THE HOLY ORTHODOX METROPOLIS OF PORTLAND
2007 ENCYCLICAL FOR THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST
of
His Eminence, Moses, Metropolitan of Portland
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Glory to God in the highest do we hear in celebration from the voices of angels in Bethlehem of Judea on this day. We celebrate the Incarnation of God the Word, the promise of the ages fulfilled, our eternal God made manifest. Saint Ignatius of Antioch, the God-bearer, explains for us the significance of the glad tidings of our salvation that we celebrate in his Epistle to the Ephesians, describing what he calls “three mysteries of renown.”
Now the virginity of Mary was hidden from the prince of this world, as was also her Offspring, and the death of the Lord; three mysteries of renown, which were wrought in silence by God.
How, then, was He manifested to the world? A star shone forth in heaven above all the other stars, the light of which was inexpressible, while its novelty struck men with astonishment. And all the rest of the stars, with the sun and moon, formed a chorus to this star, and its light was exceedingly great above them all. And there was agitation felt as to whence this new spectacle came, so unlike to everything else [in the heavens].
Hence every kind of magic was destroyed, and every bond of wickedness disappeared; ignorance was removed, and the old kingdom abolished, God Himself being manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life. And now that took a beginning which had been prepared by God.
Henceforth all things were in a state of tumult, because He meditated the abolition of death.
--Saint Ignatius the God-bearer’s Epistle to the Ephesians Chapter 19
Our Christ came and all things are made new. God the Word, the Divine Offspring has made the Virgin Mary a Divine Temple more spacious than the heavens. The great Mediator, God, has put all things into tumult by being born as a Man and taking the path of self-sacrificing love, which will lead to the Cross and death. “The old kingdom [of sin and death is] abolished, God Himself being manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life.” By the Incarnation our God leads us to a new form of existence wherein immortality is made manifest in our own lives.
In order to understand these mysteries that have been revealed to the Church we must examine the origin of death for the race of Adam.
God made man in His image by endowing him with reason and free will, and in His likeness by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God gave Adam and Eve a commandment that they might remember that they owed their existence to Him, and to train their free will that they not fall into the pride that separates from God, as did Lucifer, the former Angel of Light. The evil one slandered God and told Eve that God gave them the command to not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil in order to prevent them from becoming “as gods” (Gen 3:5). For this the former Lucifer, is known as the Devil or Diavolos (the slanderer in Greek). Eve believed him and partook of the fruit disobediently, before the proper time. Eve offered the fruit to Adam, and despite the command from God his Creator, Adam ate also. When God confronted them concerning their deed, they refused to take ownership and responsibility for what they had done and did not repent. Adam refused to frankly take responsibility for his sin, but rather blamed Eve and God for giving her to him, saying, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me-- she gave me of the tree and I ate” (Gen 3:12). Eve did likewise and blamed the serpent (Gen 3:13). By not repenting and turning again to God, the source of life, Adam and Eve turned away from God and experienced death.
Saint Symeon the New Theologian explains that if they repented, things would have turned out otherwise. By their disobediently partaking of the fruit of knowledge and their lack of repentance, sin entered into our first parents and all their offspring. This story is the real “Origin of Species.” No study of anthropology is complete without understanding the kingdom of Life in God our Creator and the kingdom of sin and death. In our battle against the contagion of sin and death we must remind ourselves that genuine repentance after sin is a turning away from the kingdom of death and a return to the Kingdom of God and Life. If we do not practice honest self-examination and take ownership of our sins and failings, there is no real repentance and we are not corrected and we prevent our own salvation.
Adam spent the rest of his life remembering his former close communion with God in paradise and his later disobedience and lack of repentance. This coupled with his awareness of death caused him to repent over his sin and struggle to align his will with God’s will.
Generations passed and most of Adam’s descendants forgot God. This awareness of death, without God, became the source of a life that is focused only on self-preservation. The life of men became consumed with a distorted sense of earthly self-preservation and self-centered indulgence, which leads to every form of sin. Thus, one of Satan’s greatest tools against us is to obscure the remembrance of God in our hearts so that we might choose sin, which leads to spiritual death.
