Homily

St. Mary of Egypt was born in that country perhaps around the year 344, although some sources say it was 100 years later. When she was 12 years old, she ran away from home to the great city of Alexandria and there she began to live a horrible life of sin, especially in the area of lust. When she was 17, she decided to travel to Jerusalem, and to pay for her passage on the ship, she prostituted herself among the passengers. Finally, in Jerusalem, on the Feast of the Holy Cross, she tried to get into the Church of the Resurrection (also called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre) but some unknown force stopped her from entering. She realized that it was because of her sins that she could not go into the church, and suddenly she was filled with great sadness for the life she had led. When she saw an icon of the Mother of God outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness and promised to become a hermit. Now she was able to enter the church, and after venerating a relic of the Holy Cross, she returned to the icon to give thanks. She heard a voice telling her, "If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest, true peace." Immediately she went and came to the monastery of St. John Baptist on the Jordan River, where she received absolution and Holy Communion. The next morning she crossed the Jordan taking only three loaves of bread, and went into the desert to spend the rest of her life as a hermit.

Many years later, St. Zosimas of Palestine met her in the desert by chance. She was naked with only her long hair to cover her, and he gave her his cloak. Mary told him the story of her life, and asked him to bring her Holy Communion at that spot on the next Holy Thursday. He did so the next year and she crossed over to him by walking on the waters of the Jordan. After receiving the Eucharist, she begged him to come again the next year during Lent. When he did so the next year, he found her body there and an inscription next to it saying she had died the year before after receiving the Eucharist. Though her body was emaciated and weather-worn because of her years in the desert, it had not decayed after death, and St. Zosimas buried her at that place.

So this young woman, who had lived such a terrible life, was touched by the hand of God that day in Jerusalem. Of all the millions of people on the earth, she did not go unnoticed by Christ. It is never the Lord's wish that anyone should be lost and so He gave her a beautiful opportunity to choose forgiveness and grace. Mary was free to accept it or reject it, but she used that opportunity and it changed her entire life. She never could have seen it coming.

Today there are billions of people on the planet, but Christ our Lord sees you, knows you, loves you and reaches out His hand to you to offer you an opportunity for grace just as He did with Mary. But instead of preventing you from coming into the church, He has invited you in, so that here you may hear His words, praise His goodness, ask His help and receive His Body and Blood. So that you, like Mary of Egypt, can change your lives. So that I, like Mary of Egypt, can change my life—probably not because we are as great a sinner as she was, and probably not leading us into such a harsh lifestyle that we will all be trekking off to Eastern Oregon to live in the desert. (But if any of you do, I suggest you take extra clothes because it gets really cold there, more than it is in the desert of Palestine.)

Let me say it again, that Christ loves you no less than He did Mother Mary of Egypt. He knows you just as well as He knew her. He desires that you would take the grace He offers to you personally and live in that grace a greater life with and in Him.

That is what this Lenten season is all about: a great opportunity to seize the grace being offered to us. It may happen that we have had an excellent Lent full of prayer, fasting and giving alms. It may be that we have had a terrible Lent and done practically nothing. It may be that we started out strong but soon became distracted and fell short of what we planned to do. Two weeks are left, and no matter what category we may be in as far as Lenten work goes, let us refocus for these remaining two weeks to use this season, to open our hearts, our minds, and our lives to Jesus Who knows each of us better than we know ourselves. Let us regroup, re-think and re-apply ourselves to 14 days of Lenten labor so that we can find more room for joy on the Feast of the Resurrection—fourteen more days to live in such a way that we are able to hold out our hands and receive the favor of the Lord. Two weeks to focus more diligently on our life in Christ, because we may not be as wicked as Mary once was, but we are not yet as holy and faithful as she became.

Let us use this opportunity to also change our lives. And may the prayers of our Mother Mary of Egypt be our help to do it.