Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt – 2012 April 1st

Fr. Robert Miclean
AOM
5th Sunday of Lent
10 April 2011

Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt

Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-14
Gospel: Mark 10:32-45

Throughout history and in our world today, mankind as a whole has always valued most the
temporal things of life: power, fame, good looks. In our own day, we value movie stars for their
beauty or handsome appearance, we envy the rich and powerful when we look in the mirror or in
our wallets, and we find ourselves wanting. We’re often attracted to the fantasy their lifestyles
project, and we can easily find ourselves covetous and envious of their possessions or influence.

We’re sometimes our own worst enemies: We seek after the things of this world to the detriment
of that which is eternal, our souls, and in the process, we do ourselves and others grave harm.

Mary of Egypt whose Sunday we celebrate today valued all the temporal ‘attractions,’ the way
of the world; she valued her body and the lusts of the flesh more than anything else. She ran
away from home at age 12, and made herself a harlot. For seventeen years, she was self-abused.
She didn’t see the image of God in herself or in others, but rather made herself into an object of
insatiable animalistic passions.

There’s a false-pride at work in us at times when we devalue ourselves, when we entertain the
passions and strive to get to the top. When we seek the vanities of this world over the Kingdom
of Heaven, we harm ourselves and others, whom we judge in our pride and envy. We can make
ourselves ‘feel better’, at least temporarily, by putting others down, by giving into the wants of
the flesh, by lording it over others. But this is a dead-end street: good looks fade with age, power
and influence too are temporal and riches can quickly turn into poverty with a bad economy or a
natural disaster. If our hope is in any of these things, we’re truly to be pitied.

Because He loves us, the Lord desires better for us; He’d have us live with eternity before our
eyes, to place our hope in His changelessness and not in those things that are quickly passing
away. He desires to help us so that we can put off sin and death, and cleave to Him who is Life.

Worldly success, power, and influence feed our egos; the proud person cannot see God or
be united with Him because God Himself is humble, not proud. As such, God demonstrates
Himself to us as the ultimate servant. He condescends to us by becoming man, one of His own
creatures to enter into and redeem human nature. He gives His own life to defeat sin and death
for us on the cross. He bears with us patiently in our struggles as a parent bears patiently with
his child who is learning what obedience means. He disciplines us in love that we may learn and
grow and participate more and more fully in the life that is only in Him.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds His disciples of the coming day of the Lord, that He must suffer torture and death in order to defeat sin and death on behalf of the world and its salvation. Immediately after telling them that He will die on their behalf, that He Himself is the ultimate Pascha (Passover), the disciples begin vying for who will be on top in His Kingdom. They picture the Kingdom of Heaven just like the way of the world where influence and power politics can get you to the top. We can imagine some of the disciples falling prey to this prior to the descent of the Holy Spirit because we ourselves might have done the same.

Jesus reminds us all that the way of the world won’t get us anywhere in the economy of heaven.
What’s valued in the world is poison for the soul that desires heaven. Instead, Jesus shows us a
better way by example: a way that enables them and us to commune with the living God, to find
freedom from vain and worldly pursuits, lust for power, and covetousness over what we don’t
have. He says, “Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. For even
the son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Back to Mary: she was busy wearing out her body and destroying both her body and her soul
when she was confronted by the icon of the Holy Theotokos. The icon of the Virgin Mary struck
her, convicted her; it forbade her entrance into the holy church of the cross in Jerusalem. She
couldn’t enter into the holy presence of Christ’s victory over sin and death; she couldn’t bear
communion with Him in her present state. The Holy Virgin, whose loving image confronted
her as she was trying to enter the church, was everything that Mary was not; the Theotokos in
her purity and virginity, in her YES to God’s love and calling on her life, in her servanthood and
submission was a mirror image to Mary’s licentiousness and fornication, her vanity, her NO to
God and to His likeness in her. Mary knew no love; the Theotokos knew only love.

In her despair over this realization, she desired a change, a new beginning by means of
repentance—she turned away from her former life and towards a new life in Christ.

After years of self-abuse, after years of giving into the basest of passions, it took Mary many,
many years of struggle through prayer and fasting, learning to cooperate with the work of the
Holy Spirit in her life, to find her freedom and win the victory over her passions. Her life story
relates that for seventeen years she was “tormented by wild beasts, mad desires and passions.”

Mary persisted in her struggle and only after this that she found her peace. You or I may not
have the depth of struggles with the passions that Mary did. Perhaps you are not so enraptured
by this world’s pursuits and temporal vanities, but we all are in need of continued healing. We
all have need of going the distance in our struggles to be free of the passions and develop a
servant’s heart, love, for those around us. Our growth in the likeness of God, our return to our
full selves—whom God has made us to be—begins with our love for God and each other right
here, in our family in the Church. Only from this starting point of healing and repentance can we
learn to come outside ourselves to love our brothers in the world in a way that draws them also to
the knowledge and love of God.

It’s not through worldly power, influence, or good looks that we find the fountain of youth; true
immortality is found only in life with God and through the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Only in this way, do we recover our true humanity and become the men and women God created
us to be, free of the passions and worldly pursuits. Through repentance, prayer, fasting, and the
Sacramental life, we become communicants of Life Eternal, servants of the Most High God.