The Dormition of Saint Anna, Mother of the Most Holy God-bearer (Theotokos); Holy Women Olympiada and Eupraxia (5th c.)
Galatians 4:22-31; Luke 8:16-21
Polyeleos Feast.
Read Galatians 4:22-31
St. Paul in today’s epistle speaks of the Church as children of promise as Isaac was. Let’s remember the story of Abraham and Sarah from Genesis. God promised them a son in their old age, to which Sarah laughed believing that such a thing was impossible. Yet she gave birth to Isaac (the Hebrew meaning of which is ‘he will laugh’) and it was through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the other patriarchs that God fulfilled His promise to the people of Israel and their inheritance, their descendants, by making them a great nation. The Holy Apostle Paul connects the Church with this same promise and in speaking about the free woman and the slave alludes to the inheritance that comes to the Church.
Do we accept the inheritance that comes with God’s promise? What is this inheritance? We can say that just as God promised to make of the descendants of Abraham a great nation through Jesus Christ He has promised that the gates of Hell shall never prevail over the Church. Like Abraham’s descendants, the Church founded upon Christ has flourished and the Gospel has been preached to the ends of the Earth. But are we active participants in this? Do we accept God’s promise and live it out in our daily lives, bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those we meet? The Gospel is the fulfilment of God’s promise and it is our greatest hope and joy. Let us as Christians be faithful to God just as He has been faithful to us and let us proclaim the Gospel without fear to those around us. If we are able to proclaim the fullness of the Gospel of Truth, even when it is unpopular, then we will be the true inheritors of God’s promise and faithful Christians.