Our Venerable Father and Confessor James, Bishop of Catania (813-20).
Great Fast Day 30. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 40:18-31; Vespers – Genesis 15:1-15; Proverbs 15:7-19.
Read Genesis 15:1-15
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Notice in today’s reading that when God wants to make a point about rewarding Abraham He asked him to come outside. At first reading we imagine that Abraham would have looked at the glistening stars and tried to count them. Being overwhelmed at the sheer number he would have understood the meaning of the promise—innumerable descendants. Although, if we look closer at the text we notice that the time of day when God asked Abraham to come outside was actually when we are unable to see the stars in the day time. This detail gives us an even greater depth to what God was teaching Abraham. When you look up into the sunlit sky you are unable to see the stars, but you know that they are there. This act of knowing that the stars are present with us even when we cannot see them requires faith. Abraham trusts God’s promise understanding that God is faithful and just because I cannot see something it does not mean that it does not exist. It means that I may just have to wait a little longer to see God’s gift to me in a different light or perhaps with no light at all—at the end of my life.