The Promise of Help

I’m sure you’ve heard the say, “You can’t go it alone.” This is true whether you are climbing Mount Everest or if you are looking for God. As young children we learn the ‘buddy system’ for everything from water sports to study partners in college. No matter where we find ourselves, we always need help.

That is where the Church comes in. God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone,” and He made a helper. It wasn’t just any helper, but it also wasn’t just to do his laundry and cook. God established the Church just like He made Eve. He did it to help us find God.

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up — for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground — then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.  The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.  The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush.  And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria.  And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”  So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

Genesis 2.4-19

As the story of Creation wraps up in today’s reading from Genesis, God teaches us the buddy system for faith. No matter how we try, we need help to find God. Of course, we know how the story in the Garden ends too. Even Eve was not enough for Adam.

The Promise of God to make us a helper ‘fit’ for us is our focus for today’s Daily Lenten Journey. Throughout the entire Old Testament and human history, countless ‘helpers’ have let us down in our journey to God. Even Moses who led God’s People out of Egypt, fell short, but that never stopped God from fulfilling His promise.

When we engage in the Great Lenten Journey to Pascha, we depend upon the Church to be that ‘helper’ that is in truth ‘fit’ for us. The Church is the Body of Christ. The Church is united physically with Christ through Holy Communion.

There is no denying that a whole lot of attention is given to fasting during Great Lent. Some push this aside as unneeded, but they are wrong. We are at battle with the devil no less today than Eve was in the Garden. Proper fasting is exactly what we need, and here’s why.

However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Matthew 17.21

When Christ was asked how to fight against the demons, He taught us to prayer and fast. When we properly fast, especially during Great Lent, we are no longer ‘going it alone’, but allowing the Church to help us.

From something so simple as recipe sharing to intense evenings of prayer in the Church, we team up with God against the devil. When we look around the Church during Lenten services we are comforted by the presence of fellow soldiers for Christ.

What does all this have to do with fasting from food? Saint John Chrysostom teaches us that when we fast, we learn how not to want. When we no longer want, we can be charitable to others. Through our fasting, we open our hearts to helping others and being helped by others.

So, for this year’s Great Lenten Journey don’t go it alone. Find a buddy for the battle. Team up with someone in the Church to keep each other focused and committed. Help each other through the weak moments and celebrate the victories along the way.

God promised to provide us with a helper ‘fit’ for us. That Helper is Christ. The Church is His Body, and we are His hands and feet.