NEBAB #34: Lent Week 4: Metsagu'e

         NEBAB #34

The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine

LENT WEEK 4:መፃጕዕ - METSAGU'E

 

The Spiritual Education Unit

Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America

In this issue:

Gospel: St John 5:1-24

    1. Do you want to be healed?

    2. Who Sinned? | The 3 Reasons We Get Sick

    3. Faith and works

    4. “Ask Abba/Kes”

    5. A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam

    6. Children’s corner

    7.ይበል ግዕዝ 

    8. Orthodox Q&A

Commentary on the Gospel:

St John 5:4

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

St John Chrysostom teaches us that the miracle our Lord performed was a symbol to show the glory of the God of the angels. If one angel descending brought healing, how much more can the Lord of Hosts heal? The angel healed one person on one day of the week- our Lord often healed multitudes all at once, whenever they were brought to Him. The angel brought healing to the body- our Lord Jesus Christ, may His holy name be praised, came to heal our bodies and souls.

[It is also noteworthy that the angel descended on the water, while our Lord healed this paralytic without him ever having to get in the water!]

We know that it was not the water that had the healing power, because it only healed on the Sabbath. If it were healing water, it would not have been limited by time. It was the angel of God descending that brought the healing, and for this reason it is necessary in our lives to ask the intercession and help of the angels of God in our lives.

The angel descended for two reasons- to stir up the water for healing and to take up the prayers of those who were there. Let us not focus on the one and forget the other.

May we hear the words of life!

 

Do you want be healed?

The 8 weeks of The Great Fast, also known as Lent, have names and themes laid out in St Yared’s Tsome Digua. The fourth, Metsagu'e, means ‘The Paralytic/Infirm Man’. To appreciate the miracle of healing performed for him, let us consider the following.

As the sick gathered under the 5 porches of Bethesda in faith and hope that they would be healed, so let the faithful believers in Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World come to His holy church and gather under her 5 pillars of mystery for the healing of our souls. As those with many different kinds of sicknesses would all gather in the same place for the healing that could help them all, let no one think that he or she is afflicted with a sin that the church cannot heal.

When our Lord came to the Sheep Gate, it was not His presence- which made the Jordan flee, or His words- which caused the fig tree to wither- that healed our friend- whom the Ethiopian tradition identifies as Tawfania. Our Lord asked him "Do you want to be made whole?". This great question lies at the foundation of the Christian life, from a person's first encounter with the church, to their baptism, to their service at their parish, to their very last breath. Our Lord asks us this question every day, giving us in everything we do an opportunity to be whole, that is to say, to be one with Him. He always wants to restore us to our original state, and it is for this reason that God became Man. Tawfania's acceptance of the gift of Christ teaches us to accept His gift of salvation and grace. Tawfania's healing was made perfect by his obedience to Christ's command, and likewise by doing the works of righteousness our faith is made perfect (James 2:22).

Who Sinned? | The 3 reasons we get sick

Our Lord told Tawfania to "sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you". By this we are told that his condition was due to sin. It reminds of the question the disciples asked our Lord when they saw a man born blind- "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2). Our Lord told them that his condition was not the result of sin, but it was given to him so that God might be glorified. So we can understand that sickness or infirmity can come upon us for different reasons. Our church teaches that there are three:

Infirmity for the sake of purity: Like St Timothy who suffered physically because of his intense fasting (1 Timothy 5:23), there is a kind of infirmity that a person brings on himself/herself through constant prayer, fasting, prostration, etc. This is a crown to them.

Infirmity without our desire: Sickness that comes on us not by anything that we do, but by circumstances outside our control. It becomes wealth to us when we take it with patience and are grateful in our sickness, like the affliction of Job. This kind of sickness purifies the soul.

Infirmity for our sin: This is a curse for us. Like Saul, king of Israel, or Herod, king of Judea, who allowed themselves to become an abode for demons because of the jealousy with which they both poisoned their hearts against the Lord's anointed.

Faith and Works:

Sin no more

Sometimes, while we know the right thing to do, we find it hard to truly desire it. We may even leave a sin but still have the desire for it in our hearts. We know we need to be healed but find it hard to want the change of life that comes with healing.

His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, in his advice on the topic, included the prayer, “Please God, give me the desire to repent”. His Holiness went on to say, “The error is that the devil makes you think in despair that you will live in the same heart that loves sin. On the contrary, the Lord will give you a new heart (Ezek 36:25).”

We also have a prayer of St. Augustine:

“My Lord, I desire to love You, even though I do not wish to sacrifice anything for the sake of Your love, I choose to read erotic stories over Your Book, I delight in the company of evildoers while I drag my feet to stand before You, I prefer to visit my relatives over being in Your house. My Lord, enable me to love You.”

