It is hardest for us to understand the words that the Lord can repent. It seems to us that this is purely human. But some interpreters urge us not to take this anthropomorphism too literally. Yet there is much in it that truly is real, and we feel this: the Lord is very tenderly and heartfully concerned with everything that happens on earth. And this is an unchanging side of love: anger. As a rule, we do not become angry with someone who is indifferent to us.

We must not picture God as a kind magician. The drama of the world is much more complex than the contents of most world epics and sagas, and simply fairy tales, where good magicians fight evil ones. For what could be more severe than sending His Son to the Cross? The word "good" has become worn down; perhaps it is better to say it this way. Yet God is the highest good.

Many commentators have asked the question: how could all those animals that God decided to save from the flood fit into the ark? The sacred writer, as can be seen, is not concerned with this question at all: he does not go into details, and even allows discrepancies. In one passage he mentions one pair of each kind of animal, while in the second, which is part of today's reading, he mentions seven pairs of clean (that is, kosher) animals and one pair of unclean (that is, non-kosher) animals. Such discrepancies are entirely acceptable if what is at issue is not history, but a parable. Yet every parable has its own meaning, and so must the mention of the difference between the number of clean and unclean animals.

Of course, the sacred writer's general logic rules out the possibility that Noah knew the laws that were given by God to Moses or to one of his successors. But Noah knows God, and the God in question is undoubtedly the very same God who much later revealed Himself to Abraham and Moses. This means that the Torah, the law of God, also remains one and the same. For the Torah is not simply legislation once given by God to His people; the Torah is an objective law describing the relationship between God and the human being and the spiritual patterns that govern that relationship. This means that the Torah has existed at least as long as the human being himself has existed.

Of course, Noah could not have known the Torah in the form in which it was given by God to Moses and his successors, but something could have been revealed to him by God that related to his concrete situation, which required concrete decisions. In the same way, perhaps, He revealed and still reveals something to other Gentiles who sought before and still seek today the righteous path. For, as Paul says, the Gentile has the Torah written in the heart. And there is no one but God to write it there.

How new the Revelation given by God through the Lord Jesus Christ was can be seen in the disciples' confusion, which we read about in today's Gospel passage. The Lord speaks of invisible things and uses analogies from everyday life. But His disciples, even while discussing His words, still think within the framework of human religiosity. They suppose that the Lord is reproaching them because they did not bring bread and, where they are sailing, they will have to resort to food that has passed through the hands of the Pharisees. In the same way, under Soviet rule one could not come to the military training department in jeans, because they were "the pants of the presumed enemy."

The Lord, however, is not speaking about ritual separation from someone, but about the way of thinking and acting of the Pharisees and Herod's supporters. In chapter 12, the evangelist Luke conveys His words this way: "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." In essence, at this moment the disciples are demonstrating precisely what Christ is warning them against. The experience of the community of Christ's disciples tells us that this temptation of Pharisaism, characteristic of fallen human nature, is always near us. And when we read this account today, it is useful to think not about how slow-witted the disciples turned out to be, but about how much of this kind of confusion there is in our own life.