Daily Journey Through the Great Fast With the Early ChurchSample

“Do not fall into despair because of stumbling. I do not mean that you should not feel contrition for them, but that you should not think them incurable. For it is more expedient to be bruised than dead. There is, indeed, a Healer for the man who has stumbled, even He Who on the Cross asked that mercy be shown to His crucifiers, He Who pardoned His murders while He hung on the Cross. ‘All manner of sin,’ He said, ‘and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men,’ that is, through repentance.” [St. Isaac the Syrian, 7th century Bishop of Nineveh and theologian]

There is a parable in the Gospel of Luke 13 of a certain man who came seeking fruit from his fig tree but for three years he came seeking and found nothing, so he tells the servant to cut it down. Why bother with the fig tree? It's useless, he says. The servant; however, says: give the tree another chance, let me dig around it, let me fertilize it, and if it bears fruit then problem solved, if not then do as you please and cut it down. The servant saw the potential of the fig tree, that with tender loving care he could save this tree.

The same is true, in John 8:3-11, of the adulterous woman who was caught “in the very act” [John 8:5]. This woman, per the Mosaic law, was to be stoned to death. She was the fig tree that was not producing fruit, if anything she was producing fruit that was rotten and poisonous. So the scribes and Pharisees bring her to Jesus and, although they are justified in their assessment, they have no compassion. In His compassion for this sinful woman, Jesus “stopped down and wrote on the ground withHisfinger, as though He did not hear.” [John 8:6] - some scholars meditate on this and say that Jesus was writing the sins of each of the scribes and Pharisees that were accusing this woman. Not only did they have no compassion but they were also hypocrites. They quickly would stone this woman, but hypocritically would notdareto look at themselves to judge themselves first.

This adulterous woman is the fig tree and both are us. We are deserving of death because of our sins, we are deserving to be cut down because of our lack of fruits; however, in Jesus we have hope - we have hope that He will, as Creator of the Garden of Eden and the Gardener that St. Mary Magdalene supposed Him to be in His Resurrection, will tend to the gardens of our hearts and that He will be our Protector against the accuser, Satan. He will give us opportunity after opportunity to repent and confess. He will, as the servant suggested to his master, “dig around it and fertilize it” - that is to dig, as a gardener would, out all of the weeds (sins) and uproot them from the soil (our hearts) and will till the soil in order to loosen it (humble us) to accept the fertilizer (His word, His nourishment for our hearts and spirits). The sinful woman is the tree that was not cut down, but gave her another opportunity to repent, as the servant suggested to his master. He tells both her and us, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” [John 8:11]

Let us beg the LORD to reveal to us our sins, to encourage and support us to sin no more, to act quickly and see which parts of our hearts need to be uprooted, tilled and fertilized with His word. He says, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” [John 8:12]. As the light reveals all that it touches, allow the Light of Christ to shine on every part of our hearts in order to find that which is hidden from Him, that which is rotting within us. Let us pray for His mercy and compassion, that He will protect us from all those that mean to stone us, cut us down and harm us. Let us pray that He transforms us in order for the Owner of the vineyard to pass by and find fruit within us.

A Prayer of Repentance:

“At the door of Your compassion do I knock, Lord; send aid to my scattered impulses which are intoxicated with the multitude of the passions and the power of darkness. You can see my sores hidden within me: stir up contrition—though not corresponding to the weight of my sins, for if I receive full awareness of the extent of my sins, Lord, my soul would be consumed by the bitter pain from them. Assist my feeble stirrings on the path to true repentance, and may I find alleviation from the vehemence of sins through the contrition that comes of Your gift, for without the power of Your grace I am quite unable to enter within myself, become aware of my stains, and so, at the sight of them be able to be still from great distraction.” [St. Isaac the Syrian, 7th century Bishop of Nineveh and theologian]

“God is loving to man, and loving in no small measure. For say not, I have committed fornication and adultery: I have done dreadful things, and not once only, but often: will He forgive? Will He grant pardon? Hear what the Psalmist says:How great is the multitude of Your goodness, O Lord! Your accumulated offenses surpass not the multitude of God’s mercies: your wounds surpass not the great Physician’s skill. Only give yourself up in faith: tell the Physician your ailment: say thou also, like David:I said, I will confess me my sin unto the Lord:and the same shall be done in your case, which he says immediately:And you forgave the wickedness of my heart” [St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 4th century Bishop of Jerusalem and theologian]