Christmas
2007
“Magi,
Persian Kings, having clearly learnt
that the heavenly King had been born on earth,
drawn by a bright star arrived in Bethlehem,
bringing chosen gifts, gold and incense and myrrh.
And falling down they worshipped,
for they saw lying in the Cave the Timeless One as a babe.”
(Hymn from the Vespers Liti 25th of December)
Our beloved brethren
in the Born Christ,
We are prepared to celebrate a great and marvelous feast, the Birth
of our Savior.
What really is the Nativity? It is the fulfillment of the sacred decision
of the Merciful God to save fallen man. It is the creation of the
new Adam, Christ. It is the incarnation of God in the Pure Womb of
the Ever-Virgin Mary. It is the Entrance of the Great King and the
revelation of the Son and Word of God to humanity. It is the restoration
of all things and the salvation of the world.
It is for this reason that our Holy Church celebrated with joy and
brightness the feast of the Nativity from the onset of the Christian
era. That is why she decreed a forty-day period of fasting and prayer,
as a period of cleansing and of preparation for Christians.
We all awaited the Born Christ. And Christ came and still comes, searching
for a place to be born. He implores us and asks us to open our hearts
to come in, to become a Permanent Dweller, to enlighten our darkness,
to bring love, peace, and our restoration.
Does this Divine Entreaty really touch our souls, does this great
mystery of incarnation sensitize and arouse the power of our spiritual
intellect?
The Magi, the representatives of secular wisdom and intellect, two
years were traveling, “drawn by a bright star” to find
Bethlehem and the Conceived King. They laid down the gifts humbly,
gold and frankincense and myrrh, and bowed down subserviently to the
Holy Babe. On the contrary, Herod, who had near him the King and Messiah,
driven by his enormous vainglory, slaughtered the infants “who
were two years old or under,” in order not to lose the glory
of his kingship.
I wonder, my brethren, whether we ourselves are going to find our
Bethlehem and our Conceived Savior. Is it by any chance that Christ
is coming at an unsuspected time this year? Will He, by chance, find
us entrapped in our self-sufficient rationalism and materialism, in
the impudence of our sin, in our vainglory, in our prideful hubris
of our innovations? Will He, by chance, find us with the heavy haze
of our passions covering our dark and moonless souls? Will He, by
chance again, not find a humble manger to be born, a holy cavern of
humble loneliness and poverty where He may be revealed? Finally, will
we cause the “flight” of the Child Jesus to “Egypt”?
Let it not be, my brethren!!
Let us humble ourselves as the Magi. Let us bow down subserviently
to the Holy Babe of Bethlehem, and let us offer up in adoration our
gifts to the Sun of Righteousness, and let us cry down on our knees
before Him, and let us ask for our salvation and the salvation of
the whole world.
Finally, let us hold the One who is Born in our hearts, genuinely
and rightly, as He was born and as He was revealed to us, “as
He willed and was well-pleased for us”, without alterations
and distortions, not obeying humans decrees, but as He was given to
us and was preserved for us by the Holy Orthodox Church, the Only
and True Church, as delivered by the Apostles.
Humbly, we would like to wish that the light of glory and the peace
of our Born Savior illuminate your souls and your pious families.
Christ is Born!
Blessed be the new year of the Lord 2008
With Our love in Born Christ
Abbess Pavlina
and the sisters