Bright Monday. Our Venerable Father Theodore of Syceum (613)
No fasting or abstention from foods
Read
Acts 1:12-17; 21-26; John 1:18-28
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
In today’s Gospel John the Baptist identifies himself as “the voice of one crying out in the desert.” How often the great heroes of the Biblical revelation have to spend time in the desert: Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, Paul. Even Jesus himself spends forty days and nights in the desert before commencing his ministry.
They have to wait through a painful time, living a stripped-down life, before they are ready. What does the desert symbolize? Confrontation with one’s own sin; seeing one’s dark side; deep realization of one’s dependence upon God; ordering of the priorities of one’s life; simplification, a getting back to basics. It means any and all of these things.
We just finished the Great Fast and Holy Week – our days in “dessert.” May the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection be the fulfilment of our spiritual desires and a moment of re-centering our life around Risen Lord with joy, hope and love.
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