Monday, April 4, 2005 Lenten Fast
Venerable Theonas, Archbishop of Thessalonika
6th Hour: Isaiah 13:24-32 1st Vespers: Genesis 8:21-9:7 2nd Vespers: Proverbs 11:19-12:6
Genesis 8:21-9:7, especially vs. 1: "And God blessed Noah and his sons...."
Following the Flood, the Lord God blessed all who survived with Noah in the ark. To all forms of life He promised that,
despite the evil inclinations in men's hearts, He would "not...any more smite all living flesh" (vs. 21). Rather, He promised
that the natural cycles that sustain all plants and animals would continue (vs. 22). He pronounced a particular blessing of
fruitfulness on the remnant of mankind, in the persons of Noah and his family (vss. 1,7). To nourish our race, God blessed
our kind with dominion over earth's food resources (vss. 2,3), condemned homicide, and reaffirmed that man is the sole
creature made in His image (vs. 6).
For the survivors of the Great Flood, the period following their disembarkation was like the first days of Creation. The
world lay before both man and beast. All was fresh, open, and undefined. St. Gregory the Theologian urges us to "marvel
at the natural knowledge even of irrational creatures, and if you can explain its cause. How is it that birds have for nests
rocks and trees and roofs, and adapt them both for safety and beauty, and suitably for the comfort of their nurslings?
Whence do bees and spiders get their love of work and art?....Look too at the variety and lavish abundance of fruits, and
most of all at the wondrous beauty of such as are most necessary....Since nature has set before you all things as in an
abundant banquet free to all, both the necessaries and the luxuries of life, in order that, if nothing else, you may at any rate
know God by His benefits, and, by your own sense of want be made wiser than you were....For this is what we were
laboring to show, that even the secondary natures surpass the power of our intellect; much more then the First...which is
above all, the only Nature."
The greatest wonder in the newly scrubbed earth was the manner in which God addressed mankind. Compare the first part
of the passage (vss. 8:21-22), with the second half (vss. 9:1-7). God declares at first how it will be for the physical creation
- the plants and the animals, seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and spring - shall not cease. But in the succeeding
verses, the unique, personal Being speaks to the unique persons He has created and saved from destruction: "God blessed
Noah and his sons, and said to them, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth" (vs. 1). And He says, "on all things moving
upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea, I have placed them under your power" (vs. 2), and at the end He exhorts
us, "do ye increase and multiply, and fill the earth" (vs. 7). As St. John Chrysostom says, "God....hath spread out so
sumptuous and exquisite a table for us, and provided us...such abundant gladness." In speaking to Noah, the Lord
reaffirms His gift of "dominion" to mankind, first stated at the beginning, at creation (Gen. 1:28): "fill the earth and have
dominion over it....I have placed them [fish, fowl, beasts] under your power" (Gen. 9:1,2,7). As Gregory of Nyssa explains,
"That is why humankind was introduced last, after the rest of creation, not as some unimportant afterthought, but as a
suitable sovereign over all that God had made." But while the whole creation has been put at our disposal, so also are we
accountable to God for it. Dominion was given to us that all, rich and poor alike, "shall eat and be filled" (Ps. 21:26 LXX).
Why this special attention to the human race? Because we are fashioned in the image of our Creator (Gen. 9:6)! And this
God-like stamp placed upon us is the underlying cause for the lavishly provident world set before us, made for our use, and
placed under our dominion. God's image in us is the reason humans are withdrawn from the "food chain," and who ever
takes the lifeblood of man answers to God (vss. 5,6). These promises remain in effect to this day.
O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy Name in all the earth! (Ps. 8:8 LXX).