Journey Back to Eden.pdf - St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church Chicago

A TIME TO INTERCEDE 119was a Nilotic link to Lent. The monks tell me that, historically, thetime from the cresting of the floodwater of the Nile to the timewhen it returned to its banks was a period of forty days. After theflood, the people of Egypt had to wait on the edges of the NileValley forty days more before they could return to their fields,their villages, their homes.When they finally returned, a fresh layer of mud overlaideverything. A great deal of work was required to remove it fromtheir homes. But they were forbidden to complain about it, becausethat mud was the source of all life in Egypt. All the fecundity of thefields, all the bounty of the harvest derived from that mud. So theywould wait patiently and gratefully for the flood to pass before theycould return home to a new and fertile world.This was the background of the children of Israel who hadlived in Egypt for centuries. So when they passed through the“flood” waters of the Red Sea and then “waited” forty years beforethey could enter into the Promised Land, they had already beenprepared in Egypt for a period of waiting. They expected to waitan interval of time marked by the number “forty” before theycould come home to the place which was fertile, which was richwith “milk and honey,” and rich with the blessings and the bountyof God. Like the Egyptians, the Hebrews were also enjoined not tocomplain about the hardships which had to be borne if they wereto enter the Promised Land. Such complaining, as described in theBook of Exodus, is the intended reference in St. Benedict’s Ruleagainst “murmuring.” Much of what people complain about isoften, paradoxically, an occasion of some future blessing.Abuna Elia also told me that, of course, forty weeks also comprisesthe gestation period, the period of nine solar months inwhich a child is formed in the womb before being born into theworld. Such a period of time prepares the unborn to grow, to becomelarge enough and strong enough to survive in the outsideworld. The baby must go through the watery abyss of the maternalwomb before coming home to the common air which we allbreathe.In other words, the period of time marked by the interval of“forty” is inscribed in the Copts’ personal histories, in their publiclife, in their national history, in their liturgical life, and in divinerevelation. It is, therefore, a period of time which is also calibratedfor worship. It is a time of preparation to pass through the watersof baptism into the Promised Land of intimacy and union with