Second Sunday of Great Lent
St. Gregory Palamas
"I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" (John 10:9). This is the same as what the Lord says in another place: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). He confirmed this even more explicitly when He said: "Without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
A true Christian is the one who is entirely in Christ, and who, whatever valuable thing he possesses within himself, has received it from Christ. His justification is from Christ, and his body also belongs to Christ. The one who is saved is saved precisely because he is clothed in Christ. Only in this state does he have access to the Father.
We have fallen away from God and are therefore subject to His wrath. God's righteousness is withdrawn, and His mercy extends toward us, accepting those who draw near, only when we approach in Christ and through Christ. The seal of Christ is imprinted upon the entire being of a Christian, and whoever bears it will walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil.
To be such, we have the sacraments—Baptism and Communion, with repentance as the means for those who sin after Baptism. These are given to us by the Lord. On our part, to receive them, we must cultivate the proper dispositions of the spirit:
Faith, which confesses: I am perishing, and I am saved only by the Lord Jesus Christ;
Love, which strives to dedicate everything to the Lord and Savior, withholding nothing;
Hope, which expects nothing from itself but is assured that it will not be forsaken by the Lord, but will receive every help from Him—both inward and outward—throughout life until it is taken to where He Himself is.
St. Theophan the Recluse
