Our Venerable Mother Xenia the Roman
Read
2 Peter 3:1-18; Mark 13:24-31
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
The Lord paints a fearful sight of the final days of life on this earth as we know it: great suffering, confusion, and the total upheaval of nature as we know it. What the Lord is describing in that final day is a consequence of our self-destructive way of life. Our individual and communal sinful habits, which we continue to amass, spew venomous poison not only in our own life, but overflow into our communities and into all of nature. All of nature suffers as a result of our sins—Adam and Eve initiated this in Gen 3 and we only add to it.
As we approach the start of Great Lent let us reflect on sin. There is no such thing as a self-contained private act between two consenting adults. Every sin is a wound that I carry on my own heart and soul, which at best negates the potential blessing I may have brought to a relationship, situation or the environment around me, but at worst actually becomes a destructive force to me and those around me. Sin can also be thought of a sewage, which not only stains the pipe it comes out of, but it also becomes an environmental hazard wherever it is dumped. Thinking about the reality of sin as a rotting wound or hazardous sewage turns the stomach and makes one cringe. The saints, the elect as the Lord calls them, avoid sin with the same intensity as we would hazardous sewage. Let us implant this image to motivate repentance and a saintly way of life. Through repentance we become the elect who are not afraid of the final days, but rather cry out: Come Lord Jesus! Maranatha!