General. This Sunday’s Liturgy reminds us that Salvation is a doorway which is open to all, no matter a person’s past. Though various obstacles arise along the way, we pray God in the Collect (which always contains an explicit summary of the Sunday Liturgy) to be our guide in our hastening to meet His Son. To accomplish this we need discernment, or divine wisdom, which we can acquire when we accomplish oneness with God. This state may be achieved mostly by union with God during the Divine Liturgy of the Eucharist on Sundays and throughout the week.

Isaiah. The Spirit of the Lord has been breathing over mankind since the beginning of times and it is because of man’s non-acceptance of it that the world has found itself in the convolution it is in at present. The Spirit of the Lord moved over the seas at the beginning, before man’s creation, when nature worked out perfectly with clockwork methodicity, and was not in disarray with itself such as is the case with the environmental problems man is now facing. Only in going back to God and accepting His Spirit can man find again his original stature in the world and say again, as the Lord saw in the beginning about human nature and the environment, that "all is good".

Epistle to the Romans. These are times, when everything seems so dark, of hope in the Lord that he will make his presence felt. The Scriptures gives us this sense of hope if we understand them in the context of God’s doings for us. He entered into our world as a servant of the circumcised, even though they may have thought themselves to be justified, to fulfil the promises made to their forefathers and show that God is truth and keeps to His word. God showed His mercy to the pagans, that same mercy which He shows towards all humanity, justified and sinners alike, for whom He wills salvation.

St Matthew. Conversion was the key-word in the preaching of John the Baptist and so should it still be in our lifetime. Constant, on-going conversion which really means turning away from the world towards God. John’s fire and brimstone may not sound soft talk to our ears today, but is still necessary for us to turn towards God. The world takes us away from the paths leading to God and so we should be grateful to God for sending us prophets who speak about the realities of our lives, even if at times they do it in no uncertain manner.

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