Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord, the Nativity of Christ, as well as that of the Holy Ancestors of God, i. e. the saintly relatives (in the way we humans understand this term) of our Saviour, especially King David, Joseph, and his son James!

Today during the Divine Liturgy, we heard a familiar reading from the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Galatians. During this liturgical year, at the beginning of November, we already heard this excerpt. We should probably ask ourselves why it is being repeated today. This is probably because it especially relevant to today’s commemorations. Let’s try to explain.

The first and most obvious reason is that James, the Brother of the Lord, is mentioned. Of course he was not a real brother to Jesus Christ, but more of an adopted one. As we all know, the Most-Holy Theotokos was a virgin and gave birth to Christ without a husband. She was a virgin before, during, and after the Nativity. Joseph, who was a widower, knowing full well the miraculous events of the birth of Jesus Christ, meekly fulfilled the role of father and husband, protecting mother and child from all dangers. According to church tradition, James, the son of the righteous Joseph, helped his father in this work. James travelled with Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem from Nazareth and later fled with them to Egypt to save the infant Christ from Herod. After the Ascension of our Saviour to heaven and the Descent of the Holy Spirit onto the apostles, James became the first bishop of the Church of Jerusalem. At the famous Apostolic Council in Jerusalem, where the question of the Gentile Christians’ obligations in regards to the Jewish law were discussed, St. James was last to speak. Although he himself kept the law diligently, he summed up the decisions made by all of the apostles that the gentile Christians were not obliged to keep the ancient law.

Still another reason why today we repeat this reading is tied to the Gentile faithful. The Nativity liturgical services contain many different themes and ideas. One of these themes, which like a golden thread is woven throughout the fabric of the services, is that Christ came to earth to save all of mankind, not just the Jews. It’s for this reason that among the first to come to Him and worship Him are the Magi, i. e. pagan kings, wisemen, theologians. It is for this reason also that soon after His birth, Christ departs to Egypt. Of course the primary and literal reason for this was to flee from Herod, but the spiritual, mystical, theological reason was to show that He became a man for the sake of all humanity. Today’s Epistle reading is well suited to this theme since Paul directly states that the Lord picked him especially to be the missionary and apostle amongst the Gentiles.

Today, during these festive days, let’s turn in prayer towards the holy ancestors of God. Let’s try to emulate their meekness, humility, piety, and devotion to God. Let’s thank the Saviour Christ that He came not only to His chosen Jewish nation, but to all mankind.

priest Alexis