The epistle of the Sunday of Orthodoxy asks us to “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus …” As the forty-day fast ends, we follow Jesus into Jerusalem, where he is received like a king and as the Messiah. Ideally, if we have kept the Fast, we have overcome our evil passions, and are ready to enter the kingdom of God; we have confronted our weakness. This means, as St. Paul points out in today’s epistle: “ … whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).Isn’t this what faith and God’s rule is really about: the true, the honorable, the just, the pure, the lovely, the gracious? But the Messiah does not establish a kingdom on earth. He is arrested and dragged before Pontius Pilate, where he declares, “My kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36)” This brings us into the true spiritual kingdom, which exists in those who love God with their whole heart and their neighbor as themselves. In Holy Week, we are to learn that by following Jesus to the Cross and resurrection, we learn the true meaning of “life.”
Meditation by David Petras