Sinful Habits
By Protopresbyter George Dorbarakis
By Protopresbyter George Dorbarakis
"Sin has become a habit for me, and it drags me down to complete ruin; but by Your Cross deliver me, O abundantly merciful Compassionate One." (Clean Wednesday, 3rd Ode)
The holy hymnographer invokes the power of the Cross of the Lord, in order to redeem him from the sin that has imprisoned him and that he is unable to overcome. And his weakness does not lie in the fact that his powers are not sufficient – the hymnographer knows well that the Lord, through Holy Baptism, incorporated us into Himself and transfused His omnipotence into us, therefore the believer “can do all things through Christ who strengthens him” – but in the fact that his will consciously bows more to his passions than to the love of his Lord. It is as if the poet is dramatically shouting, “I love my sin more,” and its incessant repetition is proof of this. This repetition certainly makes sin invulnerable and invincible in man’s life, because it draws him in with the chariot of habit. Who is the one who, once he gets used to something, can easily get rid of it later? As in these cases, human wisdom itself points out, “habit becomes second nature to man,” or to put it in the manner of the great Lenten saint Ephraim the Syrian: “Do not get used to being defeated in spiritual warfare, for habit is second nature.”
The poet, therefore, with awareness, with a penitential disposition, confesses the laxity in his spiritual life, which, however, leads him to fear and terror! Because he sees before him its result: his ruin as his eternal separation from God! The Lord has revealed: “Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who find it.” And what does he do? He proceeds to the only saving move: turning to the Crucified Lord and entrusting his weakness to Him. “Redeem me, Lord, because of Your love!” It is the movement that differentiates the believer from the unbeliever. Both sin. Both are indeed attracted by the power of habit. But the unbeliever, having erased Christ from his life, remains alone with himself, that is, alone with his weakness and the Evil One who works in him without him realizing it. The believer, however, even with little faith, knows the way: he cries out to “the only one who can save,” like the Apostle Peter when he was sinking in the waves of the sea: “Lord, save me!” Indeed. Looking at the Crucified Christ is a redemptive vision. Because on the Cross the Lord “took away the sin of the world,” and hence any weakness and wickedness of ours. And His attitude towards His weak creature is infinitely warmer than the attitude of a mother's heart towards her wounded child: His intense longing and His loving embrace.
The experience of the saints of the Church complements us: as we also make this movement, to always turn to the Lord, especially in the hours of our complete weakness, so much will we confirm His saving love for us, and so much will we become accustomed to our face-to-face communion with Him, which means that we will have found the only way to erase the destructive habit of sin. Because the attraction to Christ is the greatest that exists in the world.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
Fasting From Thoughts
By Protopresbyter George Dorbarakis
By Protopresbyter George Dorbarakis
"Fasting from thoughts, come let us enslave the passions, girding ourselves with spiritual wings, that we may pass as if deaf to the enemy’s confusion, and may be found worthy of venerating the Cross of the Son of God, who was voluntarily slain for the world, that we may spiritually celebrate the Savior’s resurrection from the dead. Let us therefore go up the mountain with the Disciples, glorifying with them the Son who received all authority from the Father, in the Holy Spirit, who loves mankind." (Clean Wednesday, Apostichon of the Praises, Plagal of the 4th Tone)
The holy hymnographer is very clear: the purpose of this period is to come to venerate the Cross of the Lord, which reveals His infinite love for the world, and therefore to spiritually celebrate His Resurrection, since the Cross and Resurrection are always considered together in our faith. In this way, he tells us, true venerators of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord, will find ourselves glorifying Him together with the Apostles during His ascension, obviously meaning the reception of the Holy Spirit from the day of Pentecost onwards.
But again, as is the case in all the hymns of the Church, the hymnographer reminds us that there are prerequisites for this perspective: the cultivation of the spiritual life, which gives the believer wings to control himself and subdue his passions, and therefore to overcome any influence of the wicked devil. The main element of the spiritual struggle, perhaps the most decisive, is the control of our thoughts. The quality of our thoughts reveals to us the presence or absence of the Spirit of God in our existence, which is why all our Fathers agree that this is the primary goal of any fasting and any asceticism we perform. Controlling our thoughts means that we exclude every evil thought or image from our mind, through the decisive and impetuous turning in love to good and kind thoughts, which means anchoring ourselves in what the Lord has left us as a commandment.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
