Dear in Christ Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, the memory of the holy fathers, i. e. the Old Testament saints, as well as the feastday of the wonderful Russian pastor, St. John of Kronstadt!

Today’s Epistle reading, which is from the Holy Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews, is always read on this final Sunday before the feast of the Nativity of our Saviour. This epistle was most likely written in Rome and sent to Christians of Jewish origins in a particular community. We can’t say for certain to which community it was sent, but perhaps to the one in Jerusalem. The subject matter of this epistle is very general, and although it was certainly sent to a concrete community, we can guess that it was written for all of the Jews: first, for those that had come to faith in Christ, and secondly, for those that had not yet believed. This letter is very beautiful and deep. The author uses many quotes from the Old Testament, showing in such a way that Jesus Christ is in truth the long-awaited Messiah and that all that happened with Him was foretold in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament. In such a way, Paul wished to strengthen the faith of the Jewish Christians and to convince those that denied Christ to enter into the Church.

As was the case last week, today’s excerpt is specially selected for the feastday of the righteous men and women of the Old Testament who had steadfast faith. There is no need to retell that which we heard at the Liturgy, since everything is more than clear. The Apostle lists many Old Testament saints and notes their deep faith in God’s providence. We can only wonder how they remained faithful to God in such difficult straights. St. Paul notes at the end of today’s excerpt that throughout their long-suffering lives they did not see that which they so much desired, that is to see the Messiah and to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let us, the members of Christ’s Church, the members of His Body, participants in His glory, be inspired by the faith of today’s saints. As was mentioned last week, we have that which the Old Testament saints could only dream about. We have the opportunity to weekly commune of Christ’s Body and Blood. We have His Gospel which speaks to each person as if the Saviour was standing before him or her. Despite this, probably few of us would say that we have faith as had Abraham or Sarah, or any of the other ancient saints. Through the prayers of these saints, may our Lord and God strengthen our weak faith so that we can, like was the case with them, fulfill His holy faith with steadfastness.

priest Alexis