I don’t know about you but I’m in the Be’al Hamsa (Glorious 50) week of regression. You know that realization when you are sitting there enjoying your oreo cheescake while planning what you will eat for lunch tomorrow. OH man! I’m doing it again! All that sigdet, all that disciplining of the flesh, only to end up back here again at the whim of this cheesecake. But its so good, so creamy and sweet and….hmmm speaking of sweet, I still have some chocolate in the fridge. Stop it! Stop it! Christ is risen! Truely He is risen! He has trampled death by death! He has freed Adam (me) and bound up satan from now on there will be joy and peace! Yes,Victory over death! Yes, Victory over sin! Why then? Do I seem to be a slave to my refrigerator right now? This doesn’t seem like victory. We deprive our flesh of its cravings for 55 days of fasting and humble our bones with prostrations (sigdet) we feed our spirits the Word of God and connect with God in prayers that lift our souls to the heights. We journey with Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Holy Week and feel the sorrow of His suffering and Holy Death on Good Friday. We Resurrect in Victory over darkness on Tensae and we say that we are now new creations! How weak we are though, that after all this we are defeated by -cheesecake. For me, its cheesecake, for you it may be pizza or dorho or something else! Why did God set it up this way? You may even begin to say “I don’t like Be’al Hamsa (Glorious 50), I need my Wednesdays and Fridays. I need some kind of parameters because the food keeps calling my name!” I used to say this as well. Let me tell you what I have learned, I have some good news for you, its not God- its you. God did not tell you that now that fasting is over that you must consume ice cream every time you pass by the freezer. God did not say that now that its Be’al Hamsa that you should eat until you are about to explode. God did not say now that tsome is over, you should go back to that show you stopped watching because it is tempting you to sin. This is a consequence of living in a world of excess. Living in the diaspora means we have access to so much with very little effort. After months of depriving ourselves of this, our natural inclination is to make up for lost time and - for lack of a better word: stuff our faces. Well what do you want me to do then!? What was God’s plan for us during the Glorious 50 days? How can I maintain my spiritual life when faced with all this excess around me? When I am not allowed to do sigdet? When I am not able to receive penance from my spiritual father? How can I keep what I gained during Great Lent?
I don’t know about you but I’m in the Be’al Hamsa (Glorious 50) week of regression. You know that realization when you are sitting there enjoying your oreo cheescake while planning what you will eat for lunch tomorrow. OH man! I’m doing it again! All that sigdet, all that disciplining of the flesh, only to end up back here again at the whim of this cheesecake. But its so good, so creamy and sweet and….hmmm speaking of sweet, I still have some chocolate in the fridge. Stop it! Stop it! Christ is risen! Truely He is risen! He has trampled death by death! He has freed Adam (me) and bound up satan from now on there will be joy and peace! Yes,Victory over death! Yes, Victory over sin! Why then? Do I seem to be a slave to my refrigerator right now? This doesn’t seem like victory. We deprive our flesh of its cravings for 55 days of fasting and humble our bones with prostrations (sigdet) we feed our spirits the Word of God and connect with God in prayers that lift our souls to the heights. We journey with Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Holy Week and feel the sorrow of His suffering and Holy Death on Good Friday. We Resurrect in Victory over darkness on Tensae and we say that we are now new creations! How weak we are though, that after all this we are defeated by -cheesecake. For me, its cheesecake, for you it may be pizza or dorho tsebhi or something else! A good friend of mine explained it this way- Great Lent was like training wheels. There were parameters and boundaries to help us stay the course and the Glorious 50 is like riding a bike without training wheels. God wants us to maintain what we have obtained during the Great Lent. We can also use the example of moving from one grade level to the next. We do not pass from 4th grade to 5th grade only to return back to 4th grade. Practically speaking: did you begin new spiritual readings? Add more or different spiritual readings! Did you pray at a certain time of day every day during Great Lent? This shouldn’t stop because its the Glorious 50, it should only continue. Did you stop watching certain shows because it was the Great Lent? Why go back to it now if it is not growing you spiritually? “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.”- 1 Corinthians 10:23 If we say our goal is to grow spiritually, then we should promote this with what we do. We want to look back each year and see that we have matured, not plateaued or regressed. We have an opportunity here to really grow spiritual fruit on our tree. Challenge yourself: What does it look like to not submit to the whim of each craving? “all things are lawful for me but not all things edify”. What does it look like to begin a new book of the Bible this Glorious 50? What does it look like to experience the grace of choosing quiet time with God over time with cheesecake? What does it look like to continue to say no to that show that is not helping you “all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify”. Christ is risen! He has trampled death by death and has bound up satan. We have freedom and Peace! God gave us free will because He wants us to love Him and choose Him, not by force but in spirit and in truth. Let us not give away this freedom bought with precious Blood only to again become slaves to our appetites. Now that our training wheels are off, we can truly exercise the free will that God gave us to choose to solidify our foundation in Him. Its an opportunity to reach new levels of spiritual maturity. In this freedom of the Glorious 50, let us truly show our love to God by maintaining a level of self discipline, by enriching our spiritual lives through new spiritual endeavors and not allowing our flesh to hinder us on our spiritual journey. By doing this we can truly live in the Victory of the Resurection! Christos Tens’ae imutan.
A good friend of mine explained it this way- Great Lent was like training wheels. There were parameters and boundaries to help us stay the course and the Glorious 50 is like riding a bike without training wheels. God wants us to maintain what we have obtained during the Great Lent. We can also use the example of moving from one grade level to the next. We do not pass from 4th grade to 5th grade only to return back to 4th grade. Practically speaking: did you begin new spiritual readings? Replace sigdet with more or different spiritual readings! Did you pray at a certain time of day every day during Great Lent? This shouldn’t stop because its the Glorious 50, it should only continue. Did you stop watching certain shows because it was the Great Lent? Why go back to the mud now if it is not growing you spiritually? “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify.”- 1 Corinthians 10:23 If we say our goal is to grow spiritually, then we should promote this with what we do. We want to look back each year and see that we have matured, not plateaued or regressed. We have an opportunity here to really grow spiritual fruit on our tree. Push through. Challenge yourself: What does it look like to not submit to the whim of each craving? “all things are lawful for me but not all things edify”. What does it look like to begin a new book of the Bible this Glorious 50? What does it look like to experience the grace of choosing quiet time with God over my second piece of cheesecake? What does it look like to continue to say no to that show that is not helping you “all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify”. Christ is risen! He has trampled death by death and has bound up satan. We have freedom and Peace! God gave us free will because He wants us to love Him and choose Him, not by force but in spirit and in truth. Let us not give away this freedom bought with precious Blood only to again become slaves to our appetites. Now that our training wheels are off, we can truly exercise the free will that God gave us to choose to solidify our foundation in Him. Its an opportunity to reach new levels of spiritual maturity. In this freedom of the Glorious 50, let us truly show our love to God by maintaining a level of self discipline, by enriching our spiritual lives through new spiritual endeavors and not allowing our flesh to hinder us on our spiritual journey. By doing this we can truly live in the Victory of the Resurection! Christos Tens’ae imutan.
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