Christmas and the Mystery of the Incarnation
As we celebrate the incarnation this Christmas, may we open our hearts to Christ our God that we may be embraced by His love, His peace, and His joy, and become Christ-like in our entire being.
Heaven and earth are united today, for Christ is born! Today God has come upon the earth, and humankind gone up to heaven. Today, for the sake of humankind, the invisible one is seen in the flesh. Therefore let us glorify Him and cry aloud: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace bestowed by Your coming, Saviour: Glory to You! (Idiomelon, Midnight Office, Feast of the Nativity).
Our Lord Jesus Christ exclaimed: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12), “I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
These words of Christ, which are “alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12), reveal to us the very mystery of the incarnation, “for God so loved the world, that He have gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The mystery of the incarnation is precisely the refashioning and the recreation of the human person from corruptibility to incorruptibility, from the state of sin to the life of sanctification given freely and abundantly by Christ Himself, who took on “the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), to raise up the human person to new and true life, according to “the measure and stature of His fullness” (Ephesians 4:13) — He who as true and perfect God become true and perfect man.
In and through the mystery of the incarnation, Christ unites Himself to us, and “is always with us, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), strengthening us, bestowing upon us His life-giving and deifying grace, embracing us with His infinite love, and leading us towards eternal life. Our life in Christ begins here and now and is completed and perfected in the Heavenly Kingdom which is to come. It is only by having Christ as the centre of our lives, in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), that we are able to participate in the glorious riches of “the mystery that was hidden from ages and from generations, but now made manifest” (Colossians 1:26) to us.
The salvific proclamation of the feast of the Nativity is precisely that “the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15), and we must strive with “faith, hope and love “(1 Corinthians 13:13) in Christ for “every good work” (1 Timothy 3:17), “for today, salvation has come” (Luke 19:9). May we open our hearts to Christ our God that we may be embraced by His love, His peace, and His joy, so that we also may imitate our Master and become Christ-like in our entire being, sharing these heavenly riches with our loved ones and our fellow persons.
Wishing all a blessed and joyous Christmas!
Prayerfully yours,
Archbishop Makarios
His Eminence Archbishop Makarios is the Primate and Exarch of All Oceania, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia
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Image courtesy of Unsplash.
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Archbishop I love the way you have linked the scriptures together to explain this mystery of the incarnation and to help us understand the mind of God the Father in planning salvation through His Son.