The Holy Priest-Martyr Theodotus, Bishop of Cyrenia (c. 321)
Great Fast Day 11. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 6:1-12; Vespers – Genesis 5:1-24; Proverbs 6:3-20.
Read Genesis 5:1-24
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Indigenous Canadian Senator Murray Sinclair, Chairman of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, writes that there are four questions every child needs to understand and learn how to answer: Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? Who am I? In today’s reading, God reveals to Israel through Moses what we need to answer these questions.
From Abraham through the time of Moses and beyond, Israel lived in a milieu in which the capriciousness of nature and humans was projected upon the supernatural persons mythically imagined to be behind everything. Rivalry and power defined the relationships among the gods; appeasing manipulation defined humanity’s relationship with them.
Into this cacophony comes the clear voice that in His “likeness” we come from the one-and-only God, and that every human descendant continues that “likeness.” In the story of Enoch, a succinct indication of where we are going breaks through the cycle of birth and death – we are meant to return to God.
In between is why we are here. Like the “images” of the false gods on every high place declaring the rule of that god in that place, God rules everywhere a human “image” of God is. Or is supposed to.
That brings us to the last question: who am I? God did not just reveal that we are created in His likeness by saying it, He called us to participate in revealing it by living it. Are others coming to a clearer understanding of their creation in the likeness of God through my relationships with them? The Fast is a blessed time to reflect on that and on how we may participate with God’s revealing of Himself through how we, “in the likeness of God,” treat ourselves and each other.