Dear ones, do you realize how incredible the feast that we are about to celebrate in a few short days is? It isn’t simply a celebration of the birth of Jesus! We do that kind of stuff for people like George Washington when we take off for President’s Day! This feast of the Nativity goes beyond a simple birthday…it’s so much more powerful than that.
On Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning, we will come to the Church to celebrate the manifestation of a Divine Plan that literally changes and transforms the world. At the Royal Hours on Christmas Eve Morning, we hear a hymn that describes this beautifully for us when the Church sings how:
“…He who holds the whole creation in His hand is born of a virgin. He whose essence no one can touch is bound in swaddling-clothes as a mortal man. God, who in the beginning fashioned the heavens, lies in a manger. He who rained manna on His people in the wilderness is fed on milk from His mother’s breast!“
The creator of the universe, out of tremendous love for us, humbles Himself to be born in the midst of a cave in Bethlehem. When you think about it, it’s truly mind-blowing!
During this Holy Period of preparation, I have been re-reading St. Athanasius’s incredible work: “On the Incarnation”. I often like to dig into this text before Christmas, because in order to understand the magnitude of this Feast, you have to be reminded of why God coming into the world was necessary in the first place.
We were created from the dust of the earth, by the hands of God Himself, to be immortal. We were called to live in a paradise of delight, and we were promised eternal life and the enjoyment of everlasting blessings in the observance of God’s commandments.[1] Life was supposed to be teeming for us. Paradise was bright. Nothing was wasted. Nothing passed away. Yet, through our ego and pride, humanity introduced an infection into this beautiful gift of creation that we had received. Beginning with the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, and carrying throughout all of the generations after that, St. Athanasius tells us that:
“Man gradually went from bad to worse, not stopping at any one kind of evil, but continually, as with a satiable appetite, began devising new kinds of sins.” It’s all there in the book of Genesis! “Adulteries and theft were everywhere. Murder and rapine filled the earth. Law was disregarded in corruption and injustice. All kinds of iniquities were perpetrated by all. Cities were warring with cities, nations were rising against nations, and the whole earth was rent into factions and battles, while each strove to outdo the other in wickedness…”
God’s beautiful creation…that beautiful life…grew cold and dark. We all know this feeling, as it is one I hear about often in counseling someone after they fall into grave sin, or has lost a battle to an addiction, or someone who loses a loved one to the greatest enemy of us all…death itself. Our life feels depressing and dark. We feel as if we are shackled, and we know deep down inside that it isn’t supposed to be this way.
Yet despite the way in which we ruined creation by abandoning Him…God never abandoned us.
Throughout the Old Testament, and indeed through many of the lives of the people we read in the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, we hear about the incredible plan that God set into motion. He not only sent prophets and performed mighty works from the heavens above, but even on occasion, God visited mankind in various ways.
On the ceiling of our Church, we have an icon called “The Angel of Great Counsel”, which represents all the times that God appeared to His people before He became Flesh:
God the Word appeared to Abraham to tell him that Sarah was to be with child…the beginning of Abraham’s lineage that would lead to the nation of God’s people Israel.
God the Word came to Jacob and wrestled with Him, eventually blessing Him and changing His Name to Israel.
God the Word appeared and gave the Law to Moses. Indeed it was the voice of Jesus Christ in the burning bush who began to bring order to the chaos in the life of God’s chosen people.
God the Word appeared and brought peace to the 3 Holy Youths, who were being thrown into the fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar because they refused to bow down to His idols. In this visitation, He changed the harsh effects of the fire into a cool dew that spared the lives of the 3 men and changed the heart of the Pagan King.
God never abandoned His creation. But this week, He does something that goes beyond visitation. Jesus, the Word of God, combines our human flesh with His Divinity. While we had small sparks of His presence in the darkness of the Old Testament, now His light shines and permeates the entire universe.
All of those who found themselves shrouded in the cold and dark days before Christ’s birth will take their place beside us on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Adam, our forefather, along with all of those who came after him, will shout with us saying:
“Glory to You O Lord, Who for our sake have now become like us! You have assumed a body of lowly clay O Christ, by sharing in our humble flesh. By doing this, You have made mankind a partaker of Divinity, and have raised us from death!”
God became man, so that we, who still deal with the effects of the darkness of sin in this world, could become like God. He came into the world so that we can once again return to a paradise of delight. Jesus Christ became our Flesh, so that our human soul could overflow with unspeakable joy… “for the Spirit of God fills with joy whatever He touches” (St. Seraphim of Sarov)
So you see dear ones, this week isn’t just another week. Christmas Day isn’t just another day. The Nativity of Christ isn’t just a celebration of Birthday…it is rather the culmination of plan that had been in the works for millennia by a God who Loves us.
Let all creation bless the Lord, singing and exalting Him throughout all ages!
[1] Anophora Prayers of St. Basil the Great