The Second Sunday of the Coptic Month of Mesra

A Call to Repentance and Being Steadfast Prior to the Year’s End

The readings beckon us to return and to renew our covenant by repentance before the end of the year and before the end of our lives.

Vespers: the psalm’s plea is a cry from the midst of a storm, “I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O LORD! I will keep Your statutes.” (Psalm 119:145)

Both the Pharisee and the tax collector drifted away from God, hence they were both mistaken, nevertheless, the tax collector found a way to return to God, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14) These words are for those who are religious only in appearance and falsely humble.

Matins: “I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever; With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever;

Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.” (Psalm 89:1-2) God’s mercy is continuous until the last moment in a person’s life. “Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13)

Pauline Epistle: Means of steadfastness in advocacy, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—“ (Ephesians 6:13-18)

The Catholic Epistle, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” (1 John 2:15-17)

To apply the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Liturgy’s gospel presents, “After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he left all, rose up, and followed Him. Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.

And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Luke 5:27-31)

We will always need the physician until the last breath, and we will continue to need repentance until the last day of our lives, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12) We also continue to ask the following until the end, “Ease for us the path of repentance.”

Let us not find the way blocked by the thoughts of our arrogant hearts with the delusion of sin, or blocked by the worries of the world. “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ “(Luke 5:36-39) The new garment and the new wineskin are our new creation in Christ – the body of the Resurrection.

Patching between the new and the old corrupts everything. After we put on the new garments, how can we corrupt them with an old patch?