THE HOLY ORTHODOX METROPOLIS OF BOSTON
1476 Centre Street
Roslindale, MA 02131-1417
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His Eminence, Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston
His Grace, Bishop Moses of Roslindale
ON THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST
An Encyclical by His Eminence, Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
My Beloved Brethren and Children in Christ:
In his homily on the feast of the Holy Lights [i.e. Theophany], Saint Gregory the Theologian relates "I confess myself to be a man – that is to say, an animal shifty and of a changeable nature…I know that I too am encompassed with infirmity" [Homily 39:18].
Some years ago, a woman came to me for confession. With a voice filled with remorse, she said to me, "Your Grace, I am a scoundrel." St. Gregory the Theologian’s words, mentioned above, flashed through my mind, and I replied to her, "Well then, welcome to the human race."
Saint Symeon the New Theologian speaks concerning this theme of our flawed nature and God’s response to this condition:
Nearly all men reject the weak and the poor as objects of disgust; an earthly king cannot bear the sight of them, rulers turn away from them with revulsion and loathing, while the rich ignore them and pass them by when they meet them as though they did not exist: nobody thinks it is desirable to associate with them. But God, Who is served by myriads of powers without number, Who "sustains all things by the word of His power"[Hebrew 1:3], Whose majesty is beyond anyone’s endurance, has not disdained to become the father, the friend, the brother of those rejected ones. He willed to become incarnate so that He might become "like unto us in all things except for sin" [Hebrew 4:15] and make us to share in His glory and His kingdom. How astounding are the riches of His great goodness! How ineffable is the condescension of our Master and our God! [Discourse 2:4]
Indeed, our Lord, Jesus Christ did not disdain us, who in our fallen condition are oftentimes "objects of disgust." It is only necessary to consider the genealogy of our Saviour, as it is recorded by the holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, to perceive that it includes such people as Rachel [an idolatrous prostitute], Tamar [who played the part of a harlot], Ruth [a Moabite idolater] and the Prophet-King David [who was guilty of both adultery and murder].
Yet, it was precisely for such as these that our Saviour became incarnate:
They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye
and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. [Matthew 9:12-15]
How easily we choose to forget or to rationalize our own innumerable falls and sins of the heart, and how quickly we are to reprove and inveigh against others for their human failings! And yet, our Saviour does not act in this manner. Time and again, He reminds us that He became incarnate to rescue and liberate fallen Adam. As Saint Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome, says,
Since our sinning made us strangers to God, the angels, God’s citizens, cut us off as strangers from their company. But, because we acknowledged our King, the angels acknowledged us again as their own fellow citizens. Since the King of Heaven took upon Himself the weakness of our human body, the company of angels on high no longer despises us. The angels return to bring us peace, they put aside the reason for their earlier hostility; they now honour as their companions those whom they had previously despised as weak and despicable. [Homily on Luke 2:1-14]
And again, standing in awe at God the Word’s great condescension and the depth of His loving economia in His becoming incarnate and being born in the flesh, Saint Isaac the Syrian prays:
Awake in me understanding of Thy humility, wherewith Thou didst sojourn in the world in the tenement composed of our members, which by the mediation of the holy Virgin Thou didst bear, so that with this continual and unfailing recollection, I may accept the humility of my nature with delight. [Homily Thirty-Six]
Thus, in the writings of the Holy Fathers, my fellow Orthodox Christians, we find a wealth of insights into the reason for God’s "pitching up His tent among us", as the Greek text of John 1:14 says literally. Nowhere here do we find Western scholasticism’s legalistic concerns over satisfying God the Father’s wrath and the need to placate His allegedly insulted justice. On the contrary, in the God-inspired texts of the God-bearing Fathers, we find expressions for the need of God to heal the violated and broken nature of mankind; for the need of God to restore the ancient image to its primal glory; for the need of God to bestow upon his beloved creature its original heritage and status.
And this is why, as Saint Ephraim the Syrian chants in exultation:
Divinity flew down and descended
to raise and draw up humanity.
The Son has made beautiful the servant’s deformity,
and he has become a god, just as he desired.
[Hymns on Virginity, 48:17-18]
My beloved Orthodox Christians,
Christ is born! Let us glorify Him!
Nativity of Our Saviour
December, 2000
Protocol Number __________
Your fervent suppliant unto God,
XEphraim, Metropolitan of Boston