Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the joyous feast of the incarnation of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ!

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew recounts not only the joyful event of the Nativity of the Incarnate Jesus Christ and the visit of wisemen, about which we heard in today’s Gospel reading, but also about that which transpired afterwards. He describes how the suspicious, power-hungry and blood-thirsty Herod eradicated many young children in an attempt to destroy the newborn Christ. Truly these prophetic words of Jeremiah came to be: “In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not” (Matthew 2: 18, Jeremiah 31: 15). This sorrowful cry for the innocent murdered children continues and perhaps even intensifies. Up to our own time children are destroyed so that people can preserve their habitual lifestyle. Today’s radiant and festive day, like the days surrounding the events of the Nativity, are tinted with sadness, not only for the sake of children lost forever, but because of all the iniquity in the world.

How much sorrow and lawlessness was there among the chosen people in the Old Testament? How many tears did King Herod cause to well up? How much evil does man do in our own time? It would seem that we are unable to bring any gift to the newborn infant Christ due to our sinfulness, but this is not so. The Holy Orthodox Church in its hymns (the 4th stichira at ‘Lord I have cried’) raises the following question: what can the race of man bring as a thanksgiving offering to Christ? All of creation participated in the Nativity of the Saviour: the angels sang, a star shone in the sky, the earth offered a cave, the desert – a manger. Humanity, despite all the horrors it has caused throughout human history, offered that which is most important, that which is most wonderful – the Most-Holy Mother of God. Generations of humble, righteous people, despite being surrounded by sin, nurtured within themselves holiness, which finally led to the birth of the Virgin Mary, who is the most pure, most precious gift of the chosen people and of all humanity to the newborn Babe.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, today, when we celebrate the reconciliation of God with humanity (for God became a man precisely so as to create the strongest of bonds between Himself and us), let us not fall into despair because of our sins and the iniquity of mankind. Although we are surrounded, as the prophet Jeremiah wrote, by “lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning,” the Most-Holy Virgin Mary shows us that humans are capable of rising above the horrors of the world and living such a holy life that the Lord Himself comes to dwell in them. Let us endeavour to detach ourselves from all that is filthy in our fleeting world, fervently repent of our sins, and bring ourselves as gifts or offerings to our man-loving God.

Priest Alexis