Orthodox Christian Sermons

Sermon #3 - Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Gal. 3.24)

We see an illustration of this in our Gospel reading from Luke 7 about the sinful woman who anointed Jesus with precious ointment and washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. To her the Lord pronounced the words, "Thy faith hath saved thee." She was justified by her faith, while in contrast, Simon the Pharisee failed to graduate from the school of the Law and remained in his sins.

Whether it was the Law of Moses-- with which as a Jewess she was doubtless familiar-- or the Law of Conscience, this woman knew that she was a sinner. But the Law was powerless to deliver her from sin. The Bible doesn't tell us anything about how she came to repentance, but it is my guess that seeing the Man of Sorrows (who was the very Lawgiver himself) up close and personal, she was given to see her sins in a new Light. They were no longer merely the violations of a moral code, but the blows inflicted upon Jesus' head, the stripes laid upon his back, the crown of thorns pressed upon his brow, the mockings, the spittings, the tearing out of his beard, the heavy cross laid upon his shoulders, the nails that pierced his hands and feet, the sponge filled with vinegar and gall, the spear thrust into his side. My mother once remarked how she was aware that every time she sinned she was driving that spear a little deeper into Jesus' side. So perhaps this woman was so rapt under Divine inspiration that when she poured the fragrant ointment upon Jesus' head, she saw herself assuaging the blows she had inflicted upon him with her own hands. And when she knelt at his feet and washed them with her tears she saw herself washing away her own filth that had soiled her Master's feet. So in some small measure she was making reparation to Christ for all the suffering she caused him by her sin. Thus she was forgiven much because she loved much. This is the "faith which worketh by love" that justifies the ungodly. Simon the Pharisee, on the other hand, was still under the Schoolmaster of the Law, and doing such a good job in his own estimation that he failed to see his sins because of his pride. Consequently, he loved little. Indeed, he did not even afford Jesus the common courtesy due a house guest. And so he was forgiven little-- the Greek word means "puny". He showed Christ puny love, so he received puny forgiveness.

St. Mary of Egypt whom we commemorate today was also a sinful woman. She led a profligate life, corrupting young men with her beauty and destroying their souls. She accompanied a ship load of pilgrims to the holy land for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, going along for the ride and still corrupting as many souls as she could. But when out of vain curiosity she tried to enter the Church a force held her back. Vain were her attempts to enter. That is when it dawned upon her that her sins were barring her from entrance. She wept bitterly and beat her breast. At last she found consolation when her eyes meet an icon of the most pure Mother of God. She promised not to defile herself again and prayed that she might be permitted to enter the Church and venerate the Cross. At last she was able. She then vowed to leave the world for the desert where for 47 years she asceticized. She surpassed nature, purifying her heart to such a degree that she became like an angel in the flesh with clairvoyant and miraculous powers, even walking on water.

The lesson with St. Mary is not that we must all go out into the wilderness and practice continual fasting and prayer in order to be saved. That is what SHE needed to do in order to work out her salvation. Anything less and she would have fallen into bondage to her sins again. Like one contemporary monastic, Fr. Lazarus El-Anthony, said, he had to go to the desert because he was weak. If he had the kind of overflowing love that others have, he could have remained in the world. For him the desert was salvation. Likewise,we all must do whatever is necessary to cut ourselves off from the sins that so easily beset us. That means we must distance ourselves from the stumbligblocks that give occasion to sin. We may have to let go of friends who lead us to sin, or employment that compromises our faith, or music and other entertainment that corrupts our souls--whatever it is that we have to do in order to purify our hearts like St. Mary. And, like her, after we struggle, we shall inherit the promise glorious rest. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!