But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Gal. 4:4-5)
Dear brothers and sisters,
Here, God spared us and gave us the gift to celebrate the day of the Birth of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, this year as well, in the third decade of the 21st century. And truly we should rejoice, despite this pandemic, which has hit the whole world. For we hope that God, by His grace, will drive away this affliction and “wipe away every tear from our eyes” (Rev. 7:17; 21: 4).
If we want to express this unique event in the history of the world, and of the whole cosmos, in our human words, we will not be able to do better than the Holy Apostle Paul, who enthusiastically exclaims, “ great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.” With this one verse, the God-inspired Apostle expressed the secret of salvation. Each affirmation from the mentioned verse corresponds to one of the moments of life, prophetically confirmed, both in the Old and New Testaments, but also in the history of the Church.
One of the Cappadocian fathers, St. Gregory of Nyssa, says the following: “I speak of the great mystery of godliness, in which God was manifested in flesh; about the One who was in the image of God and lived among men, in the role of a slave; about the One who, since He drew to Himself the mortal nature of flesh through its firstfruits, which He took on by means of an uncorrupted virginity, He ever sanctifies the common dough of that nature through its firstfruits, nourishing His body, that is the Church, in the persons of those who are united to Him in the Sacrament of Communion; and arranging in a worthy way those members that grow by faith in a common body… The foundation of the Church is the creation of the world anew: in which, according to the words of the prophet, a new heaven is created which is the firmament of faith in Christ, as Paul says (“Pillar and Fortress of Truth”); and a new earth is established, which drinks the rain that falls upon it; and another humanity is fashioned, renewed by the birth from above after the image of its Creator …” . In agreement with his above-mentioned brother, the great Cappadocian, Saint Basil said the following: “A pious and insatiable deed for a God-loving soul is to constantly remember God; but it is too bold to say things about God, for the mind cannot ascend to His greatness, and the word, in turn, weakly expresses those things which the mind creates. If, therefore, our word is lower than the mind, isn’t there an urgent need for silence, so that we don’t accidentally endanger the mystery of speaking about God with the weakness of the word?… No one is so blind as to deceive himself so much in thinking that he has ascended to the highest peak of the knowledge of God, but the more he will seem to progress in the knowledge of God the more he will feel his inability… I will speak, but about God not so much as He is and what God is, but as much as we can. We do not give up looking at the sky and observing it as much as we can, although we cannot cross it and cover the place between heaven and earth with our eyes! Likewise, now, in weak words, we fulfill faith, and in our whole word we let the majesty of the divine nature prevail. For neither the languages of angels, whatever they may be, nor of archangels, united with their literal nature, will be able to reach it only in a small part, and in no way completely balanced” . Referring again to St. Gregory the Theologian, a Cappadocian, and a close friend of those already mentioned, we hear the following teaching: “His birth would not be (perfect) if it were comprehended by your mind, which does not even know your own birth… You used to get very tired trying to find an explanation for the coagulation of the germination of existence, formation, appearance, connection of the soul with the body, mind with the soul, words with the mind, movement of the body, its dissolution, assimilation of food, feeling, memory, remembrance and everything else of which you are composed; and how some of these belong to the two sides of man, the soul and the body, and others are divided between the soul and the body, and some are taken from one another. For the qualities whose development seems later, have their laws imposed at the same time as birth. Even then, don’t philosophize about the birth of God, because it is not a thing without danger. For if you know your birth, no doubt you do not know God’s; and if you do not even know yours, how can you know God’s? For how much harder it is to imagine God than man, that much harder it is to comprehend with the mind the birth from above from your birth. But even if your mind cannot understand, still for that reason you do not doubt that you were born. Because of your doubt, the time would come to erase many existing things that you did not understand with your mind, and above all God himself; because you will not be able to say that He is (that He exists), no matter how brave you are and no matter how much you are spiritual when it comes to superfluous things’’. Certainly, the reference made is related to the eternal birth of the Son of God from the Father, but the same care should be observed and that in time, from the Most Holy Virgin. Synthesizing the thought of the Holy Fathers in that frame, one of the modern theologians concludes the following: “God’s maximum love for man is shown in dialogue where He enters and remains for centuries with every man who wants, receiving human nature from His Only Begotten Son. Because, having taken our human nature into His hypostasis, He also becomes its bearer, the Son of the Father. And being in connection with us through a common human nature, He also makes us sons of the Father together with Himself, wanting, therefore, that we also actualize that quality given to us, or the love of God as Father for us and our love for God as Father. Thus Jesus reconciled God with humanity at the highest level, at the level of the relationship between Father and sons, or Brother and brothers… The Son of God becomes and is born as a man on both sides (of nature), because He begins with the Virgin, therefore He takes the true human nature from a true human being. Being created, He is without sin like Adam before the fall; being born He still has perishability from Adam after the fall (of Adam). He unites both because he is born of a Virgin. Only in this way can he save man, having died for him, but also by being resurrected… The human nature of the Savior was raised to the state to which our authentic nature aspires. He could not have conceived from the Virgin, had it not been for human nature, the nature of the Logos of God, and would not have been sinless had it not been conceived from the Virgin. And being sinless and received by the Logos of God, human nature could be the medium of the entire communicativeness of the Logos, with all its consequences”. We find this relationship in a general sense in church chant, more accessible to the faithful, namely: “The mystery of all eternity, unknown even by the angels, through you, O Theotokos, is revealed to those on earth. God incarnate by union without confusion! He willingly accepted the Cross for us, by which He resurrected the first created man, saving our souls from death!”
Dear brothers and sisters,
Christmas is a family holiday. The whole family, which is a small church, should rejoice and be happy in it. Unfortunately, we live in a very difficult time where the notion of family has been distorted, twisted, and is not what it should be. The family is broken, even among those who call themselves Orthodox Christians. We must stick to the biblical and traditional understanding of it. And we say this because the family is based only on the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony between husband and wife (Gen. 1:27; Matt. 19: 4). It is the only relationship blessed by God, and it prolongs the human race as a whole, including our Serbian one (Gen. 1:28). It is sad to hear that in our nation there are more caskets than cradles. More are dying than are being born. Someone calculated that in Serbia, young people over the age of 30 would become fathers and mothers for the first time. And how many are unmarried? How many are unwed? What good is wealth if our family will soon disappear. Who will we leave it to? To whom will we leave our beautiful Serbian Lands?
And finally, we thank You all for the help and charity You gave to your churches, monasteries, the Diocese, and everyone who needed it. For do not forget that you gave it to Christ (Mark 9:41). Thank you to all of You who helped your brothers and sisters, in hospitals and homes, in any way during this plague that befell us. May the Christ Child reward you with His eternal good things in heaven.
We greet You from the bottom of our hearts with joyful words:
CHRIST IS BORN!
TRULY HE IS BORN!
Happy and God Blessed 2022 year of salvation!
Your intercessor before the Lord,
BISHOP OF CANADA
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