Article for the St. Nicholas Canon of Faith
by Father Deacon Demetrios Diakos

On Sunday, February 24 our Holy Orthodox Church ushered us into the period of the Triodion. The Triodion is a period of deep repentance and unceasing prayer. The purpose of the Triodion is to prepare us for the celebration of the great feast of the resurrection.

The hymnology of the period of the Triodion is unique. The Church hymn writers were able to capture the true meaning of the spiritual life of the Church and with the power of their spiritual gifts express it in verses, songs and hymns which deeply move the human soul. Great Church hymn writers and hymnologists composed deep and inspired hymns from the holy scripture. Whatever the poets of the Triodion said and wrote came from a sincere fountain of lyricism of their pure heart which was baptized and renewed in the blood of Christ. Three of those wonderful hymns open the period of the Triodion and are repeated every Sunday morning in the Orthros. The first hymn (above) portrays the faithful waking up in the temple of God. He realizes that brings with him the defiled temple of the body and asks God to open the doors of repentance.

In order for us to reach the fullness of love, which is completed by Christ in his crucifixion and resurrection for the lost humanity, we must conquer our inner fallen man, the man who fell to the temptation of Satan and lost his communion with God. That inner, fallen man must die in order for the theanthropic body of Christ to take its place inside us.

That’s why repentance is the basic presupposition for man to bring back the life of love, which is man’s true life, the life that corresponds to his nature as an image of God.

Man cannot come to his perfection, which is love (Romans 13:10) and, especially, the incarnate love, the person of Christ (Matthew 5:17), if he does not overcome his individual limitations and every element of self-desire and self-understanding that Satan has submitted him to. Man must develop a deep feeling in his heart that no matter how much he tries to respond with his actions to the infinite love of God, his efforts are inadequate, and he remains unworthy of the divine love. It is that kind of feeling the Christian must have, in order to become a man of true repentance.

It is an undisputed fact that the saints of our Church lived their lives with the deep sense that they were unworthy of the love of God, and they considered constant repentance as the only purpose for their entire life.

This deep humility that we see in the life of the saints constitutes the beginning of the spiritual life, according to the Fathers of the Church.

Whoever seeks to be justified with his good deeds, with the observance of the commandments, or any other activity has already become separated from Christ. He has fallen from the grace of God, and consequently, he cannot expect salvation (Romans 3:20. Galatians 5:4). That’s why in the New Testament only those who see the sinfulness in themselves and foresee their salvation in Jesus Christ are saved. They are the publicans and prostitutes, as Christ said, persons who go to the kingdom of God ahead of those who are convinced of their righteousness and rely on it (Matthew 21:31. Luke 7: 36-50, 18: 9-14).

"Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much;" says Christ of the prostitute woman (Luke 7:47) and he attributes all the credit to her change from the love of the flesh, selfish love, to the love of God, the divine Eros.

This importance of seeing our sinfulness and foreseeing our salvation in Christ, our Church expresses in the hymn of Kassiani on holy Tuesday evening, without repeating the words of the Lord:

"Woe to me! She said;
"For me, night is an ecstasy,
and full of sinful desire…
Receive the sources of my tears…
Incline the groanings of my heart...
I will embrace and kiss your sacred feet,
And wipe them with the tresses of the hair
of my head…
O my Savior and soul-Saver!
Who can ever track down the multitude
Of my sins,
And the depths of your judgment?"

This interposition of the spirit of man, that sees before him the brink of abyss that he is at, this contrition of heart and at the same time the sense of the fathomless love of God, is the characteristic sign of the Orthodox spirit.

"Let the humble man who has been possessed by the passions of the flesh, have courage" says John the Climacus, "because even if they fall in all the pits, and even if they are trapped by all the snares of the devil and even if they are inflicted by all the sickness, when they get well they will become physicians , teachers and lamps and governors to all; they will teach the character of sickness and they will save with their experience those who are in danger to fall."

And in an other place he says:

"I saw unclean souls who were possessed by insatiable carnal Eros, but because from their experience in it they turned around the same Eros toward the Lord and they were inoculated in the insatiable love of God. That’s why the Lord did not say to that prudent prostitute that she was afraid, but that she loved much and was able to repulse the carnal love with the divine Eros without any difficulty."

Based on the above, it is easy to understand why St. Isaac the Syrian says that: "he who feels his sins is better than him who raises the dead."