February 22nd, 2026: Forgiveness Sunday Vespers

Back in 1983, while I was at St. Vladimir's Seminary,

we had this service, and Fr. Alexander Schmemann

gave the sermon that evening, and it was transcribed,

and I want to read just a little bit about what

he said on that day. Once more, we're about to

enter Great Lent. I'd like to remind us, myself

first of all, and all of you, fathers, brothers,

sisters, of the verse that we just sang, and

that the verse that says, let us set out with

joy upon the season of the fast. Only yesterday

we were commemorating Adam, weeping, lamenting

at the gates of paradise, and now every second

line of the Triodion, the hymn book of Lent,

and the liturgical books will speak of repentance,

acknowledging what dark and helpless lives we

live, in which sometimes we are immersed. And

yet, no one will prove to me that the general

tonality of great Lent is not that of a tremendous

joy. Not what we call joy in this world. Not

just something entertaining, interesting, or

amusing, but the deepest definition of joy, that

joy of which Jesus Christ says, no one will take

from you. Why joy? What is that joy? Lent is

a gift. Lent is a gift from God to us, a gift

which is admirable, marvelous, one that we desire.

Now a gift of what? I would say that it is a

gift of the essential. That which is essential

and yet which suffers most in our life because

we are living lives of confusion and fragmentation,

lives which constantly conceal from us the eternal,

the glorious, the divine meaning of life and

take away from us that which should push. Push

us and thus correct and fill our life with joy.

And this essential, what is this essential? Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, the acceptance from God of the

life, as St. Peter says, created out of nothing.

Created exclusively by the love of God. For there

is no other reason for us to exist. Loved by

him even before we were born. We were taken into

his marvelous light. Now we live and forget.

When was the last time I thought about it? But

I do not forget so many little things and affairs

that transform my life into empty noise, into

a kind of traveling without knowing where. Lent

returns to me, gives back to me this essential,

the essential layer of life. Essential because

it is coming from God. Essential because it reveals

God. The essential time, because time again is

a great, great area of sin. Because time is the

time of what? Of priorities. How often our priorities

are not at all as they should be. Yet in great

Lent, waiting, listening, singing, you will see

little by little that time that is broken and

deviated, taking us to death and nowhere else.

without any meaning, you will see that time again

becomes expectation, becomes something precious.

You wouldn't take one minute of it away from

its purpose of pleasing God, of accepting from

him his life, together with our gratitude. It

is also the rediscovery of the essential link

among ourselves, the rediscovery that we belong

to each other. The rediscovery that no one has

entered my life or your life without the will

of God. And that rediscovery, there is everywhere

an appeal, an offering to do something for God,

to help, to comfort, to transform, to take with

you, with each one of you, that brother and sister

of Christ. This is the essential relationship.

Don't we understand? Don't we understand, brothers

and sisters? what power is given to us in Lent.

Lent in spring, Lent in beginning, Lent in resurrection.

All of this is given to us free. Come, listen

to that prayer. Make it yours. Don't even think

on your own. Just join. Just enter and rejoice.

And that joy will start killing those old and

painful and boring sins. And with that, you will

have that great joy. which the angels heard,

which the disciples experienced when they returned

to Jerusalem after Christ's ascension. It is

that joy which was left with them that we nobly

adopted. It is, first of all, the joy of knowing,

the joy of having something in me which, whether

I want it or not, will start transforming life

in me and around me. If we would think of the

real sins we have committed, We would say that

one of the most important is exactly the style

and tonality which we maintain with each other,

our complaining and criticizing. I don't think

that there are cases of great destructive hatred

or assassination or something. It's just that

we exist as if we are completely out of each

other's life, out of each other's interests,

out of each other's love, without having repaired

this relationship. there is no possibility of

entering Lent. Sin, whether you call it original

sin or primordial sin, it's broken the unity

of life in this world. It's broken time. It's

broken relationships. It's broken family. Everything

is diavolos, divided and destroyed. But Christ

has come into the world and said, and when I

am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all

men to myself. If there is a strict commandment

in the gospel, it is that commandment, if you

forgive, your heavenly father will also forgive

you. But if you do not forgive, neither will

your father forgive. So, of course, it is a necessity.

But the now of that, I repeat it once more, is

to be horrified by that fragmentation of our

own existence, by the pettiness of our relationships,

by the destructive words. by the abandonment

of reverence for one another. Now, we have to

forgive each other, whether or not we have any

explicit sins or crimes against one another.

That reconciliation, that forgiveness, is an

epiphany of the church as the kingdom of God.

We are saved because we are in the body of Christ.

We are saved because we accept from Christ the

world. And finally, we accept Christ when we

accept each other. Everything else is lie and

hypocrisy. So fathers, brothers, sisters, let

us forgive one another. Let us not think about

why. There's enough to think about. Let us do

it right now in a kind of deep breath. Say, Lord,

help us to forgive. Lord, renew all these relationships.

What a chance is given here for love to triumph.

For unity to reflect the divine unity. Let us

gladly accept it. This is the beginning of Lent.

This is our spring repair time because reconciliation

is the powerful renewal of the ruin. So please,

for the sake of Christ, let us forgive each other.

The first thing I am asking all of you, my spiritual

family, is to forgive me. Imagine how many temptations

of laziness, of avoiding too much, so on and

so forth. What a constant defense of my own interests,

of this or that. I know that I don't even have

an ounce of this self -giving, self -sacrifice,

which is truly a true repentance, the true renewal

of love. So let us forgive one another.