THE HOLY NATIVITY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR
By St. Theophan the Recluse.
Glory to Thee, O Lord! Once again we greet the awaited
bright days of Christ’s Nativity. Let us be glad and rejoice.
In order to raise our festivities to a higher level in
these days, the Holy Church has intentionally instituted a fast before them—a
certain amount of constraint, so that as we enter the festive period we might
feel as though we were coming out into freedom. Nevertheless, the Church in no
way desires that we give ourselves over to mere sensual delights and fleshly
pleasures. Since the Church has from olden times called these days (“holy days”), they require that our very
rejoicing on these days be holy, as they are holy. So that those who rejoice
might not forget themselves, the Church has placed a short hymn upon our lips
to glorify the newborn Christ, by which the flesh is settled down and the soul
is uplifted, showing the proper occupations for these days: Christ is horn,
give ye glory, and the rest.
Glorify Christ: glorify Him, so that by this doxology
your heart and soul might delight, and thereby silence any urge for various
other deeds and occupations that might promise some kind of pleasure. Glorify’
Christ: this does not mean that you have to compose lengthy songs of praise to
Christ—no. But if when contemplating or hearing about the birth of Christ the
Savior, you involuntarily cry out from the depths of your soul. Glory to Thee,
O Lord, that Christ is horn!-—this is sufficient. I his will he a quiet hymn of
the heart, which will nevertheless pass through to heaven and enter into Cod
Himself. Repeat a little more clearly to yourself what the Lord has wrought for
us, and you will see how natural this exclamation now is. So that this might he
easier for us, we shall compare it to the following incident:
A king promises freedom to a man who is imprisoned in
a dungeon and bound with fetters, the prisoner waits a day, then another, then
months, and years. He sees no fulfillment old the promise, but does not lose
hope, and believes in the king's words. Finally, he sees signs that it is
coming soon. His attention increases—he hears a noise; someone is approaching
with cheerful words. Now the locks fall and the liberator enters. Glory O Lord!
the prisoner involuntarily cries. “The end of my imprisonment has arrived, and
soon I will see GOD`S light!”
Or another incident: A sick man is covered with wounds
and paralyzed in all his members. He has tried all medicines and has changed
doctors many times. His endurance is exhausted, and he is ready to give himself
over to despair. He is told, “There is one more very skilled doctor, who heals
everyone from those very illnesses that you have. We have asked him to come,
and he has promised to do so.” The patient believes them, hope springs up in
him, and he waits for the promised one... One hour passes, then another, and anxiety'
again begins to torment his soul. Finally, at evening, someone arrives... The
door opens, and the desired visitor enters... Glory to Thee, O Lord! the sick
man shouts.
Here is another example: A thundercloud hangs over the
face of the earth, and it is covered with darkness. Thunder shakes the
foundations of the mountains and lightening tears the sky from one end to the
other. All are in fear, as if the end of the world had come. When the thunder
passes and the sky clears, everyone breathes freely, saying, Glory to Thee, O
Lord!
Bring these examples closer to yourself and you will
see our whole history' in them. The threatening clouds of God’s wrath were over
us. The Lord—the Peacemaker—has come, and has dispersed the cloud. We were
covered with the wounds of sins and passions; the Healer of souls has come and
healed us. We were bound by' the fetters of slavery; the Liberator has come and
released our fetters. Bring all of these examples closer to your heart and take
them in with your senses, and you will not be able to refrain from exclaiming,
Glory to Thee, 0 Lord, that Christ is born!
I will not try to convey this joy to you with my
words; it is inexpressible by any words. The work that was accomplished by the
Lord Who is born touches each one of us. Those who enter into communion with
Him receive from Him freedom, healing, and peace; they possess all of this and
taste of its sweetness. There is no reason to say, Rejoice! to those
who experience this within themselves, for they cannot
help but rejoice. But to those who do not experience it, why say, Rejoice? They
cannot rejoice. No matter how much you say, “Rejoice at your deliverance,” to
one bound hand and foot, he will not rejoice. Whence can the joy of healing
come to one who is covered with the wounds of sin? How can one who is
threatened by the thunder of God’s wrath breathe freely? You can only say to
him. “Go to the Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger, and seek
deliverance by Him from all the evils that encompass you, for this Infant is
Christ, the Savior of the world.”
I would like to see everyone rejoicing with this very
joy, and not wanting to know any other joys; but not everything that comes from
Israel is Israel. Now there will begin empty, wild merriment that inflames the
passions... No matter how much you tell these people to calm down, they only
shut their ears and pay no heed. And they always bring these bright days of the
Feast to such a point that the merciful Lord is compelled to turn His eyes from
us and say: All of your solemnities are an abomination unto Me. (cf. Isa
1:13-14)!
Truly, many of our social festivities are really pagan
abominations; that is some of them are brought to us straight from the pagan
world, while others, though they appeared later in time, are penetrated with
the spirit of paganism. And it is purposely contrived for such festivities to
appear in great quantities during the Feasts of Nativity and Pascha. By getting
caught up in them we give the prince of this world—-our tormentor, the enemy of
God—an excuse to say to God. “Look what You`ve done for me with Your Nativity
and Resurrection! They’re all coming to me!” But let the words of the Fiftieth
Psalm be repeated more often in the depth of our hearts: That Thou mightest be
justified in Thy words, and prevail when Thou art judged (Pss 50:4).
Enlightened Europe is attracting us. Yes, the
abominations of paganism that were almost completely cast out of the world were
first restored there; they have now come from there to us. Having breathed in
that hellish poison, we run around like madmen, forgetting our own selves. But
let us remember the year of 1812—why did the French come to us then? God sent
them to wipe out all the evil that we had imitated from them. Russia repented
then, and God had mercy on her. But now it seems that we have forgotten that
lesson. If we come to our senses, of course, nothing will happen. But if we do
not come to our senses, who knows?
Perhaps the Lord will again send similar teachers, so
that they would bring us to our senses and place us on the path of correction.
Such is the law of God’s righteousness: to cure someone from sin with the thing
that enticed him into it. These are not empty words, but a matter that has been
confirmed by the voice to the Church.
Vol. 13, Issue 11-12 November-December 2015 Brotherhood of St. Poimen
http://apantaortodoxias.blogspot.gr/2015/12/the-holy-nativity-of-our-lord-and.html
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