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Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ!
Today,
God will come to men; the time of God will meet the time of
men. Today, Christ will be born!
This
birth is nothing ordinary. God will come to His own on one day
in our time and not in His, for His time is eternity. He will
come to us, as He believes in us, in our humanness. God had
to become one of us to allow entire mankind step into divine
life. Today, we will commemorate this plan of God, this frantic
dream that we all would be in Him. He is in front of us as a
helpless infant lying on straw in a cave. And we are there,
witnessing how He’s reaching out His hands, admiring the way
He has come to us. Indeed, this day can touch us only when we,
standing in front of the crib, meditate on how God is manifesting
in humbleness.
The
people walking in darkness have seen a great light. For to us
a Child is born, to us a Son is given. (Isa 9:1-6) A hope is
born in us. The light, predicted by prophet Isaiah, is shining
now in Bethlehem, in the crib of an infant. The light is shining
amidst the sufferers, the poor, who had no more hope, as this
was the condition of those who received Him then. This is divine
mystery: the light will rise for those, who have dived into
night and who walk in darkness. The shepherds and wise men mentioned
in the Gospel are typical representatives of such folk! For
them, a cattle shed in a cave is nothing shameful. The Son of
God first manifests Himself to those who have nothing and who
search no other light but the one promised by the Word of God.
Shepherds
and wise men... they kneel before the Infant! They worship him
as God and not as “the newborn, shining in false lustre that
we’d like to make up for Christmas Eve”. Holy Spirit, who guided
them here is the same who instructed and taught them from the
mystery of its essence, for since in the wisdom of God the world
through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through
the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe
(1Cor 1:21).
My
dear ones,
For
us, the feast of the Nativity of Christ is always here and now.
It welcomes us to renew our faith in the humbleness of the One
born today, until we will be ready to accept the gift – Emmanuel,
meaning: God is with us.
May
the Infant touch our hearts, may He hold us in the year to come
and as this is the night of all children of the world, may he
watch over our young ones.
With
paternal benediction in Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
Nativity
of Christ, Anno Domini 2007
+STEPHANOS, Metropolitan of Tallinn and all Estonia
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