The Lenten Triodion Explained | True Repentance | Met. Neophytos

In this episode, Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou warns against the dangers of becoming “pseudo-religious” and explains how the Eastern Orthodox Church uses the weeks leading up to Great Lent (Triodion) as a spiritual hospital to heal our souls.
This English translation of the sermon of His Eminence Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou was presented for otelders.org by Porphyrios. This is a compilation of segments from the 32nd ‘Lighting the Lighter of the Saints’ series of Meetings, held on 2nd March 2024 at the Holy Church of St. Therapon in Lithrodontas under the Metropolis of Tamasos and Oreini, Cyprus.

Original video on the official channel of Holy Metropolis of Morphou:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wjYNIo7beA Translated video on English Morphou channel:

🔊 Listen to an English narration of this talk on Spotify and Apple Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/show/02BTr4socgg9gwLbRZPPLE?si=78f8f270eb3c41e7

Metropolitan Neophytos:

Well, this woman, the Theotokos and Mother of Light leads us to the great feast, which has begun with the Triodion period since last Sunday and concludes on the Sunday of Pascha. 

To those who attend the beautiful services that take place during this period [of the Triodion], — the preparation for [Christ’s] great victory over death, sin and the devil — I want to remind you how the Triodion begins and ends. As I said, the Triodion starts on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. What does this Sunday teach us? “Beware of becoming pseudo-religious!” That’s what it says — to put it boldly for you! You who attend Church regularly, make sure you remain repentant and faithful, but not pseudo-religious.

Once, 25 years ago, [shortly after I had been elected to the throne of the Metropolis of Morphou], I made this exact statement. Metropolitan Barnabas of Salamina of blessed memory was alive back then. They informed him, “This new bishop Neophytos of Morphou you elected, said [in one of his sermons to the people]: ‘Beware of becoming pseudo-religious.’” Metropolitan Barnabas was scandalized by hearing this. So, he called me on the phone and said, “Metropolitan of Morphou, have we elected you a bishop, for you to speak such provocative things?” I replied, “My bishop, you are of old age. In all your years, have you not read how Christ pronounced ‘Woe’ upon two [certain] groups in the Gospel?”

To the Pharisees, He said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” [Matthew 23; Luke 11]. And to whom else? To the rich! “Forgive me, but this is what I was taught by my mother, by Saint Porphyrios, by Saint Paisios, by Saint Iakovos and by Saint Eumenios. I am not sure where you got the idea that Orthodoxy is a religion. Forgive me, but I have read in Fr. [John] Romanides, the greatest dogmatic [theologian of Orthodoxy in the 20th century], that Christ did not come to earth and conquered our death, our sin and the devil tempting all of us just to establish a new religion.”

Buddha made a religion, the Indians did, the sorcerers did, and so did Mohammed. Christ came to abolish religions and teach us what? The Publican’s way. The Pharisee is an archetype of the [hollow] “religious” person. One we must all stay away from. The hymnology of the Church says that we have to strive to imitate the Publican. “Brethren, let us not pray like the Pharisee, O faithful, […]” That’s how the Triodion begins. “Let us humble ourselves before God, and with fasting cry aloud as did the Publican: ‘O God, be merciful to us sinners!’”

The Triodion begins as a lesson of humility. The kind of humility we all need, and will constantly need until our soul exits our body. When I spoke to Saint Eumenios Saridakis, disciple of Saint Nikephoros the Leper, a few days before his repose, I told him, “Geronda, give me a prayer to treasure for the rest of my life.” What was his response? “Up till the moment your soul exits [your body], pray: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, grant me meekness, humility and simplicity.’” I was only twenty-five, twenty-six at the time. I had just become a deacon. “What about temperance?” I asked. “It’ll come easily to you. You’ll struggle more with acquiring the other virtues.”

Are you listening? What a beautiful thing! To find a physician [i.e. a spiritual father] who is able to diagnose your spiritual sicknesses! What we must guard against for life! Never forget: the Church is, above all, the physician of all physicians! Every year, on Triodion’s first Sunday, the Church proclaims: “Hey, be careful! Don’t become a pseudo-religious follower like the Pharisee! Better to be a repentant sinner like the Publican! O God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” These sum up the first Sunday [of the Publican and the Pharisee].

Tomorrow [3 March 2024], the Triodion’s second Sunday is the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. It’s the most famous Sunday of the year. Why? Everyone celebrates and rejoices on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. The more self-aware Orthodox Christians celebrated last Sunday [that of the Publican and Pharisee]. The more self-aware of us celebrated last Sunday. I was in your district again [last Sunday] in Palaiometochon and I told people, “I constantly find a Pharisee within myself! Yet — glory be to God — I find a Publican too from time to time.”

