Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast – Mary of Egypt, Tone 1; Our Venerable Father Mark, Bishop of Arethusa, the Deacon Cyril and Others Martyred During the Reign of Julian the Apostate (360-63)
Great Fast Day 35. The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated today.
Read
Hebrews 9:11-14; Galatians 3:23-29
Mark 10:32-45; Luke 7:36-50
We are tempted to think of the saints as perfect people, who never did anything wrong, Since we are not like that, we might decide that we cannot become saints ourselves. This is, as I have just called it, a temptation, a deceit of the devil, the father of lies. There is no sinner who cannot repent, and become a great saint. To encourage us, on the fifth (and last) Sunday of Lent, the Church remembers Saint Mary of the Desert, Mary of Egypt as she is also called.
Mary of Egypt was a successful prostitute, and joined a pilgrimage boat to Palestine only in search of new customers! She had been baptized as a child, but she was not at all interested in the Faith. Then, however, in Jerusalem, God’s grace moved Mary to repentance, and she went out into the desert beyond the Jordan, where she led an eremitical life for many years. Shortly before she died, she met Saint Zosimas, of the monastery of Saint Sabbas, near Jerusa1cm; it was Saint Zosimas who gave her Holy Communion before she died, and who learned her history. Later another of the monks of Saint Sabbas became Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem; he wrote the life of Saint Mary. Because of her connection with the monastery of Saint Sabbas, the annual commemoration of Saint Mary of the Desert is an important one in all the Churches of the Byzantine tradition.
From one aspect, there is nothing extraordinary about Saint Mary of the Desert; in every generation, there have been sinners who repented and became saints. The eremitical vocation is less common, but hermits have never been lacking in the Church. Such people do not seek publicity or notoriety; during her lifetime Saint Mary would certainly not have wanted any attention. God chose to reveal this particular saint to the Church so that we should know that we may never despair over our sins; the possibility of repentance is always open to us.
Also, of course, it is not without significance that the last of the major saints remembered on the Sundays of Great Lent is a woman. After singing the praises of the Mother of God, we at once sing the praises of Saint Mary of the Desert. This brings to mind the recent words of the [late] Holy Father [John Paul II]:
“I would also like to mention the splendid witness of nuns in the Christian East. This witness has offered an example of giving full value in the Church to what is specifically feminine, even breaking through the mentality of the time. During recent persecutions, especially in Eastern European countries, when many male monasteries were forcibly closed, female monasticism kept the torch of the monastic life burning. The nun’s charism, with its own specific characteristics, is a visible sign of that motherhood of God to which Sacred Scripture often refers.”
Saint Hippolytus of Rome teaches:
“After His Resurrection, it was the women who were the first to see Him. Just as the first sin was introduced into the world by a woman, so it was also women who first announced life to the world. Accordingly, they hear the sacred word ‘Women, rejoice’ so that the primal sorrow might be swallowed up in the joy of the Resurrection.”
(from Our Paschal Pilgrimage by Bishop Basil Losten)