The second Sunday before the Nativity of Christ is called the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers. The Holy Forefathers and Fathers are the Old Testament relatives according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, beginning with the holy ancestors Adam and Eve, on up to the glorious Nativity of Christ.
We honor all the righteous of the Old Testament, including those who became the Savior’s ancestors according to the flesh, because these people burned like candles of God in the darkness of paganism.
The Liturgy on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers the Gospel parable of the wedding feast of the king’s son is read (Lk. 14:16-24). The powerful of that world rejected Christ, but the lame on the wayside accepted Him.
The central liturgical theme on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers is of the three holy friends of Prophet Daniel, Sts. Ananias, Azarius, and Misael, whom the king had thrown into the Babylonian furnace because they did not bow down to the pagan idol. The holy youths did not burn, as an angel protected them. Their being “in a fiery furnace” became a prefiguring of the Nativity of Christ: Just as the three youths were not harmed by the flames of the furnace, so also Christ’s Nativity did not scorch (did not harm) the “Virgin Womb”.
And perhaps one of the most important things that unites the holy forefathers, the fathers, the apostles, and in general all the saints of all generations is the understanding that the Lord, just as before so also now, like a thousand years ago, and in the coming year, is amidst us, and walks beside us through life. This feeling of the living God is what makes us Orthodox Christians.
Holy Forefathers and Fathers, pray to God for us!
