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Wonders of the Small Church

The small church has incredible importance and value, although it may not carry the pomp of churches in Europe and elsewhere. I have one particular small church in mind: ours.

The season of Lent has always been considered as an essential gift from God to Christians, and perhaps more so this year than at any other time, seeing how last year’s Lenten liturgical observances was wiped out due to the world health crisis. As we stand here today on the door step of another Lent, it is easy to either be confused or ambivalent.

No one amongst us needs to have the reasons why noted in detail. Lent, thankfully, is given to each person of reason in order to deflate all that is false, or phony, in our lives; thus, Lent should be lived as a joyous experience through prayer, fasting, and alms. Man lives in constant pursuit of comfort, convenience, yet Lent serves to make us uncomfortable and inconvenienced, so that makes the Lenten season entirely necessary. Lent has not fulfilled its purpose if the forty days have not been used for repentance and conversion.

The journey to Pascha begins today during Forgiveness Vespers, which serves to clearly remind us that forgiveness is at the very center of the Christian faith; and that the visual image of forgiveness remains the cross. During our daily routine, if we were to plant the cross in our minds like a stake in the ground, we would be transfigured moment by moment. The victory of the cross in this world, and eternal life, emanates from this “Tree of Life” (I Corinthians 1:18-31) which is seen as a sign of victory through defeat, glory through humiliation, and not as the instrument of humiliation and destruction as has often represented in the West. Lent is joy, as is the victorious Cross which serves to frame these saving forty days.

- fmv

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