Christo Aniceto. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall
be upon his shoulders. His name will be called
Angel of Great Counsel. His peace shall have
no end. Every liturgy we begin You don't hear
it, mostly. Sometimes there's too much commotion
going on, people coming in. You don't hear it.
I say, Glory to God in the highest, on earth
peace, good will toward men. Two times. O Lord,
open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy
praise. And then we begin the liturgy. We say
that before we exclaim, Blessed is the kingdom.
And those are the words that the shepherds heard
from the angels in Bethlehem. Words never heard
on earth before. Incredible. Literally unimaginable.
Peace on earth. Goodwill toward men. A child
bringing this. We start every matin service with
that too. Glory to God in the highest. Peace
and goodwill toward men. And we end matin service
with that too. You hear that verse constantly.
Because we are to offer glory to God all the
time. Remember, God came to us as a child. We
rightly lament that the incarnation, since the
incarnation, since the resurrection, the ascension,
Pentecost, Over 2 ,000 years, peace on earth
is not something we've seen yet. Violence, war,
oppression on and on, terrible, frightening things,
spiritually sick things. But the peace in the
gospel that is preached is not the kind of peace
that is simply friendship between people or between
countries or between cities or between rulers.
It's not that kind of peace. I wonder, do we
want a savior to come and repair this earthly
home for us? Herod was afraid of Jesus, the newborn
king, because he thought he would take away his
power. Babies don't come with power. Do they?
They come with needs. We are also not to abandon
this world either. But this is not the kind of
kingdom that the Lord brought. The ancient Pharisees
exactly wanted Jesus to establish that kind of
worldly kingdom, a kingdom of coercion and power.
But God came as a child. The Christmas gift of
peace on earth, goodwill, is not just this friendship,
lack of war. The peace of the gospel is within,
isn't it? It's the state of peace that rules
in the soul of the faithful person, the person
who has friendship and communion with God. It's
a peace between God and man. That God makes.
It's not between us that we make. The Son of
God brought peace to this world. And if this
peace is not in us, it does us no good to demand
that others be good. To condemn everyone else.
Because we haven't yet the kingdom of God in
our heart. The late and ever memorable Metropolitan
Theodosius wrote once, he said, one of the greatest
stumbling blocks to the acquisition of spiritual
peace and tranquility is the amount of time,
inappropriately, that we spend trying to regulate
the lives of other people. Rather than becoming
anxious about all we feel others ought to do,
ought not to be doing, how the world ought to
run, we must calmly And honestly, he said, see
what it is that we are called and able to do
and concentrate on that. Learn the spirit of
peace. Peace I leave with you, Jesus said. My
peace I give to you. Different kind of peace,
not the worldly kind of peace, he said. Not as
the world gives do I give you that peace. The
question is, brothers and sisters, how do we
acquire that? Jesus came as a child, then it's
easy. It's easy. Anyone who has had a baby, has
taken care of a baby, or remembers taking care
of a child, how is your life regulated? By that
child, day in, day out, and mostly at night,
when you need some sleep. Attention. Attention
constantly. You see, in a way, but without the
coercion, without the demanding needs of the
child, our Lord, who has been born in our hearts,
and you heard St. Paul say, you are all sons.
He's not trying to be just, he's not talking
to the men in Galatia. He means those, the sons
who are legal, those who are the ones legally,
inheriting all the wealth of the Father. You
are all sons by baptism, and you cry out in your
heart, Abba, Father. When we give our attention
to the child who has been planted in our heart,
the kingdom, Bethlehem in the soul, as if we
had a child, but that wasn't demanding of us,
that didn't ask us of anything. But will give
us that peace if we bring our attention to that.
Just think, brothers and sisters, what joy, what
peace you will be to the world. You will truly
be Christophers, the ones who bear Christ. And
nothing will take that peace away. Let me end
these miscellaneous thoughts. with some words
of the Holy Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow,
from a homily he gave in 1823. We must try to
be not merely attentive listeners of the word
of Christ, but also doers of the works of salvation.
Emulate the shepherds. who, having heard the
voice of the angel, were not content with mere
wonder, but came with haste and found Mary and
Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. Emulate
the Virgin Mary herself, who kept all these things
and pondered them in her heart. Place the word
of the child Jesus in your heart, and just as
an expectant woman pregnant with child walks
and acts, carefully so as not to endanger the
child in her womb. So also you must walk and
act in this world with care and about what you
touch and come into contact with so that nothing
can cast out from your hearts the sweet memory
and the love and the peace from above that comes
from the child Jesus. Do not lose the spirit
of salvation that has come to be born in your
soul which he will nurture In all of you by his
grace. He will mother you. Entering through faith
into your hearts. And abiding there forever.
Amen. Christ is born.