Third Sunday of the Great Fast 

This Sunday our Church put in front of us three readings

 

First reading: Genesis 7: 1- 24 The flood and the deliverance of Noah and his family

 

Mankind has been corrupted and is not in line with the holiness of the Creator, they burned in their sin. Satan is trying to wipe out all of humanity by burning green along with dry land. God saw Noah and his family as good people. His justice did not accept their perdition and he wanted to save them. Evil will be gone for a while but for humanity God will not allow it to disappear. If he was created from nothing, then he is able to multiply it again, even from three families. It is a sufficient and complete number. If the devil has corrupted creation, God purifies it. The water of the Flood will be the first symbol of baptism (1 Pet 3:21), and it will be followed by the Red Sea until the Lord confirms it with the water of Baptism. The rain begins to fall in abundance, the water level rises, and with it the ark raises, which contains models of all creatures, including the righteous Noah. The rain continues for forty days and nights, sufficient to drown everything, from inanimate objects and life, to rise even over the tops of the mountains, where the abode of the gods! The water will remain at its high altitude for 150 days, to destroy all that is spoiled on the face of the earth.

 

Second reading: The letter to Romans 7: 14-25, the internal struggle of man.

 

The law is spiritual, but the human being is materialistic, who sells himself to sensual lust. He cannot always control his behavior. Goodness is in the will. As for doing good, it is through the body. And the flesh has been corrupted by sin. This is what makes a person not always do what he wants from the good, but on the contrary, he often does what he does not want. No one could stop this struggle but Christ, who eliminated sin in his body. He freed man from the bondage of lust in the flesh. He killed his body in order to remain faithful to his spirit and taught man how to overcome the good that he thinks and craves over what the lust of the flesh drives him to: it is the conduct of the path of the soul.

 

The third reading: From the Gospel of Matthew 20: 17-28 Jesus announced his death, and the asking of the mother Zebedee’s sons.

 

On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus told his disciples, privately, how the rulers would judge him and crucify him so that he would die, but he would rise on the third day. The news must have spread among the family of the disciples. Perhaps some of them thought that there was no longer a role for Jesus on earth. As for after death, few belief in eternal life. Certainly, as long as he is the Christ, before his death he will reform the Kingdom of Israel. The coveted positions in them for their children. If not, then it must form a kingdom in heaven. So the mother of James and John came and asked for her two sons, the most prestigious position, to sit on his right and left in that kingdom. Jesus replied that this required strife, enormous sacrifice, and suffering. Then it is not for a person to choose a position with God, but God is the one who invites each one and assigns him a special task that he must perform first faithfully. As the two brothers' attitude aroused the envy and anger of others. Jesus calmed them down by asserting that the kingdom of God is not sovereign and authoritarian, but is a service driven by love. This is what God himself did, because he loved giving his life to them, and by that he gave a lesson and an example to his followers.