Brother concelebrants and blessed children,
Having once again arrived at the splendid feast
of the Nativity in the flesh of our Savior Christ , who visited us from the
heights, we glorify with psalms and hymns His all-heavenly name. The
Incarnation of the pre-eternal Word of God is “the crowning of our salvation,”
the “eternal mystery” of divine-human communion that transcends all reason. As
St. Maximus the Confessor says so eloquently, “as a loving God, He truly became
human assuming the essence of humankind, although the manner in which He became
human will always remain ineffable; He became human in a manner that transcends
humanity.”[1]
The divine Incarnation, along with the manifestation of the truth about God also reveals the truth and ultimate destination of man, our deification by grace. St. Nicholas Cabasilas proclaims so theologically that Christ “is the first and only One to show us the true and perfect man.”[2] Since that time, anyone who honors God must also honor man, and whoever undermines man also dishonors God, who assumed our nature. In Christ, speaking theologically about God we speak at the same time about man. The incarnate Divine Economy definitively abolishes the image of God as tyrannical, punitive, and adversary to man.
Christ is everywhere, always and in all things the denial of the denial of man and the defender of human freedom. The life of the Church, as the flesh assumed by the incarnate Son and Word of God,[3] represents, expresses and serves this all-saving mystery of divine-humanity.With this “other fashioning” of man and renewal
of all creation in Christ as its banner, the Church today offers the good
witness before every development that threatens the sacredness of the human
person and the integrity of creation. It lives and preaches the truth of
authentic spiritual life and the culture of love and solidarity. Offering
testimony “about the hope that lies within us” (1 Pet 3.15), the Church does
not in any way regard contemporary civilization as another sinful Nineveh by invoking
like Jonah the divine wrath on it and its abolition, but rather the Church
struggles for the culture’s transformation in Christ. In our age we need
pastoral imagination, dialogue and not argumentation, participation and not
abstention, specific deeds and not abstract theory, creative reception and not
general rejection. All these do not function at the expense of our spirituality
and liturgical life, but reveal the inviolable unity of what we call the
“vertical” and “horizontal” dimensions of the Church’s presence and witness.
Faithfulness to the tradition of the Church is not entrapment to the past, but
employment of the experience of the past in a creative way for the present.
In this past year, too, the pandemic of the
Covid-19 coronavirus has troubled humankind. We give glory to the God of mercy,
who strengthened the specialists and scientists to develop effective vaccines
and other medications in order to confront this crisis, and we encourage all
faithful who have yet to be vaccinated to do so and everyone to adhere to the
protective measures by the health authorities. Science, to the extent that
operates as a minister of man, is a priceless gift by God. We must gratefully
accept this gift and not be misled by irresponsible voices of ignorant and
self-proclaimed as representatives of God and of the authentic faith “spiritual
advisors,” who, nevertheless, lamentably invalidate themselves through the
absence of love for their brethren, whose lives they expose to grave danger.
Most honorable brothers and dearly beloved
children,
With unshakable conviction that the life of
each of us and the journey of all humanity is directed by the God of wisdom and
love, we look forward to a happy 2022, which despite external factors and
developments will be for everyone a year of salvation, inasmuch as during its
course as well, the movement of history is guided by Christ, who loves mankind
and cares for all things, “who desires that all people will be saved and come
to the knowledge of truth.” (1 Tm 2.4)
With God’s will, during the upcoming Holy and
Great Week, we shall hold the service of the Blessing of the Holy Chrism in our
venerable Center. We regard it as a uniquely divine gift to our Modesty that we
shall be deemed worthy to preside over this festive and moving rite for the
fourth time in our humble Patriarchal ministry. Glory to God for all
things!
With these sentiments, respectfully worshiping
the child Jesus born in Bethlehem, we orient our thought to our Christian
brothers there and we pray for the peaceful and harmonious coexistence of all
those residing in the Holy Land.
In this spirit, we wish to all of you, those
near and afar, a blessed Twelvetide, as well as a healthy, fruitful in good
deeds and filled with divine gifts new year in the Lord’s favor, to Whom belong
the glory and might to the endless ages. Amen.
Christmas 2021
[1] Maximus the Confessor, Varia, On Virtue and Evil, Century I, 12. PG 90. 1184.
[2] Nicholas Cabassilas, On the Life in Christ. PG 150. 680–681.
[3] See John Chrysostom, Homily before Exile. PG 52. 429.
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