Lent, Privation and the Eyes of the Heart

Great Lent in the Orthodox Liturgical Seasons began yesterday. Despite the great and swelling words of many of the saints about the meaning, purpose and benefit of Lent, none are any more true than the words of a modern Roman Priest who said, "In its simplest terms, Lent is the season when we refocus ourselves on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ." The exercise is not privation, for privation alone means NOTHING. The exercise is to focus the eyes of the heart. The vision and knowledge of the Cross is the Complete Gospel upon which all creation, history, wisdom, scripture, worship and LIFE rests. The fact is year after year the exercise of Lent makes it more real for us, the meaning more profound. "Things" appear deepening our Communion IN the Gospel, which though previously seen become better perceived. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner. I am the Blind Man, Lord, open the eyes of my heart that I may see.

I remember seeing a bitter ex-Christian on PBS, talking with the great Secular Humanist Writer, Joseph Campbell.  He was decrying the ignorance of his Christian upbringing, literally poking fun at his parents who thought that "Jesus Christ was the answer to everything."  He said, "I'm sorry, he just is not." I remember thinking, "You can't be talking about the Jesus I've met, who placed his Holy Angel over my cradle to defend me, who from birth to now showers his grace upon me and gives everything and every person in my life meaning."  I hope this young man learned better in time.  

It was not until years later that I realized the true blessing of my parents, flawed as all parents are, but holding clear faith in the Cross of Christ.  That blessing came into focus reading this passage about someone born to Atheists,(Valeria Alfeyeva) who spent years in a seemingly futile search for Christ, at the same time I remembered the words of that unfortunate bitter young man.
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A friend said to her, "Perhaps you were looking not for HIM but for something else?" 

"I was looking for something else, something that would ease my sufferings, I longed for perfect love, and couldn't quench my thirst. I read thick tomes to find the Truth that would answer the eternal questions of being, and I crossed three oceans in the pursuit of beauty.  But still I did not know that all this was You: the easing of suffering and blessing, unending Love, absolute Truth, and perfect Beauty - these are all different names for you.

"And so, without loving you - I loved you; or, without looking for you - all my life I've been looking for you alone. 'Who is to blame that he is blind, him or his parents?' the disciples asked the Savior about the man born blind.  And the Lord answered: 'Neither him nor his parents - but this has happened so that the works of God might be seen in him."'

"You predestine me to endure that lot of the generations that rejected you, and were struck down with the plagues of Egypt and with darkness - to endure the fate of the generation that has lost you and so is lost itself.  You made me drink the bitter cup to the drops, the cup prepared by the fathers, so that I'd no longer want this poisoned drink, either for myself or for my son.

"Those who have seen you - did not want to see you.

"We (their children) were born blind - so that we might see.
"And so the works of God have been revealed in every generation.
"Having forgiven me and received me into your house, as you received the prodigal son, you baptized me with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

Unexplained blindness is no shame, choosing the darkness is. So coming to sight, "we are sealed in the same Spirit, who hovered over the waters when the earth was still formless and void, and you (Jesus Christ the Word) transformed chaos into cosmos.  This is how I was called - in the mystery of baptism, which is accessible to us all." +++
Many seek "Christ" and find only some poisonous substitution for him.  But those who truly seek him in the most elementary understanding of his Cross, coming to share in the testament and covenant of His Blood, find TRUTH, the person and a complete way of life, participating in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  After all, the earliest name given to those who followed the Cross of Christ (the Christians) was not "people of the book," a title that has NEVER applied to Christians, (a mis-concept of Muslims) but rather "the people of The Way." It is NOT paper and ink, but living experience of Jesus Christ, who promised he would be with us always and indeed IS.

The Way is with Christ and him crucified, our hope, our ultimate perception of Beauty, of Truth, of Justice, of Mercy, of Meaning, of Love, and ultimately "glorification" having WALKED with Him, baptized in his suffering and blood. 

Once Blind, Now Seeing!

http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/frederica/c._s._lewis_on_the_passion