The Holy Martyr Conon (249-251)
Great Fast Day 22. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 14:24-32
Vespers – Genesis 8:21-9:7; Proverbs 11:19-12:6
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Genesis is a book of second chances. As often as humans break their covenants with God and turn in on themselves, God is ready to correct and to forgive them. We’ve already heard about Adam and Eve, about Cain and Abel – and soon we’ll read about how Abraham will decide (without God’s advice) to pretend that Sarah is his sister, not his wife; and how Jacob’s sons will sell their brother Joseph into slavery in Egypt. And for everyone of these sins, God has a remedy that heals not only the victim, but the sinner too.
That’s exactly what has happened with Noah – God has given humanity a second chance. Out of human violence and death, God brings new life and restores creation. Moreover, there’s something about this second chance that is different – something that, from now on, will hold back God’s anger at our sins: perhaps the soothing aroma of Noah’s sacrifice hints at Christ’s once-for-all-time sacrifice on the cross.
Lent is also a time of second chances, a time to be broken down by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so that God can recreate us and give us new, and lasting, life. If we throw ourselves into repentance, if we do everything we can to cut ties with the “old man” in us, then God will make us into a new creation, as he did with Noah and his family; and, with Christ, we will be raised to new and everlasting life.