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.