Well, we also carry “a prodigal” inside us. Saint Gregory Palamas says something really beautiful. He teaches that “the prodigal” inside us is our nous. The “drifter” nous according to the Neptic Fathers. My late mother, sanctified Milia, would often tell me, “Your nous is wandering [aimlessly], my son.” “Your nous has detached.” “Gather your nous [from wherever it has drifted].” I told a priest of ours, Fr. Christophoros in Solia, “You that move among people, I want you to collect phrases containing the word ‘nous’ which are still used by people.” He gathered thirty-five expressions. One that even I didn’t know about, “Your nous [has turned to] spaghetti.” And many more.

Thus, we have a nous within us — the mightiest power of our soul — yet we render it useless. It wanders around … where? At best, it wanders from one everyday care to another: our children, the husband, whether he has a girlfriend, whether he loves us, whether he is hard-working, brings money home, if he’ll spend them wisely. That’s the best of cases! At worst, the nous cleaves to the earthly and not the heavenly! Saint Gregory Palamas says, “This drifter nous must return home!” Just like the Prodigal Son of tomorrow’s [Sunday] returned home. But where is “home”? His Father.

I shouldn’t go in detail about tomorrow’s [Parable of the Prodigal Son]. But, you should seek, study, learn: “What is the nous?” Another Cypriot expression, “You are missing your nous!” [Also learn] what’s the difference between the nous and the brain (intellect). The Pope, the Protestants, psychiatrists, psychologists think of the nous and the brain (intellect) as one and the same. No wonder your nous ends up a [tangled] salad [by thinking in this way] … Yet all the Church Fathers — first among them, the Apostle Paul — teach that the nous is the eye of the soul. Just like the body has eyes and is able to watch the visible and sensible, similarly, the soul has five powers. That’s the reason I advise you: Study the topic of “nous” and the five powers of the soul. A good book for the study of these is “An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith” by Saint John of Damascus.

These sum up tomorrow’s Sunday [3 March 2024, Sunday of the Prodigal Son]. Our prodigal “nous” who longs to return home, yet is shackled by the pigs and the pleasures.

The Third Sunday [of Triodion] is the Sunday of the Last Judgment. What does it say in short? Our life has a prospect. Life doesn’t end inside a grave. Our life doesn’t end with death as many people think, right? Whether we like it or not, from the moment we [are created] as human (beings) our prospect is: either Eternal Life or eternal hell. The choice is ours. That’s the message of the Second Coming. I repeat: “Our life doesn’t end inside a grave.” Only the body dies. The soul remains fully alive. She can feel, she can see [beyond death].

What does the brother of Saint Basil the Great — Saint Gregory of Nyssa — inform us? “The soul of the reposed has a form,” he says. This form of the soul is similar to the [physical] form we had on earth. When I once said this in a sermon, a very good man from Athienou [village] approached me — I shouldn’t share his name — and said half-jokingly, half-serious, “I didn’t like that one you said …” “Which one?” I asked. “Why would you say that I would keep this form in the afterlife?” “What’s wrong with your form?” I asked. “You are just fine. I might even say you are almost handsome… Almost…” He replied, “Yes, but … You didn’t consider my height. All my life, I’ve had a complex with my height at 1,55 m (5 feet). Short in heaven too?”

I said, “You know what. It’s crystal clear that in the eternal life as proclaimed in the memorial service … — pay attention to the Church hymns, they hide condensed truths — What does it say [in the text of the memorial service]? ‘where there is no pain, no sorrow, no sighing, […]’ After death, God won’t allow anyone to wither [in His Kingdom], to feel sad, have any kind of sorrow or depression.” Right? These are merely trials of this life. “Ah! So it won’t trouble me.” “Don’t worry! You’ll stand tall as the heavens!”

Thus, we have an eternal prospect. Our soul doesn’t die. This is what the Third Sunday of the Triodion teaches. [Mark this well]: We also have a Judge. We don’t just have “a God of love” as the “agapology” and “pseudo-elderism” people preach: “Christ is only love.” No, He is not just love. He is Justice too.

“The Kingdom of God is not …”
[His Eminence turns to Fr. Andreas]: Go on.
[Fr. Andreas]: “[f]ood and drink,”
[His Eminence]: “But …”
[Fr. Andreas]: “righteousness and ascetic practice …”
[His Eminence]: “righteousness, [a]scetic practice with holiness.”

“The Kingdom of God is not food and drink.” We listen to this [Doxastikon] during the Triodion period. It’s not about eating and drinking. That’s not the Kingdom of God we are expecting to live in for eternity. “But ascetic practice and righteousness.” The Righteousness is over there. [points to fresco of the Last Judgment inside the Church]. For this reason, let us be concerned. The higher we are inside the Church, the greater our concern should be, the more careful we must be! You cannot be a bishop or a priest and be careless! And go on to preach: “God is all love. He’ll understand no matter what (even if we don’t repent).” No, it doesn’t work this way!

