St Mary of Egypt 2021

Quite to the contrary, she was smart, tough,

a street person, probably quite physically strong,

capable of surviving the very dangerous and often

deadly activities in the streets of Alexandria.

But make no mistake here, Mary of Egypt was a

very formidable woman who had been hardened by

a very harsh life. of living conditions on the

streets of Alexandria. But little did she know

that in the very sinful harshness of that life,

God was preparing her for a future life of extraordinary

deprivation and asceticism. Yes, God had prepared

her for the challenge of a life of repentance

in the desert. She began that life as a lark,

really, a frivolous kind of activity, finagling

her way onto a ship of pilgrims bound for Jerusalem

for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

So from that, we know that it was probably the

end of September that she went to Jerusalem.

After partying in the streets for a few days,

she joined a crowd walking up toward the Church

of the Forerunner in Jerusalem, thinking she

would, oh, maybe I'll get a look at the church.

true cross of Christ. But she was prevented from

entering the church several times, not once,

several times, by a mysterious, what she described

as, force, a mysterious force. And it's at this

point that she begins her remarkable life of

repentance, standing beneath the icon of the

Theotokos and lamenting from the depths of her

heart her life. She asks permission, actually,

from the Theotokos to enter. And, most importantly

of all, she, one, vows to never defile her body

again, two, to renounce the world, and three,

go wherever the Theotokos tells her. Well, she

enters the church, venerates the cross, and before

leaving, she pauses again before the icon and

hears these words, If you cross the Jordan, you

will find glorious rest. And her response? Just

a short phrase. She says, O Lady, do not forsake

me. She crosses the Jordan the next day, and

for the next 47 years, that's right, 47, she

struggles in the most fearsome spiritual combat

imaginable. She's continually attacked by the

remembrances of her former life, its pleasures,

sensual temptations, the food and wine she said

she loved so much, the coarse, crude, ribald

street songs that she loved singing, and probably

more than all, I imagine, the false and very

seductive sense of unrestrained freedom. She

was tormented by cold, heat, hunger, thirst,

lack of shelter. And yet, with every attack on

her, she called on the Theotokos to help her.

During those 47 years, she never saw another

person or animal, so she said. During her first

meeting with Saint Zosima, he recognized her

as a... As a clairvoyant, she was able to tell

him things about his life that she had no possible

way of knowing. He observed her when she prayed,

levitating off the ground. This actually made

him afraid. He thought he didn't know whose presence

he was in. But as he heard her story, he realized

he was in the presence of great holiness. At

their second meeting, to give her communion,

As per their agreement, she joined him from the

other side of the Jordan River by walking across

the water to him. And the third time he met her,

it was to bury her with the aid of a desert lion

who dug the grave in the hardened desert soil.

Her story was kept in the oral tradition of St.

Zosima's monastery, and it was written down eventually

by St. Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem,

many years later. Well, what can we say? This

is certainly one of the most extraordinary stories

of the Christian faith. But everything about

her life really was extraordinary. Extraordinary

sinning, followed by even more extraordinary

repenting. Surely, she was a type of that woman

that we heard of today in the Gospel of Luke,

the one who wiped the tears from Christ's feet

with her hair. And whom Christ said about, she

is forgiven much because, not that she sinned

much, but because she loved much. So we look

at this and we look at her life and I don't know

about you, but I think, well, what about us?

What about me? What about our lives? While some

of us may have sinned mightily, more than likely,

no one here, has repented mightily like this,

at least in the radical and profound manner that

she did. And really, you know, that's as it should

be. In our lives of comparative ordinariness,

let us remind ourselves that St. Mary's struggle

was certainly for her own salvation, for sure,

but it was also for us. That her crossing over

the River Jordan was also for us. Let's remind

ourselves that all of our circumstances are given

to us by God. And while they may appear very

common, even seemingly insignificant at times

compared to hers, that's as it should be. And

whether our sins be common or extraordinary,

that's really not the point. The point is our

Lord Jesus Christ gives us, through his love

and mercy and grace, the strength, the willingness

to struggle with our own difficulties and our

sins. And if we will listen carefully, the voice

of the Theotokos will direct us. in the way we

must go. And as St. Mary of Egypt, as a sure

example for us, let us, let us cross over the

River Jordan of our lives and go into that land

where we will also find glorious rest. Glory

to Jesus Christ.