To the Reverend Clergy and Faithful of the Diocese of the West,
Dearly beloved:
CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!
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 simple measurement that is manmade. 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 trust in Him. Then we feebly hope that 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 had 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 hear these words:
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and 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 1:1-3)
We are reminded that the “last days” have been upon us since the coming of the Messiah. There is 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” 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 concern 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 ourself in humility to the One who in humility offers Himself to us.
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
