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Introduction

This is the last of the Sundays leading up to the Great Fast. Today we remember the exile of Adam and Eve from Paradise, an account that shows us how far we have fallen in sin and separated ourselves from God. At the onset of Great Lent and a period of intense fasting, this Sunday reminds us of our need for God’s forgiveness and guides our hearts, minds and spiritual efforts on returning to Him in repentance.

Exile and Reconciliation

This final Sunday before Great Lent has two themes: it commemorates Adam’s expulsion from Paradise, and it accentuates our need for forgiveness. There are obvious reasons why these two things should be brought to our attention as we stand on the threshold of Great Lent.

One of the primary images in the Triodion is that of the return to Paradise. Lent is a time when we weep with Adam and Eve before the closed gate of Eden, repenting with them for the sins that have deprived us of our free communion with God. But Lent is also a time when we are preparing to celebrate the saving event of Christ’s death and rising, which has reopened Paradise to us once more (Luke 23:43). So sorrow for our exile in sin is tempered by hope of our re-entry into Paradise.

The second theme, that of forgiveness, is emphasized in the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 6:14-21) and in the special ceremony of mutual forgiveness at the end of the Vespers on Sunday evening. Before we enter the Lenten fast, we are reminded that there can be no true fast, no genuine repentance, no reconciliation with God, unless we are at the same time reconciled with one another. A fast without mutual love is the fast of demons. We do not travel the road of Lent as isolated individuals but as members of a family. Our asceticism and fasting should not separate us from others, but should link us to them with ever-stronger bonds.

The Sunday of Forgiveness also directs us to see that Great Lent is a journey of liberation from our enslavement to sin. The Gospel lesson sets the conditions for this liberation.

The first condition is fasting — the refusal to accept the desires and urges of our fallen nature as normal; the effort to free ourselves from the dictatorship of the flesh and matter over the spirit. To be effective, however, our fast must not be hypocritical, a “showing off.” We must “appear not unto men to fast but to our Father who is in secret” (vv. 16-18).

The second condition is forgiveness — “If you forgive men their trespasses, your Father in heaven will also forgive you” (vv. 14-15). The triumph of sin, the main sign of its rule over the world, is division, opposition, separation, hatred. Therefore, the first break through this fortress of sin is forgiveness: the return to unity, solidarity, love. To forgive is to put between me and my “enemy” the forgiveness of God Himself. To forgive is to reject the hopeless “dead-ends” of human relations and to refer them to Christ. Forgiveness is truly a “breakthrough” of the Kingdom into this sinful and fallen world.

Cheesefare

This Sunday is also caled Cheesefare Sunday. This is the last day that dairy products are eaten before the Lenten fast. The full fast begins the following day on Clean Monday, the first day of Great Lent.

Forgiveness

On this Sunday evening, the Church conducts the first service of Great Lent, the Vespers of Forgiveness, a service that directs us further on the path of repentance and helps us to acknowledge our need for forgiveness from God and to seek forgiveness from our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the first time that the Prayer of St. Ephraim, accompanied by prostrations, is prayed in the services.

At the end of the service all the faithful approach the priest and one another asking for mutual forgiveness. As we set out on the Lenten fast we are reminded that we will make this journey as members of a family, supported by the intercessions of the Saints.

Icon of the Feast

1. Ashamed for the sin of disobedience, Adam and Eve now stand before Christ.

The icon shows Adam and Eve standing before Jesus Christ [1.]. Prior to their descent into sin through disobedience, Adam and Eve were blessed with a relationship of communion and fellowship with God. However, they were tempted by the devil appearing in the form of a serpent [2.] to disobey God and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-17).

2. Adam and Eve are tempted to sin by the devil who appears to them as a serpent.	3. A cherubim with a flaming sword is appointed by God to guard the gate of Paradise and the way to the tree of life.

When they took of the fruit and sinned, they realized that they were naked. Further, when “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden” they hid themselves “from the presence of the Lord” (3:8). The icon shows Adam and Eve attempting to cover themselves with fig leaves as they try to hide, and yet they stand ashamed before the Lord.

4. For their disobedience, Adam and Eve are expelled from Paradise. They leave dressed in garments prepared by God.

Because of their disobedience the Lord expelled them from the garden. The icon shows the Archangel of the Lord directing them out of Paradise, through the gate of Eden where God placed “the cherubim and a sword flaming and guarding the way to the tree of life” (3:23-24) [3.]. Adam and Eve are dressed in the garments of skins made for them by God (3:20) [4.].