Not about a helpless baby given birth in a stable
Those of us who observe the Julian Calendar have now completed the Nativity Fast, where we abstained from meat, eggs, dairy products, anger, envy and other habits, for the sake of promoting the discipline the soul. We are now joining hundreds of millions of Orthodox Christians around the world, in celebrating the Birth of Our Saviour.
We Orthodox Christians on the Julian Calendar are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God on Earth. And this celebration of the Nativity of Christ will mark the spiritual upheaval of the universe, for this solemn day marks the embodiment of God on Earth, and the day God became flesh in Jesus, and, potentially, in all creatures.
The celebration of the Nativity of Christ is as important for our salvation as Pascha, for the compassion revealed in the Nativity is but a precursor to the gift this compassionate God incarnate has for us. That which began with the incarnation of God taking on our flesh in order to unite Himself to His creation, will culminate with the bodily resurrection. The Nativity provides all of us with the possibility of divine redemption, for it is in the Holy Nativity that God reveals His love for us, in His great condescension to become like us.
This celebration of the birth of Jesus is not about the commemoration of a helpless baby given birth in a stable, nor is this about a sort of magic baby discovered by the Wise Men. The birth of Christ is not about a Jesus who died on the cross to “atone” for the sins of all humanity, as a sacrifice to pacify an angry God. The celebration of the Nativity of Christ is not about the concept of original sin, that all humans are born inherently corrupt. The Nativity is about the essential goodness of humans, who have been created in the image and likeness of our Creator.
The messages of both the Nativity and the crucifixion is that we are most human, most like God, when we respond to the suffering of others. Our Orthodox theology about the Nativity, is about the “co-suffering love of God.” The Nativity of Christ is about the God who created the world becoming incarnate, while the foundations of the Earth are shaken. The Nativity of Christ is about Theosis, whereby we are deified, and by His grace, share in His Divinity, just as He has joined Himself with our humanity.
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Thursday January 7, 2016 / December 25, 2015
32nd Week after Pentecost. Tone six.
Sviatki. Fast-free
The Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
From December 25 till January 5 is a Fast-free period (Sviatki).
The Adoration of the Magi: Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar. Commemoration of the shepherds in Bethlehem who were watching their flocks and came to see the Lord.
Massacre of Venerable Jonah and with him 50 monks and 65 laymen at St. Tryphon of Pechenega Monastery, by the Swedes (1590).
New Hieromartyr Michael priest (1930).
Scripture Readings
Matthew 1:18-25
Christ Born of Mary
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.
Galatians 4:4-7
4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Matthew 2:1-12
Wise Men from the East
2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”
9 When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
“The messages of both the Nativity and the crucifixion is that we are most human, most like God, when we respond to the suffering of others. Our Orthodox theology about the Nativity, is about the “co-suffering love of God.” ”
Not attempting to puff up your ego Abbot, but this honestly is one of the most profound, most important concepts I’ve ever read about God anywhere. It is precisely this that continues to draw me to Orthodoxy. His name shall be called Immanuel, which translated is “God with us”. God with us where, though? In our suffering.
There is real suffering in this world. Man has long recognized this fact. He has also conceived of an alleged problem in regards to the suffering that exists in the world and God known as theodicy. While it has been asked why a good God allows suffering to exist, I don’t think the answer the Gospel affords is generally well-known or well understood. God doesn’t simply allow suffering to exist as though He is somehow separate from it, indifferent to its effects on those He cares about. On the contrary, the Gospel teaches that God enters into it. He immerses Himself in our suffering in order to fully unite Himself with His creatures who are suffering. This doesn’t stop the suffering for everyone, indeed it may not have even stopped the suffering of anyone (after all, everyone who was raised from the dead or healed by Christ still had to suffer death eventually), but He shares in it with His creatures to help them bear it. He does destroy the power of death for His creatures so that they no longer need to fear death as the end. But the suffering continues in this world, and God is right there suffering along with each of us.
Why does God allow suffering to exist? Can He actually stop all suffering if He wanted to? I honestly don’t know. Perhaps He can. Perhaps He can’t. But whatever the answer to that question is, the fact the Gospel teaches that God immersed Himself in our suffering rather than staying aloof has to mean something profound. Whatever His ability or power over suffering, the fact that He willfully entered into it on behalf of His creatures when He didn’t have to in order to help us bear it clearly shows that He is love. Perhaps the answer to that question is that God restricts His own actions to that which is possible for us in this world to show us how we should be, what it means to be divine. And since we are not all-powerful, able to rid the world of suffering, neither did He present Himself as all-powerful, but lived as an ordinary man doing what He could for those who were suffering around Him. I fall far short of His example. God have mercy on me a sinner!
Glorify Him!
Blessed Nativity to you and all of your brothers, Father
Dear Father Abbot–your last 2 paragraphs especially struck me–as DMA mentioned also!! Thanks!! and perhaps you could expand upon some of DMA’s bringing up of suffering in one of your future posts….again, your blog is so helpful to me as a catechumen
I have a question for you. Why does the Greek Orthodox Christian Church celebrate Christmas Dec. 25th and not with our brothers and sisters? Why do we not follow the Julian calendar during Christmas? We follow it for Pascha. It is a question I had for years.
Patriarch Meletius IV (Metaxakis), Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1921 to 1923, imposed the Gregorian (Papal) Calendar upon the Greek Church. More than two-thirds of the world’s Orthodox Christians remain on the Julian Calendar. You are correct in your observance that to observe Christmas according to the Gregorian Calendar, while observing the Paschalian Calendar for Pascha, places such local churches on two calendars. It is quite divisive within the family of local Orthodox Churches, and many of us pray that the upcoming Great Council will resolve this issue. Since the Holy Fire comes down in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, according to the Julian reckoning, one would hope the Orthodox Church will never change our observance of Pascha, to be in conformity with the Western Christian’s observance of “Easter”.