Clean Monday

Lent finally begins today, Clean Monday. The atmosphere that surrounds Easter Lent is always fascinating. Yesterday was the Sunday of Forgiveness, while the Sunday before that was the Sunday of Judgment. As we approach Easter we approach Mercy and Love. We approach pure, unbridled joy, as St. John Chrysostom explained in his famous Easter homily.

And in the meantime we fast and pray, even more than usual. Yet we do so with a joyous heart. We do not tear at our clothes, we do not pour ash on our foreheads. We abstain from food and smile because we feast on Christ himself, in both a figurative and literal sense.

Some of the Desert Fathers ate very little. The Pillar Saints barely needed any food or water. Yet they did not mortify or punish the flesh, just as we do not fast for the pain it causes. We fast to transform the flesh into the Flesh of the Transfiguration. We fast to transform the dirt that God collected into the Flesh of Adam, loving created in God's likeness and image.

Is it any wonder that next Sunday is the Sunday of Orthodoxy? Icons do not depict the muddled flesh we behold with mortal eyes. Icons depict the Flesh of the Life to Come, a Flesh on Fire with the Grace of the Holy Spirit. This Flesh is the product of fasting and prayer.

Though in one sense we fast during Lent, know that we are also called to feast on God as we prepare to celebrate his Blessed Resurrection. Christ may not have Risen yet according to the liturgical calendar, but that day swiftly approaches.

(That's why it's so wonderful to see how Orthodox nations celebrate Clean Monday, not as a day of sorrows but as the first day of spring and a sign of the Life to Come.)