The Lord Jesus Christ began His earthly ministry with these words: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” Matthew 4:17. This call of repentance is directed to us at each moment of our lives. The Church has set aside seven weeks, six in the course of Great Lent and one during Holy Week, in which the call to repentance is emphasized, and through repentance we learn the teaching of our Christian faith. Fasting is the school of repentance; it is the reconciliation with God, with ourselves, and with others. Fasting is a sweet pilgrimage through which once again we discover the true ways of Christian life. The meaning of fasting is laid out in the services of the Church during this period.
One of these Lenten Services is called The Great Compline, during which we hear these precious words: “O Lord of Hosts be with us, for we have no other help in times of sorrows but Thee. O Lord of Hosts, have mercy on us!” This service concentrates a lot of attention on the theme of repentance. In it, we read Psalm 50, which is read the most in all of our services throughout the year. The Psalms which are read during Great Compline urge us to confess our sins and deliver our souls to divine providence. The Psalms and prayers and hymns of Great Compline place us in the right state of mind, meaning that we are all sinners and are in need of repentance in order to receive God’s mercies.
The hymns which we sing during Great Compline also declare the fact that God alone is our hope, our refuge, and our salvation, such as when we sing: “God is with us, understand all you nations and submit yourselves, for God is with us.” We place our trust in the hands of God, and seek the intercessions of the Virgin Mary and of the Saints. When we kneel down during the Prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian, it is a way of showing our submission to God and confession of our sins. It also shows us that although we are brought down by sin, once again we rise up in repentance through the help of God.
In one of the prayers of Great Compline, as we beseech God to “raise us up again at the time of prayer strengthened in His commandments, holding steadfastly within us the remembrance of His judgments.” Here we are reminded by Jesus Christ’s calling to remain vigilant and awake. This means that we have to be always spiritually, and not physically, awake and ready to meet the Lord. It reminds us of the vigilant and wise five virgins that were prepared to meet the bridegroom who arrived at an unknown time. Our hope is to be like these five wise virgins, and not like their counterpart, the five foolish virgins. The wise virgins were prepared with enough oil in their lamps, and their souls were ready to meet the Lord. So also must we be ready to meet the Lord, in each and every moment of our lives, whether we are awake or asleep.
