St Gregory Palamas

On this second weekend of the Great Fast, our readings are taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews and Mark’s Gospel. The Church also calls us to remember Gregory Palamas. We remember Gregory because the condemnation of his enemies and the vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14th century was acclaimed as a second triumph of orthodoxy. For this reason we annually remember him on the second weekend in the Great Fast.

We are reminded of this from Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews:

…therefore, we must pay close attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. How shall we escape if we neglect such salvation.

This builds on what we heard in the readings from the First Weekend. We heard this:

…and these all, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised since God has foreseen something better for us (Paul to the Hebrews); and

…you shall see greater things than these…you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John’s Gospel).

The message of these passages is that we who believe in Christ and who prepare ourselves for Pascha, shall see the inauguration of the new age, the fulfillment of all promises, the manifestation of the Kingdom. But we shall only see this if we desire to engage in the effort of personal transformation or Metanoia.

The Gospel story we hear this weekend highlights the desire needed to truly change our lives. It means that we will do whatever is necessary to come into the presence of Christ. It means that: we will pay close attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from our efforts (Paul to the Hebrews).

I truly believe that the Great Fast is given to us by the Church to focus our lives on discerning the meaning and purpose of this earthly life. The entire Church, during this time, reflects on the revelation given to us by God about the meaning and purpose of this earthly existence – on what we are to accomplish during this earthly sojourn. There is a reason why we have been given this human life.

Although we are called to focus on our spiritual development throughout the year, the fact that we intensely focus on the life of Jesus during this time and how He met the challenges of life, supports our efforts to change.