Our Venerable Father and Confessor Procopius the Decapolitan (716-40)
Great Fast Day 8. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 4:2-5:6; Vespers – Genesis 3:21-4:7; Proverbs 3:34-4:22.
Read Genesis 3:21-4:7
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In several ways, today’s verses from Genesis underscore the great mercy of God. First, the Lord makes clothes for Adam and Eve, whom sin has left both naked and at odds with the created world. Then, when she gives birth to Cain, Eve gives thanks to God for help in conceiving and bearing her son. When Cain grows up, the Lord warns him to take control over his anger before sin takes hold of him. Even the expulsion from paradise is a merciful act, since God thereby prevents Adam and Eve from living forever, an immortality that would have grown ever more bitter as humanity continued in alienation from God.
In fact, much of Genesis echoes this theme – in the midst of continued human sinfulness, God is merciful, easing suffering and guiding his children back to himself. It is true, God cut Adam and Eve off from immortality, from the tree of eternal life, and from the joy of paradise; they now live in a world where they have to struggle to make a life, since they’ve rejected the true Giver of Life. But, in the midst of all this, God is present, to guide, to protect, to correct. In a shadowy way, this mercy of God in the face of human sin anticipates what Christ will do for us –as the firstborn lamb offered by Abel is found pleasing by God, so Christ will heal the wound created by Adam’s sin (and all our sins), through his cross and resurrection, once and for all.