On Monday, March 11, Easter Lent begins, a special period in the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church, when believing people, waiting for Easter, either start over many topics of their spiritual life, or transfer them to a new, higher level.
Most of our readers associate the concept of fasting with some form of abstinence from food and other various habits. However, that's just the outer frame of the post. Its essence is - renewal, creation and a new, better life. During this forty-day period, Njegoš wrote "Light Microcosm", and many of us can't wait for the fast to begin - an opportunity for a kind of "reset" of soul and body.
Different ways and types of fasting are present in all monotheistic religions, including traditional churches and religious communities in Montenegro. Fasting is not a peculiarity of Orthodoxy, and the very principles of fasting in the Orthodox Church are very diverse and are related to the context in which an individual or a community of believers lives. Abstinence, silence, abolition of everything that creates a burden or noise in our life - is the task of the Lenten feat.
But it is not the silence of death and disappearance, but the creative silence in which inspiration and concentration flourish before a big job. The job is to fix ourselves, and therefore the world around us, the world with better us - becomes better itself.
In the past few weeks, the Church has been preparing the faithful for the beginning of Lent, with particular themes from the Gospel, which have a motivational and therapeutic effect on human souls. One of the messages, which unites all these stories from the so-called of the preparatory weeks of Lent, is that - not everything is as it seems to us, as it seems to us at first, and even often it is not as it is, as people say and appreciate, out loud.
This is not a message of relativization and disorder, but an invitation that, for better or for worse, we always have enough strength and reason to look at things from a different, higher point - than the one the current set of circumstances indicates.
The first topic, from among these Gospel stories, is the story of the Canaanite woman, who, although a heathen, begs Jesus Christ to help her in her trouble. At first, the Lord refuses to help her, emphasizing the fact that she does not belong to God's chosen people (meaning the Jews of that time). Even at one point, very rudely, Christ compares it to "a dog that runs around the table where people eat"!!! But not everything is as it seems at first. Not even a few lines of this record will pass, and the Lord will not only help her, but will praise her faith above the faith of any of the apostles, any of those who were considered chosen. God's methodology, in a few seconds, made losers and apostates - the best!
Another topic is the story of the tax collector Zacchaeus, who managed to come to the Lord, even though the "preconditions" did not go his way! There was a great crowd that day in Jericho; he was of small stature and quite hated by the people (the job of a customs officer at that time was linked to bribery, corruption and cooperation with the occupying Roman authorities). And yet, Zacchaeus did not give up! He was not like us today who say - "I want this, I miss that". He searched, searched - and he found. He climbed a tree high enough, and out of the whole mass of people - the Lord saw just this laborer and sinner! Message: even if you are hindered and burdened - don't give up in looking for a way out.
The story of the prodigal son was created in the same spirit. The younger of the two sons took his share from his father, so he squandered it all very quickly. According to neither God's nor human laws, such a person no longer had anything to ask from his father, even though he had come to the edge of existence and dignity. But love is greater than regulations and laws! His father did not welcome him with the usual parental attitude - "ah ha, are you coming back now"; "did I tell you not to go"; "You have spent yours, what do you want now"... etc., instead, he rushes into his lost son's arms and restores him to his original dignity.
Of course, there is also the older son, who gets angry and grumbles - why is mercy shown to the younger one, when he, the older one, has never been so honored and has never done anything, not even close, so bad. It's like our stories - "well, I don't want to go to church now, when there are all ex-godless people in it"... etc, etc... The anger of the "eldest son" is the anger of each of us, who are " orderly", "moral" and what not, when we encounter the repentance and conversion of "well-known" sinners...
When things are going well for you, don't rise above others, and don't be the one who settles the accounts of this life - because that way you could ruin all your good things. The same message and lesson applies to those who are hopeless and feel defeated. You have no right to sign the capitulation. God is not one who can't wait to punish our failings. On the contrary. The last in a series of these stories tells us that He can't wait for us to get started, to be better and to believe that as soon as tomorrow the world around us can be better.
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