Fasting Day 28 of 40 | Fifth Saturday of Lent
“And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?” Hebrews 3:17
As a metaphrast, Symeon collected stories and sermons of the saints. Read his paraphrase of a Homily on Hebrews by Makarios of Egypt.
“People who think it is impossible to attain through the Spirit the ‘new creation’ of the pure heart (2 Corinthians 5:17) are rightly and explicitly likened by the apostle to those who, because of their unbelief, were found unworthy of entering the promised land and whose bodies on that account ‘were left lying in the desert’ (Hebrews 3:17). What is here outwardly described as the Promised Land signifies inwardly that deliverance from the passions which the apostle regards as the goal of every commandment… To protect his disciples from yielding to unbelief the apostle says to them: ‘Make sure, my brethren, that no one among you has an evil heart of unbelief, turning away from the living God’ (Hebrews 3:12). By ‘turning away’ he means not the denial of God but disbelief in His promises.”
Symeon the Metaphrast (c.900-987) in Philokalia 3.297 (Holy Books) p. 831.
Think today about what Lent delivers us from and what it leads us to.
The disciplines of giving, prayer, and fasting deliver us from disbelief to new life. How? They put us in a place of reliance upon God. There we discover His faithfulness. And He makes us new creations in the process.
God, deliver me from disbelief to trust in Your promises. Amen.
By now in Lent, the Promised Land – life after Lent – starts to come into sight. Journal with Jesus about what you want life to look like.