Some Christmas Words - II

Preaching on Christmas in Rome in the early 7th century, Pope Saint Gregory the Great, said: "It was fitting that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, since Bethlehem means "The House of Bread", for He was destined to say, ‘I am the the living Bread, which has come down from heaven’ (John 6:32-60). In His own nature He was born before all time. In our nature He came to us in human time. While remaining eternal, He appeared to us in mortal time. It was fitting too that it was an angel who announced that a King was born amid choirs of angels uniting their voices with his and rejoicing while singing ‘glory to God’. Before the Redeemer was born in the Flesh, there was discord between us and the angels, from whose brightness and holy perfection we stood from afar, in punishment first of original sin and then because of our own daily offenses. Because of sin we had become strangers to God, and the angels, as God’s subjects, cut us off from their fellowship. But, since we have now acknowledged our King, the angels receive us as fellow citizens. Because the King of heaven has taken unto Himself the Flesh of our earth, the angels from their heavenly heights no longer look down upon our infirmity. Now they are at peace with us, putting away the remembrance of the ancient discord (Genesis 3:24). Now they honor us as friends, whom before they beheld as weak and despised below them."

"Let us then be careful, dearest brethren, that no uncleanness shall defile us, who, in the divine foreknowledge, are destined to be the subjects of God’s heavenly kingdom and, in that, the equal of His angels. Let us prove our worthiness by the manner of our lives. Let no sensuality soil us, no evil purpose come to accuse us. Let malice not devour your hearts, nor pride exalt them, nor the desire of worldly gain blow them about in every direction, nor anger inflame them. Defend the honor of God within you against these vices, since it was because of you that God became Man."

In the 5th century, Pope Saint Leo the Great, preaching on Christmas at Midnight Mass, said, "The Word of God, Who in the beginning was with God, by Whom all things were made and without Whom was made nothing that was made, became Man that He might free men from unending death. He bent down in the taking of our lowliness without the diminution of His own majesty, so that, remaining what He was, and taking upon Himself what He was not, He might join the form of a true Servant to that form in which He is equal to God the Father (Philippians 2:6), and by such a bond so link both natures, that the exaltation might not swallow up the lesser, nor the adoption lessen the higher. Preserving, therefore, the substance of both natures and uniting them in one Person, lowliness is assumed by majesty, infirmity by power, mortality by immortality. To pay the debt of our present state, an inviolable nature is united to our suffering nature, and true God and true Man are welded into one Lord, so that, as was needed for our healing, one and the same Mediator between God and men might, by the One suffer death and by the Other rise again from the dead."

"Such a birth, dearly beloved, befitted Christ, Who is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). By it, He would be joined to our lowliness, yet remain far above us in His divinity. For unless He were true God He could bring us no help, and were He not true Man He could not suffer nor give us an example. This is why the angels sang to the newborn Lord glory to God and peace to men. With what joy may not the lowliness of mankind rejoice in this unspeakable work of divine compassion, when the angels themselves in their heavenly glory so greatly rejoice.".

Saint John Chrysostum, the Archbishop of Constantinople in the late 4th and early 5th century, in a Christmas sermon, said, "Bethlehem this day resembles heaven, hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices, and, in the place of the sun, enfolds within itself the Sun of Justice. Ask not how, for where God wills, the order of nature yields. For He willed. He has the power. He descended. He redeemed. All things move in obedience to God. This day He Who is, is born and He Who is becomes what He is not. When He was God He became Man, but not departing from the Godhead that is His. Nor yet by any loss of His divinity did He become Man nor through any increase, but the Word became Flesh, yet His divine nature remained unchanged."

"This day we consider a new and wondrous mystery. The angels sing. The archangels blend their voices in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt His glory. All join to praise this holy feastday, beholding God here on earth and Man in heaven. He Who is above, now for our redemption dwells here below, so that we who are lowly might be raised by divine mercy."

Preaching a Christmas homily in his North African diocese in the first part of the 5th century, Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, said, "When the Maker of time, the Word of the Father, was made Flesh, He gave us His birthday in time, and He, without Whose divine bidding no day runs its course, in His incarnation reserved one day for Himself. He Himself with the Father precedes all spans of time, but on this day, issuing from His mother, He stepped into the tide of years. Man’s Maker was made Man that He, the Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast, that the Bread might be hungry, that the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired from the journey, that Truth be accused by false witnesses, that the Judge of the living and dead be judged by a mortal judge, that the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Vine crowned with thorns, the Foundation be suspended on wood, that Strength might be made weak, that the Healer be wounded, that Life might die."

"He became Man in order to suffer these and similar undeserved things for us so that He might save us, who are undeserving of being saved. He, Who on account of us endured such great evils, Himself merited no evil, while we, who through Him are so bountifully blessed, have no merits of our own, except for those He chooses to give us, to show for such blessings. Therefore, because of this, He, Who before all ages and without any beginning determined by days, was the Son of God, saw fit in these latter days to become the Son of Man. And, He, Who was born of the Father but not made by the Father, was made in the womb of the mother whom He Himself had made, that He might be born here on earth of her who did not exist except through Him. She was the one who conceived Him in her heart before conceiving Him in her womb." Dear readers, may you and your loved ones be given by God the most merry, happy, and blessed Christmas. This is my prayer for you.