On this fifth weekend of the Great Fast, we remember our Mother among the saints, Mary of Egypt and our readings are taken from Paul’s letter to the Hebrews and Mark’s Gospel. This coming week will bring to an end our Great Fast since the week that follows is the Great and Holy Week.

Our epistle reading rightly prepares us for the coming of Great and Holy Week since it shares Paul’s understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul depicts Jesus as our “high priest” who through the eternal spirit offered himself up unblemished to God. Paul then offers the reason why saying: to cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

Our gospel reading relates Christ’s Third Teaching about His Passion and Resurrection and also relates, through the story of the ambition of James and John, how we must live if we desire to be His true followers. Jesus is quoted as sharing this with His disciples:

Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest; whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all. The Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve – to give his life in ransom for the many.

Anyone desirous of following Christ, must think about these words and integrate them into his/her life. It is when we serve others for the sake of the Kingdom of God that the Kingdom becomes real and we can truly sense the presence of God. God is not present only in churches. He is truly present in the hearts of persons who are willing to love their neighbors as themselves.

When we truly begin to make our worship an act of joining with Jesus in offering ourselves to the Father we begin to more fully realize this idea of service to others. As we think of service to others, we begin to think of others in a different light – we begin to see them as an opportunity to become more like Jesus and to gain a greater understanding of the meaning and purpose of life.

As we prepare for the Great and Holy Week, let us redouble our efforts to prepare our hearts and minds to truly enter into the things that we recall about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Let us open our hearts and minds to come to a deeper awareness of what these events really mean to us and all humankind.