Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast

St John Climacus

Our Holy Mother Matrona of Saluna, martyr

Title

Security in God Means We Can Trust God

Outline

I see this tendency in me and in my world to want to be in control

Thus I am counseled to seek financial security - tell that to St John Vianney

I am counseled in the Christian world to learn the techniques of effective prayer

The list goes on, of course, but the truth is that the only place where God grants me control is the control of my passions and vices - and even that comes through his grace

With this is mind look at Hebrews

Abraham lived vulnerably in vulnerable times, especially for a donkey nomad like him. His security lay in two things: God’s promise and the oath that confirmed the promise

Now turn to the Gospel

Jesus comes down from the Transfiguration and meets a crowd arguing with his disciples

It turns out that a demonized boy with epileptic symptoms had been brought to them during Jesus’ absence and, although they had driven out many demons and healed many who were ill, they had been unable to help.

Perhaps they had been too confident in their abilities, perhaps they had not prayed enough for guidance. I do not know.

Jesus sees the problem as lack of faith, lack of trust, but what type of faith or trust?

Jesus asks some diagnostic questions about the young man - this was not sudden onset but long-standing since childhood.

The distressed father adds, “if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.” That “if” indicates he does not have trust in Jesus - he wonders if Jesus can help.

Jesus responds, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.” It is not that if you have enough faith that something will happen it is possible for you, but if you trust Jesus fully, all things are in the range of possibility. That is an important but subtle difference.

The Our Father does pray for daily bread, but its basic previous call is “your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” If I trust God and if I know that he is good, I trust that whatever he does will be the good I need.

The man cries out with great honesty, “I believe; help my unbelief!” “I do trust you and your ability, but I realize I was expressing distrust and doubt and even now I am not fully trusting - by your power forgive and make up for what I lack.”

Well, the crowd was gathering and the son was doing himself no good by being in convulsions, so Jesus quickly dispatched the demon with a command.

When the disciples ask why they could not do that, he simply says, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” What are prayer and fasting? The means by which we draw near to God, remove from our lives through penance the imperfections that block us from God, quiet ourselves, so that we can perceive what God wants to do. What is his will? That is the good he wants to do.

Then we get a third passion prediction in Mark. This seems to be Jesus saying, “This is God’s will for me, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” It is not a lack of trust or a lack of power, but precisely a following God’s will that will lead to this. This, then, is for the good of the world.”

Brothers and Sisters, do you have faith? What is your prayer like?

If you trust God and know that he is good, then you want to find his will, for that will be good, while what you want if different will end up being bad.

If you trust God, then your prayer will be a prayer of quiet, a prayer of being with him, a prayer that includes self-denial - that of vigils, that of penances, that of fasting. That is how the saints drew near to God.

One purpose of the Great Fast is to encourage this type of drawing near to God in you.

Now, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 4-3-2022: Fourth Sunday of Great Lent or Sunday of Saint John Climacus

EPISTLE

Hebrews 6:13–20

13  For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. 16 Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19  We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20  where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 4-3-2022: Fourth Sunday of Great Lent or Sunday of Saint John Climacus

GOSPEL

Mark 9:17–31

17 And one of the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a mute spirit; 18 and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20 And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has he had this?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.” 23  And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.”

30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; 31  for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 4-3-2022: Fourth Sunday of Great Lent or Sunday of Saint John Climacus

SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 2022 | TRIODION AND GREAT LENT

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 4-3-2022: Fourth Sunday of Great Lent or Sunday of Saint John Climacus

FOURTH SUNDAY OF GREAT LENT OR SUNDAY OF SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS

Bright or Dark Vestments

Violet or Gold

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 4-3-2022: Fourth Sunday of Great Lent or Sunday of Saint John Climacus

Matins Gospel John 20:11–18 (41st Sunday)

Epistle Hebrews 6:13–20

Gospel Mark 9:17–31