Ask Abba/Kes

"I have heard it said that the human soul is made of 3 spiritual elements, hiyawit, libawit and nebabit. How can we speak of what the soul is made of?"

There are some figurative ways of referring to the makeup of the soul, but when we say that the soul is 'made of' hiyawit (life), libawit (knowledge of God) and nebabit (reason/articulation), we are speaking not of its composition, but of the qualities of the soul. For example, the angels are described as being made of wind and fire, but this is a figurative description of the qualities of the angels.

In our church we teach that the 3 natures we cannot know are the nature of the eternal soul, the nature of the angels and the nature of God. We can say what, but not how.

BIBLE QUIZ!

In which Psalm is the Exodus from Egypt recorded and retold?

 

A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam

A miracle performed by Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, may her intercession be with us, amen.

A monk in one of the monasteries of Alexandria[, Egypt,]1 loved Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Holy Virgin, with his whole heart.

Whenever the monks would commemorate the name of Our Lady Mary, Mariham, this monk would submit to her. Also, when he commemorated her name, he would bow his head, prostrate himself before her, kiss the ground, and roll his face against the ground because of her glory.

This monk grew up, became old, and struggled to stand up, especially whenever he would prostrate himself to commemorate her praiseworthy name. He would be unable to stand back up without great effort.

When the abbot realized this [was a problem], he commanded two young monks to assist this monk in church by helping him to stand back up and get back down to prostrate himself.

One day, when [the two young monks weren’t in church and] he commemorated the name of Our Lady Mary, Mariham, the Holy Virgin, he bowed and prostrated himself to her, but he was feeble, and so he could not get back up or even move.

He humbly cried out, from the depths of his heart, saying, “My dear Lady Mary, Mariham, the beloved, compassionate one, help me!”

Immediately, Our Lady Mary, Mariham, the Holy Virgin, appeared on the right side of the altar. She propped him up with her right hand and helped him, lifting him to his feet and signaling that he should stand in front of the altar, close to her.

When he stood up, he saw the light of Our Lady Mary, Mariham, the Holy Virgin, and rejoiced, delighting by her beautiful appearance.

Instantly, his agedness was changed. He became strong like a powerful young man.

He continued to serve Our Lady Mary, Mariham, the Holy Virgin, for all the days of his life in this corrupt and fleeting world, until he died. He entered eternal life through the intercession of the intercessor, the Treasury of Good and Honorable Things, the Performer of Miracles and Wonders, Our Lady Mary, Mariham, the Holy Virgin.

May her prayer and her blessing be with your servant, the Emperor Constantine[, Dawit].

O Holy Virgin Maryam, pray for us!

LIJOCH! The Children's Corner

Memory verse: St John 5 : 14

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

ይበል:ግዕዝ (yibel Ge’ez)

Let's reclaim our forefathers’ language

This week- a simple but important Ge'ez construct- the negative particle.

ኢ-

ee- : not

This one letter lets us negate almost anything in Ge'ez:

We can negate verbs like:

ኢትግበሩ ቤተ አቡየ eetigiberu bete abuye- do not make My Father's house...

(see last week's issue for the verb ገብረ)

Adjectives, like:

ኢይደልዎ eeyideliwo- unworthy (where in English 1 Corinthians 11:29 says unworthily, the Ge'ez says እንዘ ኢይደልዎ inze eeyideliwo)

Or pronouns like:

ኢመኑ eemenu - no one, from መኑ menu - who

ORTHODOX Q&A

"Why does the Orthodox Church glorify the saints? Isn't glory for God alone?"

The idea of glory being for God alone is a result of the recent Protestant principle of Soli Deo Gloria- a simple misunderstanding of the concept of glory. As our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said in the garden of Gethsemane, He gives us- His children- glory (John 17:22). The church is also glorified by God (Ephesians 5:27). All glory is for God, but not alone. We glorify God through His saints, and through His church, recognising that we have been given union with God.

Send us your questions at: seu.eotccarla@gmail.com

References

Short message on behalf the Spiritual Education Unit:

His Grace Abune Thaddaeus, Head Administrator Archimandrite Abba Gebreyesus, and all clergy and faithful- thank you for the opportunity to share this labour of love with you. Thanks also to the team of the Spiritual Education Unit for their hard work.

-Liqe Teghuan Tekle Mariam Greene

Miracle of the Holy Virgin Mary: pemm.princeton.edu/en-us/stories/161

CONTACT US:

Archdiocese headquarters: Medhane Alem (Saviour of the World), Old Golden Grove Rd. Arouca, Trinidad and Tobago.

Tel. 868-642-4230.

e-mail: eotc.arch.carla@gmail.com

ethiopianorthodoxtewahedochurchcarla.org