Since today’s Gospel recounts the cleansing of the Temple once again, and we already explored this theme on the seventh day of our Lenten journey (https://en.elijamission.net/day-7-resist-evil-in-the-holy-spirit/),
I have decided to dedicate today’s meditation to two saints whose feast day is celebrated on March 16: Saint Abraham of Edessa (Mesopotamia) and his niece Mary.
From a very young age, Abraham longed for a life of solitude with God, so he asked his parents for permission to become a hermit. However, his parents had already chosen a young woman whom they considered worthy to be his wife. With great regret, Abraham obeyed them. Legend has it that after the wedding, he told his wife of his decision to live in permanent abstinence. Later, he left secretly and shut himself away in a solitary cell located about an hour from the city of Edessa.
God’s call to solitude was so strong that all his family’s attempts to bring him back to his wife were in vain. He walled up his cell, leaving only a small window through which he received the necessities of life.