We are all here for one reason, to receive the gift of healing. For some it is a release from severe bodily afflictions, and for others it is a release from Earthly death. On this Sunday we remember one powerful Christian with the explicit prescription for salvation and healing from our father amongst the Saints, St. John Climacus.
Our releases from the bonds of the earth take persistent work and determination! Some years ago here in America there was a misleading movement in the west to Name and Claim It. It was the prosperity gospel from Satan, in which anything we want will be given to us. It was a teaching that in theory made God our equal, or maybe dare say servant. After all, we certainly know what’s best, or not! I suggested to Deacon Nektary years ago about preaching a sermon on this theme and he was very troubled by this proposal. But what I didn’t tell him that I was going to Orthodox this theme with the help of St. John Climacus. Here is the main ingredient: “Humility is the only virtue that no devil can imitate. If pride made demons out of angels, there is no doubt that humility could make angels out of demons.” (St. John Climacus)
Saint John continues with this thread: “Everyone who asks something of God and does not receive it doubtless does not receive it for one of these reasons: either because they ask before the time, or they ask unworthily, or out of vainglory, or because if they received what they asked they would become proud or fall into negligence.” Please, let God be God!
So there it is; we are easily misled by our blindness and pride. We need to continually identify our shortcomings and own them, and name them and claim them! We have been praying this Lenten season: “O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not.” (St Saint Ephraim the Syrian) Name it! Listen to more of the wisdom of St. John: "But Adam did not wish to say, "I sinned," but said rather the contrary of this and placed the blame for the transgression upon God Who created everything "very good," saying to Him, "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate." And after him she also placed the blame upon the serpent, and they did not wish at all to repent and, falling down before the Lord God, beg forgiveness of Him. For this, God banished them from Paradise, as from a royal palace, to live in this world as exiles. At that time also He decreed that a flaming sword should be turned and should guard the entrance into Paradise. And God did not curse Paradise, since it was the image of the future unending life of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven. If it were not for this reason, it would have been fitting to curse it most of all, since within it was performed the transgression of Adam. But God did not do this, but cursed only the whole rest of the earth, which also was corrupt and brought forth everything by itself; and this was in order that Adam might not have any longer a life free from exhausting labors and sweat..." And don’t you know that Eve, I mean my wife, is still enticingly bringing fruit home from the grocery store, blue berries, grapes and bananas. And if I have been an attentive husband, possibly some raspberries!
Sorry for that ADD moment! Well, let’s get back to our theme! We need confession and repentance to overcome the dust of the earth. St John writes and tells us just how we should name it: “Confession is like a bridle that keeps the soul which reflects on it from committing sin, but anything left unconfessed we continue to do without fear as if in the dark.” And he also writes: "He who really keeps account of his actions considers as lost every day in which he does not mourn, whatever good he may have done in it."
So then just how do we claim it? Hear the plea of St Ephraim: “Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen”. We have to yearn for repentance of our wrongs. In step five of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, St. John Climacus describes it for us: “Repentance is the renewal of baptism and is a contract with God for a fresh start in life. Repentance goes shopping for humility and is ever distrustful of bodily comfort. Repentance is critical awareness and a sure watch over oneself. Repentance is the daughter of hope and refusal to despair. (The penitent stands guilty –but undisgraced.) Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the performance of good deeds which are the opposites of the sins. It is the purification of conscience and the voluntary endurance of affliction. The penitent deals out his own punishment, for repentance is the fierce persecution of the stomach and the flogging of the soul into intense awareness.
So, there you have the Orthodox practice of Name It, and Claim It! It is our prosperity Gospel for the life to come! Rest assuredly that overcoming our strong self-will and blindness will take us practice, practice and more practice! And remember as St. John instructs us and comforts our actions: "Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honour your patience."
