Dear in the Lord, sacred ministers, the clergy of the Church, god-loving parishioners, brothers and sisters!

"Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, relating the present mystery… For the unchanging image of the Father, the image of His eternal being, receives the image of a servant, having come forth from the Mother who knew not wedlock", - cries out the Holy Church on this great Feast.

The Lord came to us from the Blameless Virgin, "He appeared on earth and lived among men", even as the prophet of God Baruch (3:38) foretold five hundred years prior to His coming.

This coming in the flesh, as a historical event, took place more than twenty centuries ago. Yet, every year during these sacred days our hearts visibly experience, or better to say, reflect that joy, that ascent of human souls toward heaven, which was experienced by the witnesses of the events in Bethlehem – first of all, by the Most Holy Virgin Mary and the righteous Joseph, by the shepherds, and by the magi, accompanied by the rejoicing and singing of the countless multitudes of the Holy Angels in heaven.

"What should we do in order to join today the rejoicing witnesses of the Nativity of Christ, join the rejoicing inhabitants of heaven and earth, who throughout the centuries call out to us: 'Come, let us rejoice in the Lord"'? – asks in one of his wondrous Nativity epistles the ever memorable Metropolitan Anthony, founder of the Russian Church Abroad. "Certainly, we cannot become angels; we also cannot imitate the holy parents of Christ. However, aside from these saints, two groups of simple people were vouchsafed to worship Him and to receive the grace of His coming, whom we can imitate fully at least in that we also can receive the joy of participating in the tender veneration of Christ's manger, Christ's dwelling place."

We understand, beloved brothers and sisters, that Most Blessed Anthony is speaking of the poor shepherds of Bethlehem, who kept watch over their flocks on that cold night, and the wise men from the east, who came from afar, from somewhere on the territory of the modern day Iran, in order to worship the Divine Infant – the true King, the Anointed of God.

What was it that united these people, completely different in their status, and allowed them to receive the revelation of the Lord about the coming of Christ the Saviour into the world?

Humility and obedience to the will of God.

Having heard the voice of the Angels, the shepherds, without any doubt, forsook their usual daily cares, having forgotten their wages, of which they could have, possibly, been deprived, "having made haste, came" (Luke 2:16) to Bethlehem, where they were not expected by the sight of kingly radiance and luxury, but – as is related in the canon of the Feast – "by the last poverty. For what is worse than the cave? What is more humble than the swaddling bands, in which the riches of Thy Divinity shone forth" (Nativity canon).

The Merciful Lord also condescended to the pious gentiles, who were sincerely seeking the will of God, and bestowed upon them according to the faith manifested by them. Having seen the star, which was calling upon them, they – in the words of Metropolitan Anthony – were not afraid to undertake a long journey to an unfriendly country, to its proud and hostile inhabitants. Instead of the joy and doxology, appropriate to the great event of the manifestation of the Promised Messiah to the world, they see the confusion of Herod and all the dwellers in Jerusalem. Finally, in a humble dwelling they find "the born King of the Jews"; "and having entered the house, they saw the Infant with Mary, His Mother, and having fallen, they worshipped Him; and having opened their treasures, they offered Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh" (Matthew 2:11).

Great humility and complete obedience to the will of God made up the very essence of the earthly life and ministry of the "more honourable than the Cherubim" Mother of God and Ever Virgin Mary and humble Joseph the Betrothed. The same gifts of grace were vouchsafed to those few people, who were allowed to witness the Nativity of Christ.

For this Feast is none other than the untold triumph of humility and obedience to the will of God.

Let us remember this, beloved brothers and sisters, and then, as Most Blessed Anthony says, not only personal sorrows, privations and offenses will not be able to draw us down into the depths of despondency, but also the public sorrows, abundant in our contemporary times, will not be able to deprive us of the peaceful assurance in Christ.

Christ is born – glorify Him!

+Bishop Gabriel
Of Montreal and Canada

Nativity of Christ, 2008/9.