† NICOLAE
by the mercy of God
Archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States of America and
Metropolitan of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas
Beloved Clergy and Orthodox Christians,
peace and joy from Christ the Lord born in Bethlehem's manger,
and from us Hierarchical Blessings.
"Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"
(Luke 2:14)
Very Reverend Fathers, Beloved Faithful,
Together with the angels we praise God again this year, because He has blessed us to celebrate together the Lord’s Nativity, the feast of hope and joy, the feast for families and monastics, the feast of God's descent to the earth. And this descent is a source of unspeakable joy, for God is with us. This joy is proclaimed by angels not only to shepherds, but to all creation. In the kontakion of the Feast we say that to the unapproachable, the earth doth offer a small cave, and in other songs that He received the cave and the manger. The whole universe participates in the descent of God upon the earth and rejoices in the sending of the Savior. A song from the Vespers service says today heaven and earth have come together in the birth of Christ.
So God made man; in the image of God He made him; male and female He made them, we read in the Book of Genesis 1:27. Created in the image of God, man shared love and communion with God; man was at peace with God and with all creation. Created from the dust of the earth and having received the breath of life from God (Genesis 2:7), man was at peace with himself, his soul and body being in complete harmony. St. Gregory Palamas says: “The eyes of the angels then saw the human soul, united with the senses and with the flesh, like another god, ... as a fully unified being" (On the Procession of the Holy Spirit).
By ceasing to fulfill the will of God, hiding from the face of God and refusing repentance (Genesis 3:10-12), man departs from God and loses His grace that held all things together; man loses peace with himself and harmony with the world. Man begins to consider matter, especially his own body, which is part of matter, as the closest and most accessible reality, forgetting to look towards God and desire His grace. The world is no longer seen as God’s creation in which He reveals His reasons (logoi), but seen only through sense perception. St. Maximus the Confessor calls this attitude self-love, selfish, love that brings discord into human nature and is the spring of all passions. (Chapters on Love 3:8).But God did not leave man in discord, nor the world which He created absent of harmony. In the fullness of time He sent His Son Himself to assume human nature divided in itself and to be received by the creation which was headed towards death. A song from the Matins service says: the Creator, seeing man whom He made with His hands dying, bowing down the heavens, He descended to him, incarnating Himself from the divine Virgin, He created him completely anew. And another song says: The Lord, by His coming, destroying the terrible enmity between the Creator and the created, completely defeated the losing enemy, and uniting the world with the higher powers, the Creator of man drew near.The Incarnation of the Son of God brought back peace between man and God, re-established all of creation in the primordial relationship of communion, of God sharing His grace with creation. Being born of the Virgin Mary, without the will of the flesh, but by the descent of the Holy Spirit, Christ fully assumed our nature, but without sin. He suffered hunger and thirst in the Quarantanian Desert, showed fear of death in the Garden of Gethsemane, as God overcoming them all and freeing man from their tyranny. Being God in human flesh, Christ brought back harmony within the human being itself: "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity" (Ephesians 2:14-16). Interpreting these verses, St. John Chrysostom speaks of the peace brought by Christ between the Jews and the Greeks, but also about the reconciliation of the human being (Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians). Man, re-created in Christ is at peace in his own being, is in peace with the world and with God. The gift of the Incarnation of the Son of God is evident in this peace that the Christian lives.If we understand these motives for the Savior's birth, it is fitting to take the next step and live now this opportunity everyone has. Christ is born, glorify Him, we all sing in the present tense. The Nativity of the Lord is a present and significant event, now, in our time and where we are. By receiving Christ into our souls, we make a dwelling place for Him as in the manger at Bethlehem. Each Christian can be a Christophoros, a Christ-bearer in the world. The Christ-bearing Christian is the one who has received His reconciliation, the one who finds his being reconciled with himself and his neighbors, the one who offers this peace to the world.Is there a more beautiful gift than peace that we can offer during the days of Christmas? Our world continues to be disturbed by attacks and persecutions. Our world is increasingly opposed to the Creator’s order. It proclaims man's autonomy and dismembers the family. Only the Christian that is pacified in his soul can oppose this distancing of man from God. Only the Christian who prays earnestly, who takes part in the mysteries of the Church, who is a full member of the Church community, can reach the state of reconciliation with himself and his fellow man, a state he should communicate to this troubled world. Prayer is the source of peace, of our personal and communal reconciliation, and the mysteries of the Church are the pathways for our sanctification. In a world of deceptive impressions and of violence, a Christian who is praying and participating in the mysteries of the Church can receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist and can truly and effectively offer Him to the world, overcoming the false lights and bearing in his image the light of the Nativity of God as a man in Bethlehem.With these thoughts, I urge all our priests and faithful to rediscover the meaning of Christian living and to offer a living witness of the hope and joy of the Nativity of Christ. May we announce the joy of Christmas to loved ones and to those who are distant, to the lonely and sick, to those alienated from the Church and to those who seek a light in their lives.I pray that God may enlighten every priest and believer, and protect every parish and monastery of our Metropolia. May the New Year be blessed; may we increase our hope and grow in faith in God.I embrace you fraternally in Christ the Lord. May you spend the holy feast days of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany with health, peace and spiritual joy!
Many years!
Your brother in prayer to God
desiring all heavenly good,
† Metropolitan NICOLAE
Chicago, the Feast of the Nativity, 2017
