This icon of the Church of Christ* shows Christ in the center with a scene from each of his apostles' life and how they died.
Entering into this season we may ask ourselves what is the purpose of it, why all this activity; fasting, reading of Holy Scripture, prayer, almsgiving and extra services? Certainly life itself is busy enough and the extra effort required during Great Lent can put you over the edge. You can easily find yourself overwhelmed and tempted to simply honor the season only in a superficial manner.
Now for us who believe there are many different teachings and seasons that are given to us by the Church that are tailored to wake us up and put us on the right and narrow path. Perhaps one of the simplest of tools is the question, “What is the purpose of the Church?” The clearest answer to this question is rather simple. The purpose of the Church is to get us ready to die. It is Her mission to provide a body of teaching and the tools that prepare us for the event of our death. This is not a morbid preoccupation rather by preparing us to die the Church we believe is best suited to teach us how to live.
Therefore Great Lent and all of the spiritual disciplines of the Church are nothing more than soul saving opportunities for the faithful. They are hard because they work against the normal course of our fallen nature. They are hard because they are in opposition to the world and its philosophy of death and of life. Listen to Saint Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth (1:17-31):
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nothing things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. And of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Saint Paul is inviting us to view our belief in Jesus Christ in the starkest of terms. We are either working towards life through the cross or towards death without the cross. No one can experience the resurrection without first experiencing the cross and the sacrifice it requires. Each time we encounter Christ and His Church we are invited into a new paradigm and a new way of viewing the world. When this happens we leave our old way of being behind and something emerges in its place.
With love in Christ,
+Father Evan
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5.17).
* This photo of the Church of Christ Icon was found here.