The Holy Apostle Onesimus
Great Fast Day 4. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Genesis 2:4-19
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
As we continue in the first week of the Great Fast, walking with a joyful step, we realize today that this second account of creation (which we begin to read today) reveals to us something of the life that God had intended for us at the beginning, from which we will fall, and to which we can be restored in the Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.
In the first creation account, Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day after the rest of the cosmos had been created. In this second account of creation, the man is created first and then the Garden of Eden in which God placed Adam. Adam was to be a steward of all the God created. Also, Adam was not to be alone. Just as there is a communion of Persons in God, so God intended there to be a community of persons in mankind. We begin to realize this as we read how Adam began to name all the birds and animals.
Here’s an interesting thought for us to contemplate today—most of us have decided certain practices to assist us on our Lenten pilgrimage (fasting, more personal and/or community prayer, almsgiving); have we considered tending to our relationships? Many of us have relationships that are wounded, or even broken. Perhaps we have come to believe that in these friendships all is lost. Have we considered bringing what is broken before the Lord? Have we asked for healing of these relationships? Have we sought with our whole mind, our whole being for the communion that the Lord so desires in us? His love outpoured on the Cross for us and His restoration given to us in the Resurrection, in which we participate because of our Baptism, can heal our brokenness and woundedness, and restore communion. All we need do is turn to the Lord and offer, and be prepared for the Holy Spirit to do some soul-mending.
On the great day Pascha, we will sing, “This is the day of Resurrection, let us be illumined by the Feast! Let us embrace each other! Let us call ‘Brothers and Sisters!’ even those that hate us and forgive all by the Resurrection, and so let us cry: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life!” As we encounter our friends and family throughout these 40 days, let us seek the face of our loving and merciful Saviour in them, and truly seek communion with Him and with them. The joyful steps of our Lenten pilgrimage will surely be multiplied beyond expectation.