Daily Journey Through the Great Fast With the Early Churchنموونە

There are two types of growth that the Bible speaks of: growth of sin and growth of righteousness. In the former, James 1:14-15 says, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” We can begin our good work and efforts in Lent and after a few days, are tempted to slack. Life is busy, work is non-stop, family obligations never seem to end - all of those need my attention, we make the excuse, so it’s ok to slip a little in my Bible readings or quiet time with God, what harm can come from that? When you go to the beach, you may start out straight ahead of where you left your belongings on the sand, but over time, little by little, the waves carry you further and further away from your belongings. The same with sin; little by little, sins of no consequence, in our minds, present the opportunities for bigger sinful opportunities.

The other type of growth the Bible speaks of is the pruning of branches. Jesus declares “I am the vine, you are the branches” [John 15:1] and “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” [John 15:4] Abiding in Jesus is to draw our life source from the vine, from Him. When we plant carnal seeds, expect carnal fruit. Likewise, planting spiritual seeds will lead to sowing and reaping of spiritual fruits. When we choose to remain attached to God, as a branch is to the vine, and make God's word the food of our spiritual life, then He sustains us. As a branch gets its nutrients from the vine, we can only continue to grow more spiritually when we are firmly secured to God.

“The devil presents to us little sins, that may seem to be of no importance before our eyes; as he otherwise, would not be able to lead us to the greater sins.” [St. Mark the Hermit, 5th century ascetic and theologian]The world we live in teaches us that we are nothing, our lives are meaningless and if we want to be something, then do so by any means necessary - if we want to get ahead in life then we need to scheme to achieve. The Bible tells a different story; it tells us that our lives have a purpose and we mean everything to God. We can use our time here on Earth to submit to the world, which tells us to lie, steal and cheat to “make it” or we can use our time here to submit our wills to God, to have Him make us part of a bigger heavenly plan.

We have the free will to submit to the world, which in turn will keep us in bitter bondage, never wishing to free us from her evil grasp, or we can, by our free will, submit to God, Who in turn liberates us from that bitter bondage. God provides, to those that freely submit to Him, a protective authority, whereas, the world provides, grief, pain and troubles to those that choose her. When we submit to the world we find ourselves depressed and never having enough, but if we submit and allow God to free us, He will indeed free us from our worldly lusts - we need only to pray to Him asking Him to free us and to submit to Him.

“Do you see how many reasons he employs to lead them away from the error of the Jews? He shows first that it is the utmost foolishness, having become free instead of slaves, to desire slavery again instead of freedom. Second, he reveals them to be unmindful of and ungrateful to their benefactor, despising the one who frees them and preferring that which enslaves them. Third, he shows that this is absurd, since [as Paul says] “the law has no power over you, since another has purchased you once for all from it.” [St. John Chrysostom, 4th century Archbishop of Constantinople and a “doctor of the Church”]