Fifth Sunday of Lent 2023 Fr. James Jorgenson

that most monks work out their salvation in the

common life, living together. And this same emphasis

on common life monasticism is found in the father

of Eastern monasticism, Basil, and the father

of Western monasticism, Benedict, also emphasize

this, that most monks... Like all people, work

out our salvation together. And it's only in

those extraordinary circumstances when a monk

gets a blessing from his abbot to go out and,

as monastic literature frequently refers to it,

go out to the single -handed combat of the desert,

to go out and struggle. As a solitary, struggle

with yourself, struggle with Satan's temptations,

struggle to come into communion with God. But

for most monks, as I said, and for most of us,

our life is in common. Truly, our struggles are

with other people. When we're first born, it's

hard for kids to obey their parents. Then as

they get older, their struggles are with their

siblings, that constant squabbling that normal

brothers and sisters have among themselves. And

then they outgrow that, and then they go off

to school, which is the challenge for young people,

to get along with other kids, no matter who they

are. Some of them are bullies. Some of them are

just downright mean. to other people. And then

going on to college, oftentimes it's hard for

kids to get along with their roommate. Then when

you get to adulthood, to go and work. And those

of you who work know very well how difficult

it can be to work with other people and how other

people get on your nerves. Same is true in a

parish. There's not everybody each and every

one of us likes in any given parish. It's natural.

Human beings are different. Some people have

little habits that annoy us, and we do too. I

always tell people that when they confess that

in confession. I say, hey, you think you don't

have any problems that annoy other people, other

habits? The point of all of this is that whether

it's for monks and nuns and for us, so to speak,

normal Christians, we work out our salvation

in common. Practicing what is probably the most

difficult of the virtues in asceticism, which

is charity and fraternal love. Loving our spouse.

loving our parents, loving our children, loving

our brothers and sisters, yes, even loving the

people that we work with. The other point that

I think is extraordinary about Mary of Egypt,

as I said, is that she accomplished all of this

without receiving Holy Communion for 47 years.

You know her story. She was a sinful woman. She

wanted to go and see what all this interest was

and venerate the true cross. And there was a

force which kept her from going into the church.

And then she had her conversion experience. She

went out and repented of her ways. And then towards

the end of these 47 years, her life tells us.

that St. Zosima, Fr. Zosima, a monk, came and

happened to run into her, so to speak, in the

desert, and she asked him to give her Holy Communion.

And then she also asked, come back again next

year, Holy Thursday, and I'll be waiting to receive

Holy Communion again. And when he did, he found

that Mary of Egypt had died. and the notes for

her burial and instructions were next to her

body. So this person accomplished so much, which

to all of us, without the aid of Holy Communion,

which is to all of us, I'm sure is so central

in our spiritual life. From my point of view,

the highlight of the week is... receiving holy

communion at the Sunday Divine Liturgy. Everything

leads up to that and then flows away out of that.

But it's also, and I've reminded you before about

this point, that the frequent reception of holy

communion is something, I won't call it a novel

practice. But in our lifetime, my lifetime, it

is a novel practice. Of course, communion is

instituted by our Lord to be consumed, to eat

the body and drink the blood of the Lord. That

is the purpose of the Eucharist, not a service

that we sort of watch and attend. But until quite

recently, in many parts of the Orthodox world,

and even in the non -Orthodox Christian world,

to receive Holy Communion was considered something

very extraordinary. It is, of course, extraordinary.

But so that you only went to receive communion

after you went to confession, and then the next

day, communion, and you only did this a few times

a year. I can remember when I was first ordained

in 69. There was a practice in many metropolia,

which was the old name for the Orthodox Church

in America, metropolia churches, and then also

other Orthodox parishes, that frequent communion

was not practiced. And then finally, I would

say through the grace of the Holy Spirit and

the study of liturgical scholars. it dawned on

us about the centrality of receiving communion.

So you have two extremes. We who are blessed

with the frequent reception of Holy Communion

and so many of these extraordinary saints, and

Mary of Egypt wasn't the only one who lived for

a long time without receiving Holy Communion.

These are extremes in a sense. And our extreme

of receiving communion frequently should be something

that we are thankful for and that it doesn't

become routine for us. There you go. We have

this blessing to receive communion frequently.

Let it not be routine. Priests have to struggle

with that too. How extraordinary it is what we

are about to do in a few minutes. And so the

frequency should not give way to routine approach

to it. We go to confession periodically. We pray

regularly. For some people, prayer means going

to church on Sunday. Uh -uh. Prayer is what you

do every day, and then it culminates in the Eucharist

on Sunday. But daily prayer, and then either

the night before or the morning of, to say those

special prayers of contrition in preparation

before receiving Holy Communion. So, in conclusion

then, I would say, what does Mary of Egypt inspire

us? Number one, she worked out her salvation

alone. In the single -handed combat of the desert,

we work out our salvation by showing love and

fraternal charity with those in our lives, no

matter who or where they may be. And also, even

though I did mean to say she received communion,

and then her life tells us that it was important

for her, she probably had a premonition that

she was going to die. She received Holy Communion.

So fraternal love and charity is the greatest

practice that we can exercise. And then also

a reflective and pious regular reception of the

body and blood of the Lord in communion. Amen.