Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as the memory of all the Old Testament saints, whom we remember once again today!

For many church going people, today’s Gospel reading is the most mysterious, most interesting of the whole liturgical year. Even little children remember that the Sunday before Christmas we hear the long Gospel excerpt in which the ancestors of our Saviour are listed. There are so many of them, and what strange names they have!

In this list there are three women, and about one of them there is a whole, albeit short, book in the Old Testament. This woman was called Ruth, and it is worth pondering about her. She wasn’t an Israelite, but a Moabite, i. e. a gentile who had married an Israelite. As was not uncommon in that time, her husband died, and she was left alone with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Although Naomi tried to persuade her to return to her own parents, to her own people, and to her own gods, Ruth remained devoted to her mother-in-law, to her new people, and to the true God. Because of such devotion, the Lord blessed Ruth, fed her and her mother-in-law, and arranged things in such a way that a relative of her deceased husband took her to be his wife. She bore him a son, who became the grandfather of King David.

At the end of the Book of Ruth, Naomi’s neighbours say the following: “Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.” Of course, Naomi was fortunate, but we Christians must understand these words as a prophecy about her distant grandson, Jesus Christ, whose name is most definitely famous not only in Israel, but throughout the world, who restores all men to a state of blessedness, and nourishes all who believe in Him!

Today let’s pray that we find such faithfulness to our God as Ruth had many years ago, that He protects and blesses us like her, and that we bring forth to Him good deeds.

priest Alexis