Christmas 2024

Did you notice, dear people, that phrase that

Herod was speaking to the Magi about searching

for the new king? And I suppose we could say

there are a lot of books, a lot of articles.

A lot of religions searching for the historical

Jesus, searching for the true God, searching

for experience of God, searching for something

that's just spiritual experience. But nativity

tells us it's not searching for God, it's the

searching of God for us, for each one of us.

With that in mind, I'd like to read the pastoral

letter of His Eminence Archbishop Benjamin. for

the Feast of Nativity. He says this, the last

days of our preparation to celebrate the coming

in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ also are

the dwindling days of the year. Each year, of

course, is a measurement that is man -made. Nonetheless,

the passing of the year is a sobering time. Each

year has an abundant number of moments that can

lead one to assume that the last days are upon

us. Wars, rumors of wars, elections, financial

ups and downs, sickness and suffering, social

upheaval, all can lead to a spiritual angst that

tempts us away from our Savior and our trust

in him. Then we feebly hope, but the new year

will bring better days. But as we celebrate the

cycle of services around the nativity of our

Lord, the church leads us to an encounter with

the living Son of God, taking upon himself our

human nature, uniting it with his divine nature,

thereby offering us liberation from the shackles

which sin and death has placed upon his creation,

offering us the possibility of becoming by grace

what he is by nature. On the eve of the Nativity,

at liturgy, we heard these words yesterday. God,

who at various times and in various ways spoke

in time, passed to the fathers by the prophets,

has in these last days spoken to us. by his Son,

whom he has appointed the heir of all things,

through whom also he made the worlds, who be

in the brightness of his glory, the express image

of his person, upholding all things by the word

of his power, when he had by himself purged our

sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty

on high. Hebrews 1, 1 through 3. We are reminded

that the last days, have been upon us since the

coming of the Messiah. There's nothing more to

anticipate. The kingdom has been inaugurated

in a simple cradle in a cave. We read the prophets,

but they just point to the one whom we already

know. We marvel at creation, but are reminded

that he is not only the creator, but the heir,

and we are his inheritance. He is the bright

and perfect image of the Father, and in the life

of the church, we become images of him. As the

creator, this son also has the authority to forgive

his creation, their sins, and he purges those

sins. We look at these dwindling days, markers,

as it were, that remind us life is passing. The

years are passing. And we enter into this celebration

asking to be liberated from our weak and faithless

concerns about the future. Asking to somehow

transcend the descent of these holy days into

the consumerism and fluff of the season. The

child, the heir, the judge, the image of the

father, God made man, has been sent into our

world to uphold all things by the word of his

power. The word of his power is the word made

flesh. That word shakes us out of any angst about

history because history is over. This moment

is the moment that allows us to simply anticipate

the fulfillment of everything brought to us in

that child. Today the son of God becomes the

son of man. God has spoken to us in these last

days through his Son. Let all darkness be filled

with light. Let all worry be washed away in gladness.

For Christ is born, and nothing remains the same.

May each of us offer ourselves in humility to

the one who in humility offers himself. Christ

is born. Glorify him in the newborn child, Archbishop

Benjamin.