NATIVITY EPISTLE

FIRST HIERARCH OF THE RUSSIAN TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH

 We congratulate our fellow Archpastors, all-honorable pastors, monastics, and the entire God-loving flock of the Russian True Orthodox Church on the great and joyful feast-day of the Nativity of Christ!

Today we solemnly remember that unique day in time, that great moment, when a great mystery of piety was revealed – “hidden from ages and from generation to generation” (Col. 1:26), which turned into worldwide glory, but, nevertheless, even now still remains a Mystery. Great is the mystery of piety; God has appeared in the flesh.

 On the pre-festival day, the church chants: “Today the Virgin cometh to the cave to give birth ineffably to the Word Who was before the ages. The universe rejoiceth when it hears.” (Kontakion of the Forefeast of the Nativity) And in the Gospel we have already heard a brief narrative about the Nativity of Christ, where it is said that when the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to Her Divine Son, the named father, Joseph, gave Him the name Jesus prophesied by the angel of the gospel, that is Savior.

 The human race received the gospel a long time ago, in paradise itself. It was there that Adam and Eve, who had sinned, heard this joyful gospel. A terrible thing happened in paradise when they, beautiful, pure, innocent, sinless, who knew no sins or temptations, who had the great joy of talking face to face with God Himself, like children with the Father, lost all this because of their sin; but, however, the Lord, pronouncing His righteous judgment on this, comforted them there with the gospel that “the seed of the woman,” i.e. The descendant of the wife will “bruise the head of the serpent,” (Gen. 3:15) the enemy-tempter. But humanity has been waiting for a long time for this Savior, who will defeat the devil. According to the Bible, more than five thousand years.

 And then the long-awaited day of the Nativity of Christ came, which gathered us in the churches of God, united us with prayer and Christmas joy.

 Let us think about the fact that at that time no one suspected that the greatest miracle was happening that night. O Great and sacred night!

 Near Bethlehem, in a cave, God descends to earth; The Son of God is born from the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Only Begotten Son of God is born, King of kings and Lord of lords. A descendant of the kings of Judah is born, the Son of David and Solomon. The Son of the Most Honored of the Cherubim and the Beyond Compare Most Glorious of the Seraphim is born; born by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And look how He is born! He is born in a cave and placed in a manger.

 For the Only Begotten Son of the Heavenly King, for the Descendant of glorious earthly kings, there are no luxurious palaces, no magnificent palaces, no comfortable and rich cradle; He is born in a cave and placed in a manger.

 Only one Mother bends over the newborn Babe! What humility! For the Son of God, equal to God the Father Himself, this very birth on earth is the greatest and unparalleled humility; a birth that does not fall to the lot of even the most unfortunate of the sons of men!

 With His humility, the birth of the Child sets an example of humility for all ages. Christ is born in a cave. His entire earthly life He has no place to lay His head, He is given over to a shameful death on the cross, and in a cave lies dead the whole life of Christ from the cradle to the tomb! This whole life is one example, one sermon of humility.

 Already by His birth in the cave, by His position in the manger, Christ teaches us to neglect earthly things and strive for heavenly things.

 This preaching of Christ at His very birth was not received equally by everyone. Behold, the whole armies of heaven, a great multitude of heavenly angels, saw the humility and humiliation of the Son of God, saw His ineffable condescension for the salvation of man, saw and glorified God with a great voice: “Glory to God in the highest!”

 And the Church calls all of us, her children, to meet the Born Savior, to prepare for a worthy meeting with Him - “Christ is born, give ye glory, Christ cometh from the heavens, meet ye Him.” (Nativity Canon. Irmoi 1) But does modern humanity hear this joyful call? From the Gospel we know that on the holy night of Nativity, when an event took place unparalleled in the history of the world, when God manifested on earth; humanity, living its ordinary life, was unaware of what happened in Bethlehem, that God became incarnate in the flesh. Only the Virgin Mother Herself, righteous Joseph and the humble shepherds of Bethlehem, who heard from heavenly messengers – angels – about the birth of the Savior of the world, witnessed this extraordinary event; and the human race did not even suspect it.

