(Cheese Fare Sunday)
This is the last day before Lent. Its liturgy develops three themes:
(a) "=the expulsion of Adam from the paradise of bliss.=" Man was created
for paradise--for knowledge of God and communion with Him. His sins have
deprived him of this blessed life and his existence on earth is an
exile. Christ, the God-man, opens the doors of Paradise to every one who
follows Him and the Church is our guide to the heavenly fatherland.
(b) Our fast must not be hypocritical, a show off. We must "appear not
unto men to fast, but unto our Father who is in secret" (cf. Sunday
lesson from Matthew: 6:14-21).
(c) The condition for such real fasting is that we =forgive each other=
as God forgives us--"If you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly
Father will also forgive you...."
On the evening of this day, at Vespers, Lent is inaugurated with the
Great Prokimenon: "Turn not away Thy face from Thy servant, for I am
in trouble; hear me speedily. Attend to my soul and deliver it." At the
end of the service the faithful ask forgiveness from one another and
the Church begins her pilgrimage towards the joyful and glorious day
of Easter.