This morning, a sermon by His Holiness Pope Tawadros II was broadcast on ON channel, one of the channels of the United Media Services Company, which owns channels (ON – dmc – Al Hayah – cbc), as part of the weekly Sunday sermon program.
Through the readings of today’s Liturgy, which is the second Sunday of the month of Amshir, His Holiness discussed the topic of the Gospel, which is “the Basics of Spiritual Life” in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, from which H.H. took the slogan”for God’s sake”, and referred to the spiritual basis for fasting through:
1- Charity, which means love and doing good for the sake of God.
2- Prayer that connects man with God, and its essence is to offer the most precious thing, which is time, for God’s sake.
3- Fasting, which is a training of human will, and offering repentance for the sake of God.
H.H. also referred to alerting the Church to prepare for the Great Lent by placing the Nineveh Fast (the Fast of Jonah) two weeks before the Great Lent, in order for man to pay attention to the common sin of stubbornness, which represents underestimation of the commandment and disobedience, as happened in the story of the prophet Jonah, when he refused the divine call, “Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.” (Jonah 1:5), then Jonah was swallowed by a whale, “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17). Jonah then prayed to the Lord: “And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me” (Jonah 2:2).
His stubbornness turned into obedience to the commandment and the fulfillment of God’s will, and the city of Nineveh repented.
His Holiness recommended that a person should search within himself for the sin of stubbornness in all its forms, and that he devote Great Lent to this year 2023 in order for God to remove this sin, and say on Good Friday: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Journalist Ashraf Sadiq, editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram, is in charge of preparing the weekly Sunday sermon, which the church fathers have exchanged since its inception.

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