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| The Expulsion from Paradise |
Dear Parish Faithful,
For the Lover of humankind himself once entrusted the commandment of fasting, as a loving mother, as a teacher, to the human that had been created, giving life to its hands; and had he loved it, he would have made his home with angels. When he set it aside, he found toils and death, the roughness of thorns and thistles, the affliction of a toilsome life. If then in paradise fasting is shown to be useful, how much more here, that we may have eternal life.
—St Romanos the Melodist, from On Fasting, a kontakion of compunction for Wednesday of the second week of Lent (Translated by Andrew Mellas in Hymns of Repentance)
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In yesterday's Lenten Meditation, Fr. Alexander Schmemann alluded to the "life-giving" quality of fasting that was lost by Adam and Eve in paradise when they abandoned the Lord's command. We read of this same theme today from St. Romanos the Melodist, a sixth c. poet and theologian that created the structured hymn known as the kontakion. The point here is the continuity of the theme throughout the ages in the Church's spiritual tradition. Notice that the Lord is here called "The Lover of humankind" - philanthropos in the original Greek. It is the same "Lover of humankind" who will ascend the Cross in the flesh to restore to us this gift: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Lk. 23:43)
