Meatfare Sunday

Byzantine Catholic Homilies • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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There is no moral law with respect to fasting so long as all have enough. We are free. But it is a historical Church practice that strengthens our ability to share in love with others and to control our desires and to focus on God that in the course of our life can have life and death effects. So fasting is an important discipline, and even moreso as we see it as an opportunity to grow and not as a law.

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Ambon Prayer 10

Our Holy Father Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch

Title

Redirecting Our Desires

Outline

Our readings are surprising today

Here we are on meatfare Sunday and we are reading, “Food will not commend us to God.” Indeed, that is true. There are good reasons to restrain our eating: there can be health reasons, there can be associations that can lead others to sin (and even Paul will say eating a meal in the temple of an idol is participation in its cult), there could be social and environmental reasons - but all of these are for the good of another (Paul does not mention our health) - in other words, “I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall.” Yet in his personal approach if it affects no one else he says, “Am I not free?”

However, there were days of fasting in Judaism, principally the Day of Atonement, but also the Monday and Thursday fasting in mourning for the destruction and desecration of the Temple. Going without is a typical expression of mourning, even a spontaneous expression.

And the Church had times of fasting, such as in Acts 13:2-3, so that the focus could be on prayer - slow the engine down so you can focus; do not feed the passions so that you are not distracted or temptable. This was especially appropriate for catechumens before baptism. The Church found it appropriate to join the catechumens in support and out of concern for their ongoing focus on God. And in both cases they realized that some demons are only defeated by prayer and fasting.

I am indeed free, but I should not be so ignorant as to think (1) that there are not important reasons for fasting from time to time or (2) that collective fasting does not build church solidarity and mutual support.

Our Gospels shows us a good reason for fasting (in many forms)

The sheep are blessed by Jesus because they gave up their own good for the good of others: their drink, their food, their space in their house, their clothing, their time and energy and perhaps their health and wellbeing in visiting the sick and imprisoned. They did this because they at some level recognized Jesus in the other. Fasting, of course, both focuses our minds and disciplines us to give up.

The goats are told to go to their type of place by Jesus because they did not give up their own good for others. They were free - they were not taking someone else’s goods nor breaking Old Testament law (at least not obviously) - but they were blind to the presence of Jesus in the other, tied to their own “stuff,” and lacking in unity with the God who is love. That lack of love, that main concern about self, shows their separation from Jesus - they are sent to be with the one with whom their self fits.

So, brothers and sisters, fasting is one way of training our selves

It strengthens us in controlling our passions or desire

It lays the basis for self-giving love towards others for the focus is off our own consumption or good

It gives us eyes to see the world as God sees the world, to see the needs and to find appropriate ways to meet them

And most importantly, it draws us closer to the heart of God, for while God has no need to fast to have enough to share, his focus on our good was so great that he sent himself, that is, his Son, to us to be himself the answer to our great need.

The Great Fast is 40 days plus Holy Week, depending on how one counts: use it for your good: defeat the demons that seek to entice you, strengthen your hearts for loving action, place your desires/passions under firm control. Have a great fast. And it is greater if you realize you are not bound externally and therefore can modify for good purposes, but nevertheless keep your focus and do not let freedom become an excuse for total laxity.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 2-19-2023: Meatfare Sunday or Judgment Sunday

EPISTLE

1 Corinthians 8:8–9:2

8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 Only take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if any one sees you, a man of knowledge, at table in an idol’s temple, might he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother’s falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall.

9 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my workmanship in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 2-19-2023: Meatfare Sunday or Judgment Sunday

GOSPEL

Matthew 25:31–46

31 “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. 34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (2-12-2023: Meatfare Sunday or Judgment Sunday)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2023 | TRIODION AND GREAT LENT

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 2-19-2023: Meatfare Sunday or Judgment Sunday

MEATFARE SUNDAY OR JUDGMENT SUNDAY

Matins Gospel Mark 16:9–20 (36th Sunday)

Epistle 1 Corinthians 8:8–9:2

Gospel Matthew 25:31–46

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