First Tuesday in Great Lent
Kathisma1 (Psalms1-8)
“What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels; with glory and honour hast Thou crowned him, and Thou hast set him over the works of Thy hands.” (Psalm 8 )
In his book, Eucharist: The Sacrament of the Kingdom, theologian Alexander Schmemann reflects on the mystery of Chrismation and writes that it is the oil of coronation. Man was created to be the ruler and king of all God’s Creation. In the Fall, this divinely given vocation was twisted and perverted. In sin, the passions arose in the heart of man and mankind became a slave to the Creation instead of its king.
When we desire to use God’s Creation for ourselves and crave to have our passions and appetites satisfied by created things, then we become the slaves of Creation. An old bit of folk wisdom certainly applies: “Make sure that the things you own don’t own you instead.” But that is exactly what has happened to us – all of us. How can you be a master over food if you are a slave to your appetites? God did not make you a slave; He gave you dominion over all the earth. When you are chrismated, you are anointed to be a king. You are crowned again and restored in a mysterious way to that glory for which you were intended from the beginning.
And now here we are: fasting. If we are masters over the animals, then why can’t we kill and eat whatever we want? Is it as a holy king and caretaker of Creation that you would kill and eat, or as a slave to your appetites?
And now here we are: giving alms. If we are truly intended to be kings over all the earth, and if we are sons of God and heirs and all that is His is ours, then why must we give away the riches He has given us? It is precisely because we are kings and because all things are ours that we feel no need to cling to them.
Great Lent is a time to reclaim your rightful place as a ruler over all Creation. It is a time to realize the mystery that you are made an “anointed one” in your chrismation. It is a time to cast off the slavery that belongs to the age that is passing away and live in the kingship and freedom of the sons and heirs of God in Christ. It is a time to war against the passions and appetites that would make you a slave where you are rightly a king.
