To Be or Not to Be… Yourself

In our world, we’re told to “be yourself.” In fact, this is probably the 21st-century American mantra. And it plays itself out in all sorts of ways. For some, it leads them on specific career paths. For others, it leads to them examine their sexuality or even their gender. And, for still others, it leads them down a political path to make changes that they think are needed in society. But this Sunday we are told to “heed more abundantly [to] the things that have been heard.” But doing this will bring a lot of tension between “being yourself” and “putting on Christ.” (Reflections on the 2^nd Sunday of Lent; St. Gregory Palamas)

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Discovering the Ancient Purpose of Lent

We’ve arrived at the second Sunday of Great Lent. For many of us, it may seem like the Sundays of Lent are random. Leaving behind the pre-Lenten Sundays with themes based on the scriptural readings, we enter a period of Sundays based on historical events or people: The Triumph of Orthodoxy, St. Gregory Palamas, St. John Climacus, and St. Mary of Egypt. These weren’t the original themes for Lenten Sundays; after all, Lent pre-dates many of these themes.

Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in his book Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, tells us that the period of Great Lent was originally a time of preparation for baptism. This was when non-Christians – catechumens – were instructed about the faith so that they could become illumined on Pascha, entering fully into communion with the Church. It was this journey around which the original Sunday themes were structured.

Though time has added the various historical commemorations I mentioned above, the scriptural readings selected for these Sundays still betray the original intent. The first Sunday gave the catechumens a glimpse of the end glory that awaited them in baptism.

“Amen, amen, I tell you, you shall see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” (John 1:50 DBH)

This Sunday, the second one, admonishes the catechumens (and us) not to drift away from the faith once they’re baptized.

Therefore it is needful for us to heed more abundantly [to] the things that have been heard, so that we might not drift away. (Hebrews 2:1 DBH)

This begs the question: what are the things that we’ve heard?

Maintaining the Identity of Christ

Well, I think we’d all agree that it’s nothing short of the very gospel that’s been handed down to us by the apostles themselves. In the context of Lent, however, with its emphasis on preparing people to be baptized, I’d say it’s the teaching of baptism itself.

But what is that?

For us, and the early Church, baptism was the rite of entrance into the life of Christ.

Or are you aware that we – as many as were baptized into the Anointed, Jesus – were baptized into his death? Thus, by baptism into death we were buried with him in order that, just as the Anointed was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4 DBH)

For St. Paul, this wasn’t just a symbolic act – acting out Jesus’s death by going down into the water and acting out his resurrection by coming up out of the water. This was a real event that “kills” off our old selves and creates a new person.

Knowing this: that our old man was co-crucified, in order that the body of sin might be destroyed so that we should be enslaved to sin no longer. …living for God in the Anointed One, Jesus. So do not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, for the purpose of obeying its lusts. (Romans 6:6, 11-12 DBH)

So that thing that we, as Christians, are to heed to is the fact that, as Christians, we are dead to the world, dead to sin, dead to ourselves. We no longer live our own lives, but we live the life of Christ.

Put another way, we are a new creation with a new purpose in life. We are called to cling to this new purpose with all our might and not drift away. If we do drift away, then we’ve “killed” off this new creation and we’ve again become the “old-man” who has no life and no hope of resurrection.

Today’s Gospel lesson compliments this. It’s an example of this new sort of life. We see a man with such faith, who shows us the sort of healing we too may have if we don’t lose our way and truly put on Christ.

And they come bearing a paralytic to [Christ], carried by four men. And, not being able to reach him on account of the crowd, they took away the roof where he was and, having gouged out an opening, they lower the pallet on which the paralytic lay. And Jesus, seeing their faith, says to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2: 3-5 DBH)

This lesson, above all, is perhaps the hardest for us, as Americans, to heed. We’ve been raised with the idea that we are to “be ourselves.”  And this plays out in our society in all sorts of ways.

Society Tells Us to Be Ourselves, Not Christ

To be yourself may mean following your dreams. Whether your dreams lead you to be an artist, a singer, a doctor, an engineer, or a teacher, the goal is to let nothing get in your way. You may be discouraged by parents, by lack of education, by lack of money, or something else, but our society teaches us: we have to risk all to be ourselves.

To be yourself may also mean questioning your identity. Since the 1980s especially, we’ve seen our culture embrace, or resist, identity issues. For some, it’s a question of sexuality and, with this, a question of marriage. For others, it’s a question of gender: am I male or female or something else… and what does that mean? Or, is gender a construct, opening the doors to multiple gender identities?

To be yourself has also lead people in other directions. It’s given them a voice and motivated them to see a fallen world and work to overcome its fallenness through social action or political means. We’ve seen this within the last few years as people organize marches and demonstrations. We’ve seen this as people get more politically involved.

But St. Paul, in Hebrews, is not asking us to “be ourselves.” Instead, he’s asking to find ourselves “in Christ.” He’s asking us to “heed” to this new way of life into which we are baptized. He’s saying, you’re no longer yourself, so now go out and be “Christ” instead.

Being Christ In the World

In an age where religion is usually kept private, Christianity as a way of life becomes very demanding. It’s not a faith that was meant for “Sundays only.” It cries out to be lived, experienced, and practiced.

The Church gives us services not to be avoided, but to be attended for our healing and benefit.

The Church gives us fasting regulations not to be ignored, but to discipline our souls and bodies: installing in us ever more the life of Christ.

The Church gives us prayer rules – morning and evening, and prayers for meals – not so that we can buy prayer books that remain unopened, but for us to regulate all we do by the pattern of our new life in Christ.

Most importantly, it means giving up a life dominated by passions and sin, and instead, living a life of love for God and neighbor.

Brothers and sisters, we aren’t called to “be ourselves,” but, instead, we are called to “put on Christ.” This Lent, let it be a time of preparation for all of us – catechumens or illumined Christians. Let it be a time of learning, afresh, of how to live having “put on Christ.” This Lent, let us learn how to live a resurrected life, no longer conformed to a dead world.

P.S. Put On Christ and Become Renewed

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