On the Eve of the Fast

A sermon on Cheese-Fare Sunday

For if you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you (Mt 6:14)

Among the Orthodox Russian people, the present Sunday is called Forgiveness Sunday, from the good and devout custom of taking leave of one another—that is, of asking one another’s forgiveness before Great Lent and our preparation for Holy Communion. And this custom derives its force from the command of the Savior, who in today’s Gospel bids us forgive one another’s sins if we wish the heavenly Father to forgive ours as well—the Father whom we grieve and anger beyond number every day and every hour.

Since Great Lent begins tomorrow, and since we all, according to Christian custom, are gathering to cast off from ourselves the heavy burden of sins; and since this casting off of the burden of sin requires on our part a certain self-denial and a certain skill in doing good, therefore the Lord teaches us precisely what is required of us ourselves in order that all our sins may be forgiven us, without remainder—or what we must give up on our side, since the Lord God, on His side, is always ready to have mercy on and save repentant sinners. Specifically—He says—what is required of us is simplicity and the refusal to remember wrongs, freedom from anger, the forgetting of offenses, friendliness, love for our enemies. Your salvation is in your own hands, in your own power, O man. If you will forgive others their offenses, their failings, their vexations, their begging, then your sins will be forgiven you, and you, with your vexations and your frequent petitions to God, will never depart from Him empty-handed, and you will be deemed worthy of His great and abundant mercies. You will forgive your neighbor few sins in comparison with your own sins before God, and God will forgive you transgressions beyond number; you will forgive a hundred denarii, while the Lord will forgive you ten thousand talents.

But how often does rancor take possession of people! While the Lord requires of us only a little—the forgiveness and forgetting of the wrongs done us by our neighbors, wrongs which in comparison with our sins before God are like drops in the sea—and He requires this for our own benefit, desiring to accustom us to meekness, guilelessness, patience, lowliness of wisdom, brotherly love, forbearance, and love of peace—we fly into a rage, assert our rights that our neighbors have violated, kindle the flame of enmity in ourselves and in them, and thus madly and presumptuously thrust away from ourselves the right hand of God that is saving us, adding sin to sin, and ourselves rush headlong into perdition. To bear no malice before God and men is a great good, a great virtue: it covers a multitude of sins.

In the Old Testament, Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David the ancestor of God, king and prophet, and many others were especially loved and glorified by God for this virtue; and in the New Testament, the countless righteous ones who imitated our meek and humble Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, who says to us all in the Gospel: Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls[1]. So let us not listen to the devil, who teaches us to nourish evil against our neighbor, but let us forgive, in the simplicity of our hearts, the offenses inflicted on us by our neighbors, who act under the enemy’s prompting as well. Let no one think evil of another; let no one be carried away by malicious suspicions about his neighbor, for this is the spiritual delusion of the enemy of our salvation, who strains with all his might to destroy in us the bond of love and brotherhood and to plant within us demonic enmity and hostility; A new commandment I give you, that you love one another[2], and the words of the Apostle Paul: for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. So then, the fulfillment of the law is love[3].

Further on, the Lord teaches us unhypocritical fasting and says that we are to enter upon the arena of fasting not with dejected faces but with cheerful ones, like true and faithful soldiers of Christ entering upon the struggle with sin and their own many-passioned flesh, with the help and cooperation of the all-powerful grace of Christ, and before the face of the heavenly Father, who has a reward ready for all who are truly striving against the spiritual delusion of sin. Anoint your head, says the Savior, and wash your face; anoint your head, that is, anoint your soul with the oil of almsgiving, and wash the face of your soul with the oil of purity, and your Father, who sees what is hidden, will repay you publicly.

Further, the Lord teaches us to detach our hearts from earthly treasures and earthly attachments, and impels us to desire and seek heavenly treasures: first, because our souls are of heavenly origin and immortal, while earthly goods, being coarse, corruptible and passing, are unworthy of us, who were created and redeemed by the blood of the Son of God for the enjoyment of spiritual and eternal goods; and second, because by clinging in our hearts to earthly goods we make even them earthly, coarse, low and passionate, and make ourselves incapable of loving God and our neighbor, whereas love is the chief aim and duty of our life. Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also[4].

St John Chrysostom discourses on this as follows: it is a great harm to you if you cling to what is earthly, becoming a slave instead of a free man, falling away from what is heavenly, unable to think of anything above but only of money, of interest, of debts, of profits and of vile tavern-keeping. What could be more calamitous than this? Such a man falls into slavery, a slavery heavier than that of any slave, and—what is most fatal of all—voluntarily rejects the nobility and freedom that belong to man. Talk to him as much as you will, but with his mind nailed fast to riches he cannot hear anything useful and necessary for him… for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…. But if you lay up your treasure by means of almsgiving—in heaven, then you will not only be made worthy of heavenly honors for this, but you will receive your reward even here, being borne up to heaven as you ponder and care for the things of heaven. For it is evident that you carry your mind to the very place where you lay your treasure; and, on the contrary, you will experience something altogether opposite when you lay your treasure on the earth.

So then, let us lay to heart the teaching of our Savior set before us in today’s Gospel concerning the forgiveness of wrongs, concerning fasting pleasing to God and the detachment of our heart from earthly treasures, and love for the blessings of heaven, the incorruptible ones. Let us strive—I will say it in Chrysostom’s words—to prepare ourselves for our departure from here. For although the day of death common to all has not yet come, the end of each one, old man and youth alike, is already at the doors…

So then, while we have time, let us prepare for ourselves boldness before God; let us store up oil in abundance, let us transfer everything to heaven, so that in its own time, and especially when we shall have need, we may enjoy all these things, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. (Chrysostom). Amen.