Saint Mary of Egypt, The Saturday of Lazarus, & Palm Sunday

Review:
Part One of Lent (Before the Sunday of the Cross)
A personal focus—looking forward to Pascha

  • The Sunday of Orthodoxy
  • The Sunday of Gregory of Palamas
  • The Sunday of the Cross

Part Two of Lent (Christ’s suffering, His Cross and Death become the Focus)
"going up to Jerusalem"— becomes the goal

  • John of the Ladder
  • Mary of Egypt


I. St. Mary of Egypt:

The Fifth Sunday of Lent St. Mary is a role model for Repentance: Her fixed feast day of April 1st has been transferred to the Fifth Sunday of Lent.

Life Story: St. Mary was a runaway child who went to Alexandria and became a prostitute. In the course of her life, out of curiosity, she once joined a throng of pilgrims who traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Cross (September 14) and there she did not cease to lead others to sin. However, when she tried to enter into the Church of the Holy Resurrection, an unseen power prevented her from doing so, once, twice, three times, while others around her entered freely. Taking this as a personal sign to her from God, she was cut to the heart by a profound awareness of her own sinfulness. She immediately repented and decided to change her life, by embracing the monastic life for over four decades, and becoming a saint of the Church. From harlot to saint by the grace of God! Her Feast is set on the fifth Sunday of Lent, "When the end of Lent is near, so that idlers and sinners may be aroused by repentance, having as an example this saint" (Festal Commemoration, Fifth Sunday of Lent).

"Once you were defiled with every impurity, but today through repentance you have become the Bride of Christ. Desiring the life of the angels, you have cast down the demons with the weapon of the Cross. Therefore, O glorious Mary you have been made a bride of the Kingdom."


II. The Great Canon by St. Andrew of Crete

During the first four days of Lent (in some Churches) the Canon of St. Andrew is read in four sections. On the Thursday of the Fifth Week the entire Canon of St. Andrew is read.

"The Great Canon forms a prolonged confession of sin, an unremitting call to repentance. At the same time it is a meditation on the whole body of scripture&ldots;" (Ware, The Lenten Triodion, p. 50).

Scripture Reading for the Day:
Hebrews 9:11-14; The Purification through the Cross. "For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats&ldots;sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Mark 10:32-45; The Disciples and the Passion of Christ: "The Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him and spit upon him, and scourge him; and after three days he will arise."

Apostles: "Teacher we want you to do for us what ever we ask of you."

Christ: "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"

 

III. "The Week of the Palms"

The week preceding The Saturday of Lazarus and Palm Sunday is called "The Week of the Palms."

The central theme is walking with Christ before the death of Lazarus.

  • Monday - "Today the sickness of Lazarus appears to Christ as He walks on the other side of the Jordan."
  • Tuesday - "Yesterday and today Lazarus is sick."
  • Wednesday - "Today the dead Lazarus is being buried and his relatives weep."
  • Thursday - "For Two days now Lazarus has been dead."
  • Friday - "On the morrow Christ comes to raise the dead brother (of Martha and Mary)." In Christ’s contemplating the death of Lazarus, he realizes that his hour has come as well!


IV. The Liturgical "Now" or "Today" in Orthodox Worship

"The Church is primarily the gift and the power of that remembrance which transforms fact of the past into eternally meaningful events&ldots; The true confirmation comes from celebration, and precisely from those five days on which we witness the beginning of that mortal fight between life and death, and begin not so much to understand, as to witness Christ going to put death to death" (Fr. Schmemann, Great Lent p. 83).

The Personal purification of Great Lent (i.e. fighting the passions) is the means not to self-perfection but at embracing the "Today" of Christ. Great Lent has now led us to "Put aside all the cares of this Life so that we may receive the King of all."

We are called to experience the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.


V. Palm Sunday: The Last Sunday of Lent

  • "Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together."
  • The Kingship of Christ: The people wanted a king (messiah) as one who would overturn the government of oppressed people.The King comes in humility as the King who has come to be crucified.
  • Palms: Are a sign of victory
  • Hosanna: save now
  • "Blessed is He that comes in the Lord’s Name."