Saint Mary the Egyptian as a challenge to greater things
3 April 2023There are Lives of the Saints which, though they may seem exaggerated, are nevertheless satisfying to read. One such is that of Saint Mary the Egyptian. Apart from the actual day of her feast, April 1, the Church has also declared that we should remember her on the fifth Sunday of the Fast. Great Lent is a time of repentance. Focusing on Saint Mary the Egyptian encourages us to change our life, whatever we may have done and however far way from God we’ve strayed.
Of course, the manner in which she accepted the call to go out into the wilderness of the Jordan, leaving behind a life full of carnal passion, was powerful and extraordinary, because it seems that, in the depths of her heart, she wanted to transform her harlotry into divine love, what was disgusting into something beautiful, the transient into the eternal. The Lord, Jesus Christ, who ‘examines hearts and minds’ (Ps. 7, 10) called her to the life she wanted without her knowing that she did. This is why she responded, strove and labored.
Sometimes we’re aware of being in a spiritual rut, with no real change, without the fulness of joy and without interest. This is also a temptation. Who’s ever been ‘spiritually on form’ all the time? But this state can be an opportunity for genuine reflection: do I perhaps persist in my passions and desires, refusing to undertake anything more daring, which would be a way of exceeding my ‘spiritual duties’? Which means going beyond them in order to taste other joys and other knowledge of God.
Mary the Egyptian could have rejected the call to change her life, which meant ‘denying her self’. She could have pretended she didn’t understand and continued to live as before. Everything certainly wasn’t going to be rosy. She would struggle in the isolation of the wilderness, with the cold at night and the heat during the day, with the lack of food, the unforgiving nature of the environment, thoughts of despair, fantasies of the passions.
Any life-changing decision, however small, requires boldness, courage and trust that the God of hosts won’t abandon you. At times secretly, at others manifestly, he’ll be present with his grace to strengthen and fortify you in every effort, though never encroaching upon your freedom.
Every year, the Life of Saint Mary the Egyptian is highlighted on the fifth Sunday of Great Lent as a challenge to break out of our spiritual wretchedness and to open up actively to God. At the same time, it’s an invitation to follow him, ‘denying our self and taking up our cross’, as a token of our love for him and an expression of our desire to live with him.
As we approach Great Week, then, let us prepare to ‘walk with’ Christ, to ‘be crucified with’ him in the hope and expectation that we will ‘rise with’ him.
