Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the great feast of the Nativity of Christ!

In the beginning the Lord God created the first man, Adam, and sent him on a specific spiritual journey, hoping that, with time, he would progress and mature in the spiritual sense, come closer to God, would become God-like and, in such a way, would join with his Creator. Alas, through the wiles of the devil, he sinned, he transgressed God’s commandment, and lost the chance to reach that goal that was given to him in the beginning. Each person born from Adam finds himself in a similar situation. The Lord expects us to seek after Him, to strive towards heaven, to join ourselves to Him, but instead, we often don’t remember Him, tie ourselves to earthly cares and join ourselves to temporary and corruptible things.

Seeing mankind’s feebleness, seeing that man is unable to reach that goal which was set before him, God took mercy on him and fulfilled that which was not done. Since man could not become God-like, God became a man. Since we could not lift ourselves up to heaven, He came down to earth. Since we could not join ourselves to Him, He joined Himself to us. This is the essence of today’s feastday. Because of this we are especially joyous today.

Considering the great deed that the Lord has done, let’s dedicate ourselves to diligently seeking after Him. Today, when we are once again celebrating a great feastday separated one from another, let’s especially remember the shepherds, who were also alone on this day. Let’s remember their godly silence, their meekness, their simplicity. Let’s remember how they spent their time in the dark fields in prayer and psalmody. Let’s try to emulate their good qualities so that we may also be vouchsafed to meet our Saviour.

priest Alexis