Our Christ, Whose Nativity we celebrate, has come as the Liberator from death and sin. God the Word has become Incarnate in order to show us the way to return to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He has demonstrated by His own example a new way of life that is not focused on self-preservation and self-indulgence for one’s earthly existence, but rather a life of self-sacrificing love. Our God gives us the ability to imitate Him to the core of our being first through being united to Him through Holy Baptism and then through partaking of the Holy Eucharist, the Antidote of death and Medicine of Immortality. Thus, our Savior has overturned the rule of death in human existence. It is vital for us to understand that for this overturning of death to be effectual in our own lives, we must do our part. Our partaking of the Eucharist must be completed by a life of self-sacrificing love. A life of self-sacrificing love is the ultimate triumph over death and a life of “immortality made manifest.”
The ultimate reason for the existence of each local parish is communion with God through the Eucharist and self-sacrificing love. For the Church to function as our Lord intended, all of the outward organizational forms that have existed and will exist must be subservient to this spiritual truth. In a healthy Church all issues are worked out in the spirit of self-sacrificing love.
Without exception, every Christian from every station in life is called to this new life of “immortality made manifest” in their local Eucharistic community. Every family is called to walk according to this knowledge and, through their life in the home and parish, to partake of the banquet of self-sacrificing love that sets us free from the rule of sin and death.
If one reads Church history and the lives of the saints one encounters people from every walk of life, the poor, the rich, men and women, monastics, elders and abbots, deacons, priests and bishops, who believed and made manifest this life of self-sacrificing love. These saints gained the ultimate victory over sin, death and the devil. Their lives were indeed “immortality made manifest” to the world and non-Christians saw this and were converted.
Alas, one can also find in Church history and the lives of the saints examples of people from every walk of life, even seemingly spiritual people, that perhaps started off well and yet through the cunning of Satan, became forgetful of what Christianity is all about and through the spirit of a distorted self-preservation overturned all Church order for the sake of personal expediency and destroyed all of their former labors. Misuse of the awesome gift of free will can turn former angels of light into diavolos (slanderers).
This is the ultimate struggle that plays out in each of our lives. Through vain promises and spreading a distorted picture of reality, the devil (diavolos) continues to spread his slander and struggles to insert the law of sin and death, that is, separation from God, in the lives of men. Today the majority of men are deceived. At the present most bishops have lost sight of their ministry, making merchandise of the Church, falling under the sway of the rich and powerful, compromising and denying the very essential nature of the Church and thus, they have betrayed the vows they made at their consecration. Our Savior said that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church’ (Matt 16:18), however, local Churches can fall away. Self-interest that puts personal ambitions before what is best for a particular local Church is the source of Ecumenism and all of the uncanonical disorder in the Church that we find manifested in our own time.
It is for us to choose between the kingdom of life and immortality or the kingdom of sin and death.
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, fight the good fight and struggle in spiritual endeavors according to your strength. If you fall into the error of sin, remember God and take ownership for your sin, do not justify yourself. Our Christ put on our human nature in order to serve as a Physician to heal us and grant us immortality. He came not to call the so-called righteous, that is, those that have a stiff neck and justify their sins, but those who acknowledge their sins and repent. Our heavenly Father ever seeks our return to Him. A healthy local Church constantly practices frank self-examination that seeks to align itself with the commandments of God given to us through the teaching of the God-Bearing Fathers of the Church.
While we have time, let us repent and choose a life of “immortality made manifest” by participating in the Eucharist and living a life of self-sacrificing love, that, through our renewal, we may glorify our God Who was “manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life.”
I wish to close with another very pertinent quote from Saint Ignatius, the God-bearer, of Antioch that agrees with and, as it were, summarizes all of the above concerning the Incarnation:
Be ever becoming more zealous than what thou art. Weigh carefully the times. Look for Him who is above all time, eternal and invisible, yet who became visible for our sakes; impalpable and impassible, yet who became passible on our account; and who in every kind of way suffered for our sakes.
Epistle of Saint Ignatius to Saint Polycarp Chapter II
Brothers and Sisters, Christ is Born! Our God became Man in order to grant us immortality. Save yourselves in these last times.
Your fervent suppliant unto the Lord,
+Metropolitan Moses