Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord and the Triumph of Orthodoxy, as well as the completion of the first week of Great Lent!

In today’s Gospel reading we heard how Jesus Christ called Philip and Nathaniel to be His disciples. Today’s reading ended with words addressed to the apostles, that they would see angels descending from heaven onto Jesus and ascending back up. Nowhere in the Gospels do we read about such an event, therefore these words should be understood allegorically. Despite this, we cannot think that this is simply a nice-sounding expression to signify all of Christ’s miraculous deeds. No, behind these words there is a concrete idea that Christ wished to relay.

When we hear these words, our thoughts should turn to the Old Testament. We should remember that wonderful dream of the ladder upon which the angels descended and ascended, which the patriarch Jacob saw. Remember how he slept under the open sky, with a rock taking the place of a pillow, while he was all alone and in danger, fleeing from his brother (Genesis 28).

Usually we see in this dream a prophecy or foreshadowing of the Most-Holy Virgin Mary, who, like a ladder, joins together the earth and heaven through the birth of Jesus. Christ, through His words spoken to Nathaniel, hints at a slightly different understanding of this passage, i. e. that it is He that is the ladder that joins together man and God. It is as if he is telling Nathaniel, as well as us, the following: “You, Nathaniel, are amazed that I saw you under the fig tree, and have therefore confessed Me to be Teacher, the Son of God, and King, but this is a trifle if compared to what you will soon come to know. Remember that ladder which Jacob saw and understand that I am the true Ladder, which joins heaven and earth, man and God. See in Me not simply a teacher, prophet or earthly king, but the Man-God, Who in the most literal sense has embodied and fulfilled all the hopes of the ancient patriarchs, by joining within Myself heaven and earth, God and man!”

Today’s Gospel reading touches on the current themes of the first Sunday of Lent. When we hear about the calling of the disciples and how they followed Christ, we should remember that we are also called to become true followers of the Saviour. What better time than Lent to work on this calling? When we hear Christ’s words that He is that Ladder which unites the physical world with the heavenly, we should remember the triumph of the iconodules over the iconoclasts and in general the triumph of Orthodoxy over all the heresies that rejected the main teachings of our faith (i. e. that Jesus Christ was simultaneously true man and true God). When we hear Christ remembering Jacob’s dream, we should also remember Jacob, as well as the other Old Testament saints. This is also important today because earlier in Church history (before the 9th century, when the feastday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy was established) the memory of these saints was celebrated today. Let’s pray to them that they intercede for us before the Throne of God, so that Lent progresses constructively, that the pandemic passes away, and that our churches remain open.

priest Alexis