“When He had called His people to Himself, with His Disciples also, He said to them: “Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
I find myself this morning, thinking about how different Great Lent of 2020 looks and feels from all of the Great Lents of the past, and how differently it will feel from all of the Great Lents that are yet to come. Perhaps the reason for this is that for the first time in most of our lifetimes, the entire world is sharing and carrying the same cross together; each of us wondering when deliverance will finally come. We see proof of this when we open up our web browser, and spend just 5 minutes looking at some of the headlines from major news outlets from around the globe:
“World in Peril”
“Virus Could Lead to 20% Unemployment”
“Coronavirus fears bring a plague of Doomsday Predictions”
“Pandemic Panic”
I spoke last week about some of the ways we as Christians will be affected by this pandemic, and the very last one I mentioned was to expect persecution from within. After our first week of seclusion and social distancing, and perhaps reading an article or two like the few I just listed, no doubt each and every one of us has been negatively affected by our own internal persecutions of sadness and hopelessness.
In a country that is free to worship as they please, external persecution is relatively easy to deal with for an Orthodox Christian. This past week, there was a news article that condemned the way that the Orthodox Church gives communion in the midst of an outbreak. This is an easy persecution to deal with: You simply cross yourself, pray for the misunderstandings of non-believers, and click the little “red x” in the corner of the news article.
Unlike external persecution, internal persecution (the crosses that are created in our minds and in our hearts) are sometimes a little more difficult to deal with. There is no magic “turn off” button for our minds.
So how do we bear these heavy crosses? How can we possibly lift their weight on our shoulders, and allow them to push us towards the Resurrection?
There is a wonderful book written by a Serbian Elder named Thaddeus, called “Our Thoughts Determine our Lives.” This Elder had lived through two world wars, survived the Communist Takeover of Serbia, and lived through the Serbian Bombings in 1999. He co-suffering with His people for almost the entirety of his 88 years on this earth.
Elder Thaddeus had a lot of experience in dealing those crosses that Christ tells us to bear in the Gospel this morning. He taught his spiritual children, that one of the ways we are able to bear the persecution from within, is by forcefully centering our thoughts from the world…to Christ. He says:
“Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we nurture. If our thoughts are peaceful, calm, meek, and kind, then that is what our life is like. If our attention is turned to the circumstances in which we live, we are drawn into a whirlpool of thoughts, and can neither have peace nor tranquility…”
Our thoughts go a long way in determining how we handle the internal persecution of our souls, especially when we are carrying crosses like the one the world is carrying today. If we find it necessary to constantly seek out and be bombard with headlines of doom and gloom, it is like voluntarily diving into a pit of quicksand. The more we thrash about, going from emotional highs to bouts of sadness and despair, the quicker we sink and the harder it becomes to pull ourselves to safety.
To seek out and follow after the cares of the world, without regards to God and His Love for us is not only wrong, it is dangerous for our souls, brothers and sisters in Christ. Abandon these thoughts! When the world offers us nothing but despair, we have to train ourselves to look deep within our hearts, because that is where God continues to dwell!
One of the most beautiful things we do in prayer, that illustrates just how important the human heart is to our spiritual life, is a prostration. It is one of the only positions that we can make where the heart is positioned above the head…and this is the way our lives should be! It is in our hearts where God plants His Divine Love and Care for all of His creation. In times of great difficult and trial, we have to learn to see life through the lens of the heart! Through the lens of Faith in Christ.
Elder Thaddeus again reminds us that “The Lord has taken all of our sufferings and cares upon himself, and He has said that he will provide for all of our needs…”. When we learn to accept that reality fully, it not only transforms our own life, but the lives of the world around us:
“Italians Sooth Each Other with Music Sung from Their Balconies”
“Millions of Dollars Donated to Support Those Out of Work”
“Local Community Bands Together to Support the Elderly”
“Coronavirus Finally Brining America Together”
As this great trial continues to advance, one can only imagine how many more wonderful beacons of light…how many more wonderful stories of love will come out of the darkness.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as the world continues to bear the heavy cross that it has been given, let us remember today that “Our Thoughts Determine our Lives.” We all have a very difficult choice to make. We can either allow the world to infect our lives with uncertainty and panic, or we can remember that wonderful truth that we sing in the Compline Service…that “God is With Us”. It is that reality that will continue to mold us, shape us, and prepare us for the glorious Pascha that is to come.