Christmas
Christ is born, glorify Him!
On the night of Christmas, at the Divine Liturgy, the text from the Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter 4, verses 4–7, is read, in which the Apostle Paul—and this is one of his most characteristic and important Epistles—proclaims the essence of the Event of the Nativity.
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Only-Begotten Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.”
Jesus was born in Bethlehem at a definite moment in history. This was the “fullness of time,” which means that the time God had given to humanity for the exercise of its own will had come to an end. The “fullness of time” had arrived, and God sent His Son. He did not send merely a prophet, a messenger, a ruler, or an administrator, but sent His Own Only Son. The Son of God did not simply come into contact with history, but truly united Himself to it. He was born of Mary, which we celebrate today. He fulfilled the Law of God, submitting Himself to the Law, so that where there had always sounded humanity’s “no” to God, there might henceforth sound the “Amen, yes, Amen” of the Only-Begotten Son of God.
“to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons.”
The life of God is infinite and beyond all price. By uniting Himself to the human life of Jesus, the divine life bestowed boundless value upon every human life. God took upon Himself all that is ours and gave us all that is His. God took what was ours, yet kept nothing for Himself, giving us Himself instead. Thus He accomplished our redemption: He bought us back from time and history, bought us back from everything good and everything evil, so that we might become sons of God. As the Fathers of the Church said, God became man so that man might come to know the divine within himself.
“And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’”
Faith in Christ is a gift. Faith is an absolute, unaccountable gift from the absolute, unaccountable, unoriginate—that is, literally “an-archic”—God, who alone is capable of giving something unconditionally while never imposing it. Faith is not the fruit of our efforts and searches; it is the Voice of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us—we hope and pray—forever.
“Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ.”
Someone once visited an ascetic in the desert to inform him of his father’s death. “You are lying; my Father is immortal,” he replied. In this astonishingly bold statement is contained precisely what Paul is speaking about: the Holy Spirit in our hearts calls God our Father, invoking Him again and again, especially on the Day of the Nativity. Therefore, on the Night of Christmas, let each one of us celebrate—for this is truly meet and right—his own birth in God unto the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, unto the ages.
Christ is born, glorify Him!