Tomorrow, Monday, we hope that God would let us enter the Lent with his grace because no person can fast without the power of this grace. Apostle Paul reminds us saying: “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here”. The light in the coming weeks of spiritual fight will be poured over us and we shall walk step by step towards the brightness of Pascha and to satisfaction in God’s eyes. In the epistle, Paul invites us to fight the harmful desires, and in the Gospel we have a part that speaks about forgiveness and a second one that speaks about fighting the evil lust for money.
What is the reason behind the words about forgiveness? The reason is that you fast with others and for others. Fasting is not a matter of eating or not eating, it is a matter of love. You should put the other always before you, you are purified for him. If you forgave him for what he has done to you, this shall push him into the Lord’s love and might make him accept you in a similar forgiveness. Your goal is to heal the person that offended you and not take revenge.
If your brother has done wrong towards you, this could be his revenge for something bad done to him. He would feel that he is paying for the wounds he has been through. When you don’t forgive, you would be keeping the other in his evil and adhering to your shocked pride. While if you forgave, you’d have gotten over this shock. Leave everything for God and he shall heal you and the other.
This way, you will be free from yourself and from hatred’s control over you. You are also free from your fasting: you shouldn’t feel that you have gained a merit in God’s notebook. This is why the Lord tells you: “when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you”. The whole relationship between God and you exists in the heart and on heaven’s edge, while the outside shallow world has no value. Fasting is an exercise for a soul that asks its unity with the Lord.
The deep unity with the Lord, according to the Gospel of Matthew, is the freedom from money’s control over us: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth …But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven”. Nothing can to deprive us from our internal freedom as money can: Food can also control and lead us into slavery. What benefit does fasting give you if you were captured by this desire?
The chapter ends with Jesus’ saying: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. God’s authority over the heart isn’t compatible with money’s authority. Therefore, try not to make your treasure from money because it will then become a master over your heart.
Go into your fasting and do not reach satiety because food- even if it was Lenten food- is not your whole life. Chastity is when you are convinced that you should abandon everything. Getting liberated from everything you thought was necessary is the first step of your ascension on the ladder of divine ascent. When you do so, you’d have accepted God’s authority over you. Pray a lot so that nothing can have control over you; this is your first exercise in this Great Lent.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “أحد الغفران” – 06.03.2011
