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The
Serbian Orthodox Church to her spiritual children at Christmas,
2002 By the grace of God Orthodox Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian
Patriarch, with all the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church—to all the
clergy, monastics, and all the sons and daughters of our holy Church: grace,
mercy and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy
Spirit, with the most joyous Christmas
greeting: Peace
from God—Christ is born! Here we are, our spiritual
children, in the third year of the Third Millennium from the birth of our Lord
and God and Savior Jesus Christ, which took place in that humble shepherd’s cave
in Bethlehem for the salvation of us human beings and of the whole universe.
>From then until now the Son of God, Who was born in that cave as the Son of Man
of the Holy Spirit and the Most Holy Theotokos, has been pursued and persecuted;
but neither the Herod of that time, nor any other would-be Herod, could kill Him
or exile Him from the warm and pure mangers of faithful human hearts and lives,
nor from our nature, our world, our lives or our human
history. Therefore, just
as the holy angels proclaimed the glad tidings of great Joy and Glory to God and Peace on
earth and Good Will towards men to the shepherds of Bethlehem on the day of
Christ’s birth, since the “Savior, Who is Christ the Lord” (Luke
2:10-14) was born to humanity and the whole world, so today we also proclaim to
you the Glad Tidings of that same great Joy of the Glory of God and mankind, that same Peace of God and of mankind, that same
Good Will to God and to mankind. For
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (see Heb.
13:8) Although
Christmas falls during winter, according to the Prophets, Apostles and Fathers
of our Church Christmas has been joyously planted from that time to today as the
eternal Springtime of all creation. Like the physical sun in spring, Christmas
brings a true renewal and new, eternal life to us human beings and to all
creation. St Cyril of
Jerusalem (middle of the fourth century) says this of Christ the Savior, the
Newborn from the Holy Theotokos in Bethlehem: “This is the One Who is, and Who has always been (see Exodus 3:14; John
1:1-3), eternally existing with the Father, the Only-begotten Son
(John 1:18), the Only
Enthroned, Equal in power, Almighty, Unoriginate, Uncreated, Unchanging,
Illimitable, Invisible, Inexpressible, Incomprehensible, Uncircumscribed,
Inconceivable. He is the Fountain of life (Psalm 49:1; John 14:6),
flowing from the Father’s Fountain of life. He is the River of God
(Psalm 45:5; 64:10), coming from the
inexhaustible Fountain of God, but Which is not separated from Him. He is the
Treasury of the goodness of the Father and unending Blessedness. He is the Water
of life, Who gives life to the world and mankind. (John 4:14.
10:10). He is the uncreated Ray that shines forth from the First-shining Sun
but which is not separated from It. He is God the Word, Who with a single word
brought all things from non-existence into being. (John 1:1-3; Hebrews
1:2-3; Col. 1:16) This is the One Who created
us in the image of God (Gen., 1:27; 2:5; Col.
3:10), and Who Himself is now made a man in our image. A Man, yet at the same
time God!” Another holy
Jerusalemite, the Venerable John of Damascus (eighth century) says in the same
way, “Today, on Christmas, the Only-begotten Son of God (John
3:16-18) is born, the Radiance of His Glory, the Image of His very being
(Heb. 1:3), the Father’s
Expression and Logos (=Word=Reason),
through Whom the Father created the world and the ages (Heb.
1:2), through Whom everything both visible and invisible was made
(John 1:10; Col.
1:16). For the Logos of the Father
today, on Christmas, without change becomes flesh—that is, truly Man
(John 1:14; Phil.
2:6-7)—by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Theotokos, and so becomes the Mediator between God and man
(I Tim. 2:5)—the Only Lover
of mankind.” Here, dear
brothers and sister, is why our Lord Jesus Christ is called Emmanuel, which
means, God with us—because He became truly Man, while remaining truly God. This
is why Christ Emmanuel means God is with us in our human soul and
body, in our nature, in our world and life, on our Earth and in our Heaven, in
our history and our eternity. God is with us as the Life and the Truth, as
Goodness and Holiness, as Justice and as Peace, as Love and as Light. And He is
all this eternally and immortally, both in this world and life, and in that
which is to come. Because of
Christmas God is with us in our
human nature and in all of nature around us. He neither abolished nor destroyed
our human nature or nature in general; rather, He renewed them and called them
to immortality, because He is nature’s Creator and Fashioner, the Savior and
Justifier of mankind and of the whole world. Christ the Lord, by His Incarnation
as a man, that is, by His becoming man, exalted Man above the angels and
archangels, because this is what God the Creator wished and ordained—out of His
inexpressible love for mankind—that man should be and remain His most beloved
creation and the focus of God’s Love, in His beloved and incarnate Son. This is
why Christmas is for us Christians the true and eternal Springtime, the
Springtime of unending Joy and eternal Freedom, of saving Love and eternal
Life. So when Christ
the Savior, the true Peacegiver and Reconciler, was born into a Roman world
which was peaceful on the surface but which inside was deeply troubled for all
of the people and nations of the time, the Holy Angels, overjoyed at His birth
and the salvation of us men, sang the joyful and reconciling song before the
shepherds over the cavern: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will—both human and divine—to men. Today, brothers
and sisters, this same song echoes through Christmas, and from Christmas to all
of us and to all people of good will in this similar world and in this similarly
difficult era of our human history, which resembles in many ways the Roman world
of that time. God never abandoned this world of ours, even though it was so
sinful and with so overcome with injustice and so full of deathly fear from
great catastrophes, both military and ecological. Since God became man with
Christ’s birth, God is present in the world as Emmanuel—the Savior, God-with-us—our
Salvation, our Regeneration, our Immortality, our Resurrection and our
Deification. By His
Incarnation and taking on of our humanity, Christ the Lord has highly honored
the human soul and spirit, and also the human body and all material creation, as
witnessed by the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers of Orthodoxy. Our Holy
Church also witnesses to this truth in a concrete way and shows this by
venerating the Holy Icons and Holy Relics, the Precious Cross and Holy Temples.
