DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Joel 2:12-26 (02/22 or 03/06) First Reading, 6th
Hour, Wednesday, Final Week before Great Fast
The Work of the Fast III ~ Repent
from the Heart: Joel 2:12-26, especially vs. 13: “...rend your heart, and
not your garments. Return to the
Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate. He is longsuffering, and plenteous in
mercy, and repents of evils.”
In this reading from Sixth Hour, the Prophet Joel calls
upon God’s people to repent from the heart (vss. 12,13). To help us accept this kind of deep
change as a God-pleasing life-goal, the righteous Joel portrays the outcome of
true repentance: we 1) identify our evil thoughts and passions; 2) accept
responsibility for the calamities our sins have made, 3) realize that God is
“...jealous for His land...” but will spare “...His
people” (vs. 18), and we 4) thank God for restoring “...to us the
years the grasshopper and the locust have eaten...” (vs.
25).
We pay a high price for our evil thoughts and uncontrolled
passions. They enslave and shrivel
our humanity. Saint Gregory of
Nyssa describes the results: “...man, who once lived in the delights of
Paradise, has been transplanted into this unhealthy and wearisome place, where
his life, once accustomed to impassibility, became instead subject to passion
and corruption. [Sin] occupies the
castle of the soul like a tyrant....For the whole array of passions, wrath and
fear, cowardice and impudence, depression as well as pleasure, hatred, strife
and merciless cruelty, envy as well as flattery, brutality together with
brooding over injuries, they are all so many despotic masters....” As the Prophet says: these adversaries
overrun, manipulate, and turn us into a reproach (vss. 17-20), and they befoul
the good Name we receive in Christ.
No wonder God calls us to repent: “...turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping,
and with lamentation: and rend your hearts, and not your garments...”
(vss. 12,13).
The Prophet sets God’s offer of mercy before us - another chance
at fellowship and life with God. As Saint John of Sinai describes change of heart: “Repentance
is the renewal of baptism.
Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of
humility.” The Prophet holds
up this very same icon to the entire community of God’s people, so that
we may embrace the vision and be genuine penitents: the Priests sound the
trumpet, the people gather, all ages come, even the newlyweds set aside their nuptial
joys. All God’s people weep
for their sins. Before the Holy
Altar everyone cries, “O Lord, spare Your
people, do not give Your inheritance to reproach...” that godless people
should rule over us (vss. 15-17).
Through Joel’s Prophecy, God declares that He will do
that which the Prophet and King David begged for: God turns His “...face
away from [our] sins and blot out all [our] iniquities ” (Ps. 50:9); for
the Lord desires not the death of sinners but that we should live. The Prophet encourages us: God is
“...merciful and compassionate, long-suffering, and plenteous in
mercy...” (Joel 2:13).
Beloved, we should “Be of good courage...rejoice and be glad, for
the Lord has done great things” (vs. 21); Joel adds, God “...will
shower [us] as before with the early and the late rain” when we struggle
to repent in the heart (vs. 23). He
“...will restore to [us] the years” eaten away by sins like insect
blights (vs. 25). Regain hope and
repent from the heart.
Here is how Metropolitan Hierotheos
describes the process: “Repentance which takes place in deep mourning and
joined with confession is what unveils the eyes of the soul to see the great
things of God.” Repentance is
the supreme work of the Great Fast, by which, at Pascha’s
bright dawning, we will “...praise the name of the Lord [our] God for
what He has so wondrously done unto [us]” (vs. 26). Let us rend our hearts and turn to the
compassionate Lord!
Grant, O Lord, that we may complete the remaining time of
our life in peace and repentance, having a pure conscience unto remission of
sins and forgiveness of transgressions.
Return to the February Calendar