Page 53 - AlNashra issue 2 - 2023

that is closer to a parable. The story goes that a nobility, etc.), and we make them rulers over our

king once visited the Roman Emperor in Rome. lives. In all of this, the choice remains personal,

The Emperor preferred to accompany his guest to the choice of each of us. We shall not forget, in

the city of Rome to visit it and, in particular, the this whole endeavor, that if fasting is a journey of

Roman temple. When they arrived at the temple, light—and it is—that the Lord loved us with the

they toured it, and the emperor introduced his greatest form of love that led Him to die on the

guest to the gods whose statues were erected in cross for our sake. Therefore, we shall exchange

the temple: this is the sun god, this is the moon this love with our love that is worth only a drop

god, this is the god Baal, this is the god Dionysus, in the ocean of Christ’s love. Hence, we become

and this is the god Sibyl... etc. After presenting worthy of being His own, since He redeemed us.

all the statues of the gods, the guest king asked In this context, we remember the sacrament
his host, the emperor: “Oh, your majesty, I saw of baptism and its rites, when in these rites we

that you have, in this temple, statues belonging (godfather and godmother) look to the west, the

to all the gods in the world; except for the new symbol of darkness, to announce to the priest

god that we hear about, and it is said that He is our rejection of Satan and all his works, then

Christ (since the Christian faith had spread, at turn around and face the east, the symbol of

that time, throughout the empire), I did not see light, to announce our agreement with Christ.

a statue of him. So the emperor looked at him This, in my opinion, is the ebb and flow of the

laughing and answered: “My friend, this god’s believer’s life. If the terminology is correct, this

story is strange, for as long as these gods remain is the contest that every believer in Jesus lives

here, he refuses to be among them. You ought through, which requires one to purify oneself in
to get rid of these statues so that He may enter, order to bring light into oneself, so to deserve
and He alone remains in the temple; otherwise, being called a child of light, testifying to God
He will not enter.” This is how the heart of each and living according to His commandments.
of us should be: Either we make it a throne for During Holy Lent, the fasting person completely
the Lord, who says: “I, the Lord, am your God, surrenders his or her body and soul to God.
Therefore, fasting is not corrected by physically
and You shall not have other gods besides me.” abstaining from non-Lenten foods while the
Otherwise, we worship our own gods, the gods soul continues to sin. Similarly, fasting cannot
of pagans (power, prestige, money, lineage,

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