Son Of A Widow

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Coincidentally, I've been listening to a few of Fr. Hopko's (recently deceased this past Wednesday) podcasts everyday this week. With the loss of such a strong and influential figure to Orthodoxy, one of his podcasts sticks out clearly now. Fr. Hopko really knew the Orthodox faith and has many writings on the faith. Specifically, I've been listening to his words concerning Lent.

He says, that Lent is not a time for us to perform "special" Christian practices. Lent is a time for us to live as the Christians we should be all year round. This is a stark change in how I thought about it. The Lenten season looks for us to carry something out into the life of Christ, out of our death with him and into his life.

This is also why this is the season of repentance. To live as you know you should be living means that you acknowledge you have been lazy and sinful, that you've neglected the poor and God, that you've been at enmity with your neighbor. Fr. Seraphim Rose says that God let's us fall that we may learn to be humble. For this is also a season of humility. When I try to live as I ought, I find it difficult. Indeed, I find that at times it seems to be something far from my ability.

"Yours of Your own we offer to You," the priest says at the liturgy, echoing David's own words: " "But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand." (1 Chronicles 29:14)

There is no giving in Orthodoxy. Everything is given. All things are given to us. Therefore, the offering of our lives is an act of humility. This is not because we are offering something valuable to God in giving ourselves. It is because we acknowledge that we were never ours to begin with.

Let us do our best to offer ourselves unto God, to live as we should live all year round, in fasting and prayer and repentance and acts of mercy toward others. This is the only reasonable thing we can do in light of his mercy (Romans 12:1-2).