Continuing the Mountain Experience, Part 3 – Preoccupations and Interests
Pope Shenouda III presents a spiritual training suitable for the period of Great Lent, drawing it from Christ’s temptation on the mountain. He explains that the primary warfare of the devil is not only to lead a person into sin, but to occupy him with anything else so that he becomes distant from God. A person may become occupied with money, work, study, service, activities, or even spiritual matters to the point that he no longer has time to sit with God.
Spiritual Message
Pope Shenouda emphasizes that the first commandment is to love the Lord with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength. Therefore, allowing other interests to enter the heart and compete with God represents a real spiritual danger. He explains this through the examples of Mary and Martha, the prodigal son and his elder brother, Lot, and Saint Anthony, showing that even being occupied with good works can deprive a person of his direct relationship with God.
The goal is not merely to know about God, but to sit with Him, pray, and contemplate Him, because a person can become a researcher in books and spiritual subjects without becoming a worshiper of God. Therefore, prayer and sitting with God are among the most important things from which the enemy of goodness tries to keep a person away.
Educational Lesson
The teaching calls us to examine the place of God in our lives: How much do we love Him? How much time do we give to prayer and contemplation? Have we become more occupied with serving God or with the house of God than with the Lord of the house Himself? Pope Shenouda uses the image of a race in which the runner becomes distracted by the things thrown in his path and consequently loses his primary goal, showing that numerous occupations can cause a person to lose his spiritual purpose without realizing it. He also points to unseen things, such as blessing, holiness, living in truth, and virtue, which require spiritual eyes capable of perceiving them.
Practical Application
During Great Lent, a person should give God a real portion of his time and heart and train himself to sit with Him, pray, and contemplate. If a person cannot spend time with God here, how will he live with Him in eternity? Therefore, we should not allow the abundance of activities and responsibilities to take away our time of prayer and our relationship with God. The ultimate goal of this training is for a person to taste from now the joy of being with God and to live in the things that are unseen, looking forward to eternal life with Him.
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