February 16, 2018

The Holy Martyrs Pamphilus the Priest (c. 309) and Porphyrius and Their Companions
Great Fast Day 5. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.

Read
Genesis 2:20-3:20


Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

The theme of exile is one of the main themes in today’s reading from the Book of Genesis. Through the disobeying of God’s commandment to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve are exiled from God. Their sin leads to their banishment from Paradise and estrangement from God.

This theme is a feature theme of not only the Great Fast but also in the weeks leading up to Lent. The three Sundays that immediately preceded Lent carry this theme in a particular hymn that we hear at Matins called “By the Waters of Babylon.” In this hymn, taken from the psalms, the Israelites lament their own estrangement from God through their personal sinfulness.

Do we lament our own sinfulness? Do we realize that our sinfulness leads to our own exile away from God and from our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do we care? We should, especially in this time of the Great Fast, where we are reminded of our sinfulness on a daily basis through the hymns of the various Lenten services. May we always remember that our exile from God is a self-inflicted wound which we perpetrate by our sinfulness and our turning away from His commandments.