In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.

During Lent especially, we hear the song, "Those who sow with tears shall reap with shouts of joy." We indeed sow many tears during Lent. This is at the heart of the work that we're doing where we grieve over our many sins and the labors that are required of us as we sincerely repent and cooperate with God in removing all the obstacles that remain in our path between us and the life of God.

So our hearts so often break and we shed tears as we've seen how far we have to go, how difficult the work is, how often we fall back into the same patterns and traps that we know all too well. But we're given great encouragement during Lent as well.

Last Sunday we celebrated the Triumph of Orthodoxy. The unknowable God has made himself known. The invisible has shown his face to us. And this Sunday, remembering St. Gregory of Palamas, we are taken a step further. God who has made himself known to us—his saving activity in the world, his grace—is not something entirely separate from him that he leaves behind, that we cannot connect to the one from whom it is given, but rather that grace remains his living presence in our midst. His activity is a way that we can come to know God himself.

By drawing near to him, by welcoming him into our lives, we truly may come to know the living God. This is something that is possible for us to know, to experience for ourselves. The saints who have gone before us have found this to be true. This is not a future promise, something that we can only look forward to in heaven, but rather they knew it to be a present truth in their own lives.

And there are saints in our midst secretly who know this for themselves. They have come to the Lord knowing their sin, their failures, their ailments in need of healing, and they come to the one who is victor over them all. So they receive exactly what they need and are filled with light and life, grace that is abundant beyond our imaginings.

There's no need for us to flounder around in ignorance and isolation trying to will ourselves into the right path, to follow the proper code of life, to fix ourselves and straighten ourselves up so that we can dare to approach God. God is already rushing to meet us in our desperate need to give us what we need for our restoration.

The paralytic in the Gospel today—what did he do beforehand? He was just lying there in his bed. His friends did the work of uncovering a roof, letting him down so that he could be there before the Lord. He didn't do anything great, wonderful, worthy of the grace of God. Rather, the Lord spoke the word to him: "Son, your sins are forgiven you." And then, "Rise up, take up your bed, walk."

And that tells us everything. Because having heard these words of grace, having received the mercy of God, then he was made able to respond. And he did respond. He joined his will, his action to the merciful will, the loving action of his Savior. And he found that he was forgiven. He was healed. He was able to rise up and walk, to depart from the house where he was there hearing the words of life from the Savior and go to his own home.

And so it is with all the saints before us. And so it may be for you today.

Our task, brothers and sisters, is to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd who calls out to us by name. He knows his own and he calls us to know him. Our work is to open the door of life and to enter in through it—not to create the door. We don't have to build it for ourselves. We cannot build it for ourselves. But rather, our Lord tells us, "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, they will go in and out and find pasture."

Brothers and sisters, this for us is the work of Great Lent—to recognize the shape of the door, the true door, the only one by which we may enter and find salvation. It is for us to learn the taste of the good food, the good food that we find only in the pasture that is prepared for us. It is for us to open our eyes, or rather better still, to allow our eyes to be opened so that we may receive the vision of lasting glory.

And brothers and sisters, this is what gives power and purpose to the work that we undertake in this season of fasting. We sow with genuine tears over our condition, but only so that we may rejoice with shouts of joy in meeting the Lord our Savior.

Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.