In my view, the last Sunday of the Triodion is the most important [of the other three], it’s the Sunday of Cheesefare. The Church, as a pedagogical Mother, instructs to stop consuming meat starting from Cheesefare week. We only eat dairy and fish [during Cheesefare week]. The Church introduces us little by little to the upcoming weeks of the Great Lent which require a much stricter fast — even with no oil [on many days]. As a matter of fact, when the older generations fasted for Lent, they didn’t merely abstain from oil [and the rest]. They followed a practice of non-cooked food (‘xerophagia’ in Greek) from Monday until Friday evening.

When my mother would catch me bragging about cooking meals without oil [during the fast], she would say, “How does he come up with all this new stuff …?” “What do you mean?” I asked. “My son, we would work in the fields, hoe [the soil] during summertime and eat nothing but raw fava beans, olives, bread and a bit of onion, a cucumber, louvana (green field peas) … I saw a garden of louvana on my way here and I remembered my mother’s words. The younger ones probably don’t know what louvana is. It’s a [wild leafy edible] green. “[In case we found louvana], we deemed it a blessing. That’s how we kept the fast. On Fridays after the Akathist Hymn, I would eat [something cooked with] oil.” Why? Because for the past five days, they had barely eaten at all.

But this isn’t just about food. The true purpose of [the Triodion and the Great Lent] is much deeper. Cheesefare Sunday calls to mind the exile of the first man — Adam and Eve, Eve and Adam — from the Paradise, God created for him. What does it teach us? Do you — the baptized and chrismated Orthodox Christians — long to return to Paradise? What is the Paradise we want to return and enter? The Orthodox Church! The Church is the Paradise. We — you and I — are Adam and Eve and the descendants of Adam and Eve.

Do you want to succeed where our remote ancestors, Adam and Eve, failed? Learn how to forgive. Learn how to be merciful. “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” [Matthew 9:13]. Learn righteousness. Learn humility from the Publican, stay away from the pharisaism of the Pharisee. Gather your nous from wherever it’s scattered — “the prodigal nous.” Believe in the love as well as the righteousness of Christ who is the perfect Judge. And let us all together embark on a journey of seven weeks until the week of the Bridegroom, the [Holy] Week of the Passions of our Lord, His burial, His resurrection.

How does this journey begin? With a Vespers service. On the night of Cheesefare Sunday, … What is the Vespers service [which then takes place] called? The Vespers of Forgiveness. It’s the Vespers of Forgiveness, where we ask for forgiveness. The priest stands [first], then the whole village follows: the mayor, the presbytera, the stewards, the civil authorities, the elderly, the youth, the children. A huge line and each one asks for forgiveness from the other. “My brother, forgive me for everything I’ve done to you.” “May God forgive you.” That is, we enter the Great Lent with forgiveness!

If you failed to forgive, don’t look forward to celebrating on the Sunday of Resurrection (Pascha). Even if you keep a non-oil fast for the rest of your life, you’ll be left with nothing but “the oils and vinegars” and you’ll end up a sour person. “Neither oil, nor vinegar.” Do you hear how beautiful expressions our Cypriot language has? All of them are full of theology! I want to find a young person [and convince him to] start a doctorate on the theological lay-expressions of the Cypriot people.

The Great Lent begins with the Sunday Vespers of Forgiveness. [Following the end of the Great Lent and the Holy Week], the Pentecostarion period also begins with a Sunday Vespers service. The Vespers of Agape. In this Vespers service, the Gospel is read in various languages, especially at the Metropolitan Cathedral Church [of each Metropolis]. Then and there, the Christians have concluded their fast, they have forgiven, they have received forgiveness and they have experienced the Great Mystery of Repentance daily. Daily — not just when they go to the spiritual father for confession occasionally! Daily!

I gather my nous and ask myself, “Whom did I hurt today?” Fr. Andreas. “My Christ, forgive Father Andreas, forgive me too.” “My Christ, enlighten Father Andreas, enlighten me too.” This is in the [Small] Compline. “And grant us a watchful nous, chaste thoughts, a sober heart.”

That’s how this great period of Triodion concludes. The word “Triodion” is a loan from hymnology. No need to go into that much detail. I described the depth, the soul, “the bread” of this [sacred Triodion] period. My Geronda (elder), Fr. Symeon, the abbot of the Mavrovouni Monastery would say to me, “My son, whoever experiences the Great Lent and is made worthy to enter and experience the Holy Week [at the proper spiritual state], his soul has secured food for the whole year.”