Especially and above all, we experience this truth through the Church’s Divine
Liturgy, in the salvation-bearing Mysteries—the true Body and Blood of Christ in
the Holy Eucharist, of which we partake and so unite ourselves with Christ’s
Divinity and Christ’s transfigured and deified Humanity, so becoming true
communicants, that is, partakers of the
Divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4)
For
only as a person is a man, in union
with his brothers and sisters who like him are God-like and Christ-like
people, truly and irreplaceably of
natural and historical, and at the same time eschatological and supernatural,
value and worth. This is not theoretical and abstract, but true and tangible, as
is Christ Incarnate and made Man. And so, brothers
and sisters, we ask you to value and respect all the real people around you, in
your nation and in the nations around you, as god-like and revered persons, your
eternal brothers and sisters. But also value and respect the true human
community of brothers and sisters in the Living Church of the newborn Christ
Emmanuel, the Savior. Every truly human
heart feels and experiences this all-holy mysterious event, this unique heavenly miraculous reality, today on
Christmas. This is particularly true for the hearts of our tormented yet
God-seeking and Christ-loving people, the Orthodox
nation. On this Christmas
we particularly send our brotherly and fatherly concern, full of trepidation but
also hope, to our brothers and children in our crucified Kosovo and Metohija,
greeting them on Christmas and encouraging them with Christmas: that they may
endure the great trials to which they have been subjected, that they may
persevere in standing up for divine and human justice and freedom, so that in
their remaining churches, monasteries and homes they may experience the
Springtime of Liberty and Justice, the springtime of God’s Glory and Peace on
earth among men. We also remind
our faithful, and all people of good will, that hundreds of thousands of exiles
and refugees from their ancestral homes
continue to await our brotherly help and philanthropy, not only in Kosovo
and Metohija, but wherever they have been
scattered. In greeting our
spiritual children, both in the Homeland and throughout the world, we ask you to
remain in the faith of our holy ancestors, and to witness with your lives to
their and our Orthodox faith. Let us abide with
a true and living faith, standing firm in and for Christmas, with the open
hearts of the shepherds and the joyful hearts of the angels and
children. In the name of
that love for God and man, we joyfully greet you
all: Peace from God—Christ is
born! And a Blessed New
Year! Given at the
Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade at Christmas,
2002. Your supplicants
before the Divine Infant of Bethlehem: Archbishop
of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch
PAVLE Metropolitan
of Zagreb and Ljubljana JOVAN Metropolitan
of Montenegro and the Coastlands AMPHILOHIJE Metropolitan
of Midwestern America CHRISTOPHER Metropolitan
of Dabro-Bosna NIKOLAJ Bishop
of Zica STEFAN Bishop
of Shabac-Valjevo LAVRENTIJE Bishop
of Nish IRINEJ Bishop
of Zvornik-Tuzla VASILIJE Bishop
of Srem VASILIJE Bishop
of Banja Luka JEFREM Bishop
of Buda and Administrator of Temisvar LUKIJAN Bishop
of Canada GEORGIJE Bishop
of Australia and New Zealand (New Gracanica Metropolitanate)
NIKANOR Bishop
for America and Canada (New Gracanica Metropolitanate) and Administrator of
Western America LONGIN Bishop
of Eastern America MITROPHAN Bishop
of Banat CHRYSOSTOM Bishop
of Backa IRINEJ Bishop
of Great Britain and Scandinavia DOSITEJ Bishop
of Ras and Prizren ARTEMIJE Retired
Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina ATANASIJE Bishop
of Bihac and Petrovac CHRYSOSTOM Bishop
of Osijek and Baranja LUKIJAN Bishop
of Central Europe CONSTANTINE Retired
Bishop of Western Europe DAMASKIN Bishop
of Western Europe LUKA Bishop
of Timok JUSTIN Bishop
of Vranje PAHOMIJE Bishop
of Sumadija JOVAN Bishop
of Slavonia SAVA Bishop
of Branicevo IGNATIJE Bishop
of Milesevo FILARET Bishop
of Dalmatia FOTIJE Bishop
of Zahumlje and Hercegovina GRIGORIJE Bishop
of Budimlje-Niksic JOANIKIJE Vicar
Bishop of Jegar PORFIRIJE Vicar
Bishop of Hvostno ATANASIJE [Path
of Orthodoxy translation] |
Title: Message
