Our Venerable Fathers Isaac (406-25), Dalmatus and Faustus
Dormition Fast.
2 Corinthians 1:1-7; Matthew 21:43-46.
Read Matthew 21:43-46
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
What are the fruits of the kingdom that we are commanded to produce? Earlier on the in St. Matthew’s Gospel we are presented with the image of St. John the Forerunner announcing the coming of the kingdom: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). In response to the Forerunner’s exhortation, all kinds of people come to him to be baptized. Some he gladly obliges, but to others he has harsh words: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?(3:7) What is the difference?
The Pharisee’s to whom Jesus and St. John are both addressing themselves were experts in the Jewish religion. The knew the law of Moses, studied the scriptures and fulfilled all of the obligations to the closest detail. Their failure was not a matter of the legal observance of all the tenets of religion, but a matter of the heart – the disposition with which they approach the encounter with Christ.
Every encounter with Christ is an encounter with the Truth. The Truth about who God is, but also about who we are. As we sing in the doxology “In your light shall we see light”. Those who come into the presence of the light can see more clearly all their own sins, shortcomings and imperfections. This is uncomfortable. The questions for us to reflect on today is, when our shortcomings are exposed by the light will we back away from the light so that they can no longer clearly be seen, or will we, in humility, acknowledge them in the presence of the divine physician and ask him to heal us.
The natural reaction might be to turn and run away from the light or to cover it up in order to avoid the discomfort of seeing ourselves as we are. But we are called to repent – that is, to change our minds and hearts (Gk. metanoia) so that rather than turn away we might freely say, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”
For the Fathers, this is the significance of the passage that follows: “he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on any one, it will crush him.” (Matt. 21:44). The stone as St. Paul tells us is Christ (cf. 1 Cor 10:4) – we can either encounter Christ in a spirit of humility and repentance, in which case our sins will be broken into pieces, or we can encounter him in spirit of pride and confidence in our own works in which case we will be like the Pharisee’s, crushed by the weight of our sins.
Acquiring this spirit of repentance is the not the work of a day or a single moment, but the work of the lifetime, in the words of St. Theophan the Recluse, “Repentance is the starting point and foundation stone of our new life in Christ; and it must be present not only at the beginning but throughout our growth in this life, increasing as we advance.