In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Mark 10.32-45
At that time, Jesus took his twelve disciples, and he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise.” And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him, and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant of James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
In our Gospel reading today, our Lord reminds the 12 disciples of how He will soon be taken by the religious authorities, who will condemn Him to death and then hand Him over the Romans who will mock Him and spit upon Him, and then scourge Him and kill Him. Perhaps we sometimes need to remind ourselves why it was that He was to suffer and die. It was for our sins.
This is the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, the Sunday upon which we remember a woman who was a terrible sinner in her early life, Saint Mary of Egypt. Prior to her reawakening, she revelled in her sins. From a young age, she lived a life of extreme promiscuity, essentially as a prostitute; but she gloried so much in the filth of her sins that she refused to take payment. And to add sin upon sin, it gave her great joy to know that even as she sinned that she was dragging others down into sin with her.
But, glory be to God, Saint Mary was confronted by her own sinfulness in a truly miraculous way, by finding herself physically unable to enter a church because of all the evil she had embraced so willingly in her life up to that time. After that, and again praise be to God, she repented of her sins. She confessed them and then retreated to the desert, where she lived out the remainder of her days living a life of penitence and extreme ascetism.
We may learn much from the life of Saint Mary. First, in her we have the example of a woman who had sunk deeper and deeper in to sin year after year, but repents of the all the evil she has done and ends her life as a great saint of the Church. From this we may understand that no matter how entrenched we are in our sins, it is never too late to repent; and no matter how dreadful our sins may have been, forgiveness is freely available to all who truly repent.
Next, we see that in order to repent, one must first recognise that one is a sinner. Alas, that can be a difficult thing to do in the age in which we live. Truly, we live at time when many call good evil and evil good. For some, the only sin is to name sin as sin. Saint Mary was blessed to have her eyes opened to her evil ways in a miraculous fashion. We might all pray that we might be so blessed, and be forced to confront what we are and repent, instead of being wilfully blind to our sins and entering into God’s temple freely and partaking of the Sacred Mysteries unworthily, eating and drinking condemnation unto ourselves, as the Apostle Paul puts it. But we are blessed to have the Sacred Scriptures, the lives of the saints, and writings of the Fathers of the Church, and the Holy Tradition of the Church to teach us good from evil. Let us embrace these as the miracles that they are and by them be led to repentance.
We also see from her life that repentance is not simply a matter of saying ‘sorry’ and moving on. True repentance means a total change in the way we live, horrified by what we have done, shedding tears for our evil deeds, and resolving that, by God’s grace, we will lead lives in keeping with the way of salvation that He has set before us. I am not suggesting that all should disappear in the desert and live as Saint Mary did. Few indeed are called to such heroic holiness of life. Indeed, I recall a phrase that I have read in connection with those who made such saintly efforts, that their lives are more to be admired than emulated. Speak with your spiritual father about what is best for you and from his advice learn where your desert is to be found and what acts of ascetism you must embrace.
Finally, I would like to mention that we see in Saint Mary’s life how our sins can effect the lives of others. She confesses frankly that each time she sinned with a man that she also led him into sin. Later, when her eyes were opened, this was a cause of horror to her. It is a matter for us to keep before our own eyes that when we sin we may be leading others into sin along with us. By our sins we may risk not only our own salvation but the salvation of others.. People, of course, are ultimately responsible for their own actions; but the Fathers tell us that when we set temptations before another, we ourselves sin, whether that man fall into sin himself as a result or not. As Christians, we are called to love all people; and how loving is it to tempt others toward the path that leads to damnation? And remember that some of these people may be those whom you love in a particular way, spouses, children, close friends. What a terrible cross it would be to carry for the remainder of your days if, having repented yourself, you found it too late or impossible to bring them to repentance also.
In our Gospel today Jesus, having listed all the dreadful things He was to suffer, ends by telling His disciples that on the third day He would rise from the dead. This is the message of hope that stands at the heart of the Gospel, the promise of eternal life, the understanding that we, like the Good Thief, may find ourselves one day with Him in Paradise. And the life of Saint Mary reminds us that this hope is available to all, if only they will repent. I pray that you will; and I ask that you pray the same for me. Amen.
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