mercy.

b) The second truth which the life of Venerable Mary of Egypt instills in us is that it is not enough only to recognize our sins and show contrition for them; it is not enough to ask mercy from God and to make a vow of a better life — but one must then actually fulfill this vow; one must resolutely enter into struggle with all the passions and vices of which we have repented and overcome them; one must strive to atone for former faults and to please God through opposite virtues, through sorrows and deprivations. After seventeen years of a sinful life, Mary, having resolved to correct herself, immediately withdrew into the desert and there for another seventeen years tirelessly struggled with her sinful desires and thoughts, which drew her back to her former path — she struggled, as with fierce beasts, in her own expression, until she gained complete victory over them. Then she spent yet another thirty years in the desert amid every kind of deprivation and labor, weeping over her former shameful deeds, mortifying her flesh through abstinence and fasting, striving in unceasing contemplation of God and prayer. Mary’s flesh became so refined and subject to the spirit that at times, during prayer, the holy ascetic was lifted from the ground and could walk upon the waters as upon dry land. Such must true repentance be — and not as it is for the most part among us! Today we are contrite over our sins, and a day or a few days later we return again to the same deeds. Those who repent must constantly remember the words of Saint John the Forerunner: “bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance” (Matt. 3:8) — that is, prove the truth of your repentance by the correction of your life.

c) Finally, the third truth, taught to us by the example of Venerable Mary of Egypt, is that, while striving ourselves to repent of sins and amend our lives, we should also make use of the God-given means for this purpose: the Mysteries of Repentance and of the Eucharist — and use them as we ought. For whole decades Mary wept over her sins in the desert and pleased the Lord; through many years of ascetic struggles she completely transformed herself, ascended to the heights of spiritual perfection, and became like the angels. And yet she still felt upon herself the weight of her long-past iniquities and prayed to God that He would deem her worthy to lighten her conscience by confessing her sins before a spiritual father. And so, by God’s providence, there came into the desert where the Venerable one struggled the great Abba Zosimas… Oh, with what detail she then confessed her sins before him — how she did not spare herself, how she was not ashamed to reveal to him everything, even the smallest circumstances that increased her guilt! Having received absolution from the Venerable one, she asked him to come to her not sooner than after a year, bringing the Holy Life-giving Mysteries, wishing to prepare herself more worthily for their reception; and when the Holy Mysteries were brought, she, after the customary prayers, partook with the greatest reverence of this divine food and drink.

But if such a lofty ascetic, who for so many years had repented before God, considered it necessary to confess her sins in full detail before a spiritual father and with all reverence to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ — how much more are both necessary for us sinners? Did not the Savior Himself say to the shepherds of the Church: “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20:23)? And how can they forgive or not forgive, if we do not reveal to them in what precisely we are guilty? Likewise, who does not know the words of the Savior addressed to us all: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53), as well as the instruction of the Holy Apostle: “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup; for he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:28–29)?

III. Let us, then, brethren, imprint in our hearts all three truths which our Venerable Mother Mary now teaches us by her example, and let us take care in the coming fast to make use of them for our salvation. Amen.

(Extracted in abridged form from a homily of Macarius, Bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, vol. II, pp. 284–290.)

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.