Source: Department of External Church Relations, Patriarch of Moscow
Christmas Message
of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus Kirill
to the Archpastors, Pastors, Monastics and All the Faithful Children
of the Russian Orthodox Church
Your Graces the archpastors, venerable fathers, all-honourable monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters!
On this holy night I address all of you living in different
countries, cities and villages, yet making up the One Russian Orthodox
Church, and from the bottom of my heart I congratulate you on the
world-saving feast of the Nativity of Christ. I send you my heartfelt
greetings, my dear ones, and prayerfully wish that we all be filled with
spiritual joy in participating in this great festivity and enjoy the
banquet of faith as sons and daughters of God and friends of Christ (Jn
15:15).
Today, as we contemplate the mystery of the incarnation of God, we
strive to understand what the meaning of this event is that happened two
thousand years ago in Bethlehem and what relationship it has to us and
our contemporaries.
St. Paul writes: ‘ But when the fullness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons’
(Gal 4:4-5). But what preceded this fullness of time? The entire history
of the human race before the Nativity of Christ in essence is the
history of the search for God when the best minds tried to understand
who is the source of the supernatural power which affects every human
person in one way or another in life.
On their path for searching for God, people, in endeavouring to find
the truth, have stumbled into all sorts of errors. Yet, neither man’s
primitive fear before terrifying natural phenomena, nor the deification
of the natural elements, idols and at times himself, nor even those rare
insights which illumined the pagan philosophers, have brought people to
God. And when ‘the world by wisdom knew not God’ (1 Cor 1:21), he
deigned to come down to people. With our spiritual eyes we contemplate
the ‘great mystery of godliness': the Creator is likened to creation, he
assumes human nature, endures humiliation, dies on the cross and rises
again. All of this transcends human understanding and is a miracle which
reveals the fullness of the Revelation of God of himself to people.
Christ is born and the world has found hope, Christ is born and love
reigns forever, Christ is born and the heavens have bowed down to the
earth, Christ is born and the star of Bethlehem shows the true way to
God, Christ is born and let no one believe in the triumph of evil, for
we are ‘saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God’ (Eph 2:8).
The prophet Isaiah awaited and foresaw the coming of the Messiah, and
exclaimed: ‘God is with us’ (Is 8:10). His divinely inspired words are
even today a source of ineffable joy for millions of Christians. Once
born in Bethlehem, the Lord is born in our hearts and abides with us if
we remain faithful to him and the Church that he has founded. He is with
us when we accomplish good deeds. He is with us when we help our
neighbours. He is with us when we are compassionate and sympathetic. He
is with us when we reconcile enemies. He is with us when we forgive and
remember not evil. He is with us when we pray and participate in the
Church’s sacraments, more so in the sacrament of Thanksgiving, the
Eucharist.
The feast of the Nativity of Christ speaks to us of that which is
most important; we are called to learn how to love God and serve him,
our Saviour, the one who has granted this salvation to all nations and
for all times, who extends his embrace to each one of us. In acquiring
the skill of worshipping God and reverentially standing in his presence,
we at the same time learn how to serve our neighbour as well by
manifesting ‘faith which worketh by love’ (Gal 5:6).
We have only to add a little – to respond to the action of the saving
grace of God through our obedience, through our trust in the words of
the Lord, through our desire to fulfill his commandments. If we master
this great truth, then much will be transformed not only within
ourselves but around us. We will be able to set priorities on our
values, we can peacefully, calmly and assuredly go along the path of
life mapped out for us, rendering praise and thanksgiving to God.
In order to attain this spiritual state, we must be Orthodox people
not only by opinion polls but according to our deepest convictions and
way of life, as our pious ancestors were ardent believers and people who
loved God. Among these a special place is occupied by the baptizer of
Rus, the Holy and Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Prince Vladimir, the
thousandth anniversary of whose demise we shall commemorate this year.
It is thanks to him that we are the bearers of the lofty estate of
Christian and in total comprise the single family of Orthodox brotherly
peoples of historical Rus. Thus it was, is and shall be. And no
temporary troubles and trials, no external forces can tear asunder these
centuries-old spiritual and cultural ties of the inheritors of the
baptismal font of Kiev.
In these holy days of the Nativity the prayers of the fullness of the
Church and my own fervent prayer are for peace in the country of
Ukraine. Irrespective of where her children live and of their political
views and preferences, the Russian Orthodox Church fulfills her
responsible mission which was placed upon her by Christ (Mt 5:9). She
has done and continues to do all that is possible to reconcile people
and help them overcome the consequences of enmity.
At the bottom of all conflict, hatred and division is sin. According
to St. Justin Popović, sin ‘exploits all its power to accomplish one
thing: to render the human person godless and inhuman’ (St. Justin
Popović,
Philosophical Abysses). And we see in what infernal
state the human person at times abides when he has lost the dignity
granted to him by the Creator.
Yet the Church in the name of God, tirelessly proclaiming to people
the ‘great joy’ (Lk 2:10) of the birth of the Saviour, calls upon each
dweller on earth to believe and transform himself for the better. She
offers to us the way of ascent: from seeking out God to the knowledge of
God, from the knowledge of God to communion with God, and from
communion with God to becoming like God. St. Athanasius the Great, who
lived in Alexandria in the fourth century, expressed the purpose of the
coming into the world of the Saviour in these amazing words: ‘God became
man so that man may become god,’ yet not according to his nature but
according to divine grace. The centuries-old experience of the Church
testifies that genuine transfiguration,
theosis, is
accomplished through the action of grace by means of the voluntary
co-operation between God and the human person. And it is attained
through labour, in obedience to the Creator, and not through accepting
the diabolic temptation of the serpent who intimated to our ancestors
that they should taste of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil and immediately become ‘as gods’ (Gen. 3:5). Every person who
lives according to faith knows that it is fidelity to God that deters
him from evil deeds and thoughts, that it is faith which inspires him to
spiritual feats and labours to the glory of God and for the good of our
neighbours.
In congratulating you all on the great feast of the Nativity of
Christ and the New Year I would like to wish you from the bottom of my
heart good health, peace, prosperity and abundant succour from on high
in following our Lord and Saviour without stumbling.
‘But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory
by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect,
stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever
and ever. Amen.’ (1 Pet 5:10-11)
+ KIRILL
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
Moscow
The Nativity of Christ
2014/2015
Saturday, 17 January
Today the
Holy Church represents Bethlehem in each of Her temples. She desires
that each heart be a pure manger for God… What is necessary for this? It
is necessary for each of us to become a child. From His manger the Lord
proclaims: look at Me, the Creator of the world, I have become a child
for your sake. If you do not change and do not become like children, you
will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 18:3); you will not be
capable of and worthy of receiving Me into your hearts. 
On this holy night I address all of you living in different
countries, cities and villages, yet making up the One Russian Orthodox
Church, and from the bottom of my heart I congratulate you on the
world-saving feast of the Nativity of Christ. I send you my heartfelt
greetings, my dear ones, and prayerfully wish that we all be filled with
spiritual joy in participating in this great festivity and enjoy the
banquet of faith as sons and daughters of God and friends of Christ (Jn
15:15).