NATIVITY EPISTLE
TO THE FAITHFUL FLOCK OF THE NORTH AMERICAN DIOCESE
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By God’s mercy we have once again found the opportunity to renew our glorification of the King of Glory for His great condescension, for His incarnation “for our sake and for the sake of our salvation”.
Undoubtedly, for us Pascha is the most joyous triumph of triumphs, the day on which we acquired salvation through the redemptive sacrifice of Christ God. While the Nativity of Christ has become for us the second greatest feast. The circumstances and events surrounding the birth of Christ somehow particularly astound us, and our hearts in tenderness glorify the Divine Infant for His great condescension: “A strange and most glorious mystery do I behold: the cave is heaven; the Virgin, the throne of the cherubin; the manger, the place wherein the uncontainable Christ God lay..” (Irmos, Ode 9).
The Lord’s humility and condescension consist not only in the fact that He appears upon earth in the image of a man, but takes on the image of a helpless infant and submissively endures all adversities.
Because of the order issued by Caesar Augustus, Joseph and Mary were forced to make a difficult and tiring voyage to Bethlehem in the ninth month from the day of Her seedless conception. Having no relatives or acquaintances there, they attempted to lodge at the inn, but there was no space left there for them. Nor was there anyone to be found in Bethlehem who would open his door for them, and Joseph the Betrothed and the Virgin Mary were forced to take shelter from the gloom and cold of night in a cave. On this blessed night the Virgin Mary gives birth to the Divine Infant Christ, and having no comforts or conveniences, places Him in a manger.
All of this might appear to be undesirable and by chance. But this is not so. Christ providentially is born in Bethlehem of Judea. The specific place where Christ would be born had been prophetically foretold. And the Angel announced the great joy to the shepherds: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:11-12). The Angel calls Christ lying in the manger, a sign. And indeed, this image of the infant Christ, lying in the manger was significantly imprinted in all minds as the image of the mysterious condescension of God.
For God there is nothing undesirable or accidental. Undesirable, sinful things have occurred and continue to occur in our church midst and in our personal lives, but this does not mean that we are forsaken by God to the whims of fate! Our problem is that we are inflicted with lack of faith and to this moment have not learned to humbly surrender to the will of God, and the will of God is good!
Man, gazing on the image of the Infant Christ lying in the manger, for the first time saw the “face” of God and understood, that before him is the Image of the meek, abundantly loving and most good God, who had been hidden until now from depraved, fallen man. “Christ is on earth, be ye exalted!” the church triumphantly hymns, for “God is with us!” † Bishop Stefan, of Trenton and North America
December 25, 2013/January 7, 2014