 This was the case when the work of our salvation had not yet been completed and the preaching of Christ had not yet been heard. In our time, when the Gospel has already been preached everywhere, preached by the Church even now, what do we see in life other than criminal indifference and neglect of the great work of our salvation, accomplished for us by God Himself, who became incarnate “for our sake and for our salvation?” (The Creed) After all, the times we live in are terrible times. Never before in the history of mankind has evil appeared so openly, so brazenly and shamelessly! How much life has changed, changed for the worse! It is not without reason that the Word of God warns us that the world will inevitably enter the realm of apostasy—a retreat both from the truths of faith and from normal moral principles and concepts.

 And now one cannot help but see how people are becoming more and more immersed in the vain affairs of the world, carried away by various, previously unprecedented passions generated by modern civilization, how much sinful unrestraint has suddenly arisen in the world around us, how the boundaries between moral norms and disgusting sin are blurring. Isn’t this happening now before our eyes? Unfortunately, in many countries there is a rapid dismantling of everything that has always been unshakable. Traditional human values are outlawed. Filth and disgusting vices are considered normal, legally existing, widespread in life and approved in some formerly Christian countries.

 A person who believes and thinks normally becomes literally unable to breathe in an atmosphere of general retreat. And over all this hangs the terrible threat of war, the consequence of which could be the death of everything that exists.

 But the Lord never promised external peace. On the contrary, He said directly: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars.” (Matt. 24:6) He spoke about civil strife and the fact that people will eventually die from fear alone, from anticipation – what else will come to the universe? But at the same time. The Lord, at the Last Supper, talking with the apostles, told them exactly what the angels sang about on the night of His Nativity. The Lord in this conversation said: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you,” and immediately added: “Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” (John 14:27) The peace of Christ is not at all the same as what false peacemakers are constantly trumpeting on the Internet. The world of Christ is, first of all, the peace of man with God and with conscience, a world full of truth and love, and not lies and falsehood. And it is this peace that Christ the Savior really brought to earth, and His true and faithful followers know what the peace of Christ is.

 Let us be sober, for “When the world proclaims and extols its prosperity, the establishment of supreme prosperity, indestructible peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them (1 Thess. 5:3), then the end of the world will suddenly come, which in its darkness, in the rapture of earthly prosperity, it in no way will be waiting.”(St. Ignatiy Brianchaninov)

 But let not our hearts be troubled. In these conditions of deviation from the truth faith and normal moral principles, we, as children of the Church of Christ, must be most concerned about maintaining faith and loyalty to God and His holy law. In the holy book Revelation there are wonderful words that the Lord says to those who remain faithful to Him: “for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” (Rev. 3:8) And “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”  (Rev. 3:10).

 Wonderful, comforting words! The Lord promises special mercy and protection to His faithful. And isn’t this what the current solemn Feast tells us?

 We, Orthodox Christians, children of the Church of Christ, know that today the One who is called Jesus is born, i.e. Savior, and each of us must meet Him on this feast as our Savior, not the Savior of someone else, but as our Savior, Who came to take upon Himself our heavy and sinful burden, to free us from it and to give us eternal life.

 Let us bow with all our hearts, with love and humility, to the Wisdom of God, who fills our hearts with joy; Let us worship the cave of Christ, the poor manger of Bethlehem with the Infant Christ lying in them. And let us remember that true peace on earth will be possible only when we all sing with one heart and one mouth together with the Angels, shepherds and wise men: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace,” only then will there be “good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14)

 “Seeing Thy strange and all-glorious nativity which took place in the cave, let us all the more spurn the vanities of the world,” (Nativity Akathist, Kontakion VIII) let us live in the world as our Lord lived, as all the holy men of God lived, without being carried away by it’s temptations, without being seduced by it’s examples, without attaching our hearts to it’s bounties, ascending in thought over everything earthly and temporal, “transferring the mind to heaven.” (ibid.)

 For us, devotion to the will of God is the first and direct path to heaven.

 Let us try to keep our hearts and minds on the great event of the Nativity of Christ, so that the memory of it never leaves us. And so that the coming of God into the world, and the purpose of this coming – the salvation of the human race – becomes the starting point for all our thoughts and actions, for making our decisions, for our judgments and moods.

Merry Christmas to all the children of the True Church of Christ from the bottom of my heart!

 “Christ is born, Glorify Him. Christ cometh from heaven, meet Him!”

 Nativity of Christ 2023 / 2024

+ humble Tikhon,

By the grace of God, Archbishop of Omsk and Siberia,

First Hierarch of the Russian True Orthodox Church