Nothing is too hard to forgive

On this the last Sunday of the Great Fast, the Church invites us to take one final look at our sinfulness. Over the past nine weeks our eyes have been directed toward the ultimate goal of repentance and salvation. One does not take place without the other. Looking quickly at the Gospel lessons of the past nine weeks, we find those who were saved lived not for themselves but for God who were saved.

• Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee – It was the sinful tax collector…
• Sunday of the Prodigal Son – It was the sinful younger son…
• Sunday of Judgment – It was those who saw God in others…
• Sunday of Forgiveness – It was those who chose to forgive…
• Sunday of Orthodoxy – It was those who understood the Holy Scriptures…
• Sunday of Gregory Palamas – It was those who brought their friend to Christ…
• Sunday of the Holy Cross – It is those who willingly deny themselves and accept their cross…
• Sunday of St John Climicus – It was those who realized they needed God…
• Sunday of St Mary of Egypt – It was those who were willing to be last among their friends…

By now the Church expects that we have realized our sinfulness, admitted our mistakes, and chose to return to God and “take our lumps” with whatever God has planned for us. Some of us may be worried that our lives are not worthy of God’s forgiveness. Maybe some of us worry that our sins too big, or that we can’t possible change this late in life.

That is one blessing about the Great Fast. Today the Church brings our attention to one of the greatest sinners in the history of the Church. Mary of Egypt was a prostitute who was given a second chance by God. She devoted the remainder of her life to total repentance if God would allow her just a chance to enter the Church. After He allowed Mary to enter the Church, she left and spent the rest of her life in the dessert. Her repentance was so complete that even wild animals respected and reverence her body at the time of her death.

Your sins may not be as drastic as Mary of Egypt and you probably are not being called to live the rest of your life in the desert, but the fact remains. No matter how bad you think you may have sinned, it is not too late to repent and start fresh. It isn’t too late to return to God, schedule a confession and begin a new life dedicated to God and serving others. It is the whole witness of the Great Fast. We are asked to admit our sins, return to God, seek His forgiveness, and begin our new life free from the past’s sins. Nothing is too hard to forgive when it comes to God.

Here are today’s Readings:

Epistle Reading: St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 9:11-14 (RSV) - BRETHREN, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer 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.
 Gospel Reading: Mark 10:32-45 (RSV) - At that time, Jesus taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and 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 kill him; and after three days he will rise." And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him, and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant of James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."