Dearly Beloved,

As we are ushered into Great Lent, the Church welcomes us with these specific, heartening and joyful expressions which carry the real meaning and definition of Lent and the fashion in which we are expected to live through it. The Church summons us to analyze and comprehend the strong meaning of the dogmatic hymn. The forty-day fast is the commencement of spiritual struggles and not a mere time span during which we are called to abstain only from certain foods, as if food is the sole culprit that leads us into sin.

We are called to abstain from all weaknesses that enfeeble and invalidate us against temptations, both spiritual and carnal, that offer us pleasure and paralyze the moral volition. We are called not to accept, but to conquer and defeat materialism, secularism and the so-called rationalistic approach of life. We are called to emulate the dignity of the angels rather that the indignity of those who have consumed their spiritual gifts and befallen to the lowest level of inanity.

It is time to reflect and to be attentive to David’s psalm which he composed after recovering from his own fall: “Man cannot abide in his pomp, he is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:12). And again, addressing the Lord with contrition: “Yet thou hast made me little less than God.” (Psalm 8:5). With these in mind, the holy hymnographer visualizes us as dignified and beautiful as the angels.

Most importantly, we are called to be sincere with God for each and every day of Lent; not concealing our real selves. It is time to believe that the Fast is the beginning of spiritual struggles against our sinful selves, which require from each one of us courage, sincerity and repentance in order to be able to pronounce: “I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”(Luke 15:21). Only then we will be giving to God the joy to respond: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.”(Luke 15:17), because each one of us will be transformed into a being who had been dead and suddenly is brought to life, a lost sheep that is found and belongs to Him again.

I pray that we give this joy to God, to ourselves, and to our Holy Church during this Lenten season.

With Love in Christ,
+ G E R A S I M O S
Metropolitan of San Francisco