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The Sunday of Forgiveness

In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Great Lent begins on a Monday. The day before Lent starts is called the Sunday of Forgiveness.

Forgiveness Sunday serves as a vital extension of the Sunday of the Last Judgment. If serving our neighbor is serving Christ, then making peace with those who have hurt us is making peace with Christ Himself.

We need to remember that any resentment we harbor acts as a wedge between us and the Lord; we cannot truly draw near to Christ while pushing a brother or sister away. As the Scripture warns: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamor be put away from you” (Ephesians 4:31).

To experience the peace of Christ during Great Lent, we are called to be active peacemakers—especially with those who hurt us, offend us, or just “get under our skin.” By laying down our grievances, we clear the spiritual path for the Holy Spirit to work within us.

This season, let us embrace the promise: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). As we begin the Fast, let us first forgive, that we may be forgiven.

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The Soul-Body Connection

St. Paul prays that our “spirit and soul and body” be kept rightly ordered and blameless before Christ, showing that each part has its place under God. In the same spirit, he warns that if we “live according to the flesh” we move toward death, but if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we truly live, pointing to the danger of bodily impulses ruling over the soul. (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Romans 8:13)

Human beings were created to be a harmonious union of soul and body, functioning in the Divinely-instituted framework of the soul guiding the body. When this order is disrupted, when the body overpowers the soul, we are left with a distorted experience of both God and the world. When the body leads, people become fragmented, restless, at the whim of obsessions, compulsions, and addictions.

Instead, we are meant to lead with our spiritual sense, known as the nous. In Orthodox teaching, the nous is the highest faculty, capable of perceiving God and the spiritual realm. When the nous is darkened by passions, it leaves a person spiritually blind; when it is illumined, it allows the soul to discern God’s will and align our lives with it. This gives right shape and order to our lives: instead of becoming our masters, food, drink, work, rest, and the innocent joys of the body are received as gifts and offered back to God in praise and thanksgiving.

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The Anointing of the Sick

Too Big for Words – Part 6

In this sixth installment of my sermon series on the Holy Mysteries – the sacraments – he discussed the Mystery of Holy Unction. “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14)