The Shepherd, February 2008
THE COMING MONTH
FEBRUARY this year takes us from the end of the Nativity cycle of feasts to the beginning of Great Lent. The second day of the month, as always, is the Great Feast of the Meeting of the Saviour in the Temple, celebrating an event which took place when the Infant Jesus was just forty days old (Luke 2:22-40), and therefore falling forty days after the celebration of His Nativity. It is one of the most beautiful celebrations in the Church year and is observed by many Orthodox as a kind of Mother’s Day. Four days before the end of the month, on 25th February / 9th March, we have Clean Monday, the first day of Great Lent.
This means that the four Sundays that each year anticipate the fast, and prepare us spiritually for it, all fall within this month in 2008. These four are the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, that of the Prodigal Son, Judgment Sunday, and Forgiveness Sunday. The first two are so-named because of the Saviour’s parables which are recounted in the Divine Liturgy on those days.
On the first we are exhorted to put aside the arrogance, pride and judging of the Pharisee, and to follow the humility of the Publican. But, as is often forgotten, but is made clear by the church services and the teachings of the Fathers, we are also exhorted to follow the righteousness of the Pharisee, and to follow the example of both of them in resorting to the temple of God to pray. Many people nowadays, even among the Orthodox, think that they can survive as participants at arms-length or on their own terms, or when convenient, but a fruitful Christian life presupposes commitment and that includes the regular observance of the Lord’s days, joining in worship with their brothers and sisters in Christ, learning to bear with them and to love them. To remind us that we should not fall into pharisaism, in the week following this Sunday, no fasting is enjoined at all, and we have a fastfree week.
The Second Sunday brings us the beautiful Parable of the Prodigal Son, in which we see the Father’s readiness to forgive and re-instate us after our falls into sin, but also that it in predicated on our repenting - “Now, will I arise, and I will go....” We also have mapped out for us, as a warning, the path by which we stray from God, starting with something seemingly innocuous, or even fair and just (the granting of the portion that falls to us), but then we ever go further astray until we come to complete spiritual destitution. We should reflect upon that path, and always test whether we are perhaps unwittingly travelling down it even now.
On the third Sunday, we have teaching concerning one of the clearest manifestations of God’s love for us, for we hear of His Dread Judgment at the end of this age. His Judgment manifests His love by showing that He accepts our freewill and our integrity as moral creatures. He does not treat us as puppets or play things. In the Gospel read on that day at the Liturgy, we also hear of God’s love for us when our Saviour says to those who are saved, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” To those who have chosen condemnation, He does not say that the everlasting fire was prepared for them - for He desires that every man should be saved, - but rather that it was prepared for the devil and his (the devil’s) angels. This Sunday is followed by a week in which no meat products are eaten by the faithful, but all other foods are permitted. For this reason, this Sunday is often called Meatfare or Carnival - the day on which we bid farewell to meat until Pascha itself.
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