Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast: St. John Climacus. The Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria (253-60)
Great Fast Day 28. The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated today.
Hebrews 6:13-20; Ephesians 5:9-19; Mark 9:17-31; Matthew 4:25-5:12.
Read Hebrews 6:13-20
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Trust is the biggest issue. The original sin was a distrust of God which, acted upon, imprinted upon us the propensity to seize upon deceptive hopes, blatant or unacknowledged. Even we who have trusted in God through Christ find ourselves continually being returned to this crossroad of decision.
Today’s reading was written to Christians who were in danger of falling back onto the known path that had led them to where they were. They, like us, were being called to go forward with Christ, where their path had been leading all along. The writer reorients them, instructively not with Moses – their specifically national origin story – but with Abraham, through whom “all the families of the earth shall be blessed”.
The “oath” spoken of here is found in Genesis 15. It is in the form of a binding treaty between a king and a vassal. Both parties to the covenant had to fulfill their oaths, guaranteeing them by passing between the halved animals. Abraham was held to and subsequently tested regarding his covenant obligation, but for this seminal covenant God alone guaranteed its fulfillment by symbolically passing between the severed animals without Abraham.
Do we trust God? Do we trust ourselves to “patiently endure” if we do? In moments of decision, if we “seize the hope set before us” in Christ, we find both “anchoring” amidst the turmoil of our souls and the movement of “entry” closer to God, experiencing “the unchangeable character of His purpose”.
God has called us to go on a dangerous journey. It is therefore no longer safe to stay where we are. We are called to trust Him in Christ and move forward.