The Serbian Orthodox Church to her spiritual children at Christmas, 2016
+IRINEJ
By the Grace of God
Orthodox
Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade Karlovci and Serbian
Patriarch, with all the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church, to all
the clergy, monastics, and all the sons and daughters of our Holy
Church: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ and the Holy Spirit, with the joyous Christmas greeting:
Peace from God! Christ is Born!
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! (St. Luke 2:14)
We
find ourselves, once again, before the Nativity Feast Day, before the
feast day of immeasurable love of God, for today in the city of David
Christ the Lord is born (cf. St. Luke 2:11), Emmanuel, which is to say, “God with us”. (St.
Matthew 1:23) This great Mystery of the Incarnation of God the Logos,
hidden from the beginning of the ages (cf. St. John 1:2), was first
announced by the angels of God with their Christmas hymn of peace and
love (cf. St. Luke 2:14). Then, they were joined by the shepherds and
wise men from the east, gathering, therefore, both heaven and earth,
angels and people, and all earthly nations, around the God-Child Christ
in the Church of the Living God. (II Cor. 6:16)
How do the
evangelists, eye witnesses and servants of the Word of God (cf. St. Luke
1:2), testify to the event of Christ’s Birth which, according to the
holy fathers, is a greater miracle then the creation of the world? The
Holy Apostle Matthew in his Gospel writes to his Judean countrymen,
desiring to witness based on the Old Testament prophecies that Jesus of
Nazareth is, indeed, the Christ or Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior
of the world. (cf. Psalm 138; Isaiah 7:14) That is why he begins his
Gospel with the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. St. Matthew
1:1-17), emphasizing His real human nature. The evangelist in his
genealogy lists the central persons of the Old Testament, especially
accentuating Abraham and David the king, because the prophecies about
the coming of the Messiah were mostly connected to the two of them,
which came to be fulfilled with the Birth of Christ in Bethlehem of
Judea. (cf. St. Matthew 2:5-6) The first part of the Gospel according to
St. Matthew tells us loudly: For us and our salvation, God becomes a
true man (cf. St. Matthew 1, 2); but in the second part of his
genealogy, Saint Matthew tells us that the Messiah is the God-Man, that
His Birth is above nature, from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.
(cf. St. Matthew 1:20) By taking on real human nature, Christ becomes
one of us, (cf. St. John 1:14) remaining that which He always was from
all eternity – Son of God and the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
This concisely is the good news according to the Evangelist Saint
Matthew, the good news about the salvation of all people through faith
in Jesus Christ. (cf. Galatians 2:16)
The Holy Apostle Luke in his
Gospel, which he addressed to his disciple Theophilos (cf. St. Luke
1:3) and then to every God-loving soul, gives the historical context of
Christ’s Birth. With his apologetic witness he removes the doubts of all
skeptics and unbelievers who have tried to claim that Christ the Lord
is a legend or a person who did not exist, and he convinces them that
Christ is a true and real historical Person and the Messiah. As an
historian, Luke cites that Christ’s Birth happened in the time of the
Roman Caesar Augustus, who reigned from the year 27 before Christ to the
14th year after His birth, and during the first general
census of the populace at this time Quirinius governed Syria (cf. St.
Luke 2:2). These are historical facts not denied even by exact science.
Adding to the Matthian account, the evangelist Luke writes about
Christ’s Birth not only to the Judeans, but also to all nations on
earth. (cf. St. Luke 2:29-32) Saint Luke in his genealogy emphasizes
that Christ is the Savior, the New Adam, the Head and spiritual founder
of the New Israel – the blessed Kingdom of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit (cf. St. Luke 3:21-23), pointing to the liturgical
dimension of this Feast Day.
As a crown and a seal we add briefly
the witness of the Holy Evangelist John the Theologian about the birth
of Christ. This beloved disciple and apostle of Christ adds his Protoevangelion to
Matthew and Luke. In it he brings the tidings that Christ is the
pre-eternal Son of God, the Word of God, the Logos through Whom
everything is created (cf. St. John 1, 1-3), and Who came into this
world as the Light (cf. St. John 1:5), to proclaim to us a New and
eternal Covenant of God and man: “For the law was given through Moses,
but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (St. John 1:17; cf. Rom.
10:4)
Dear brothers and sisters, that which was witnessed by the
evangelists and apostles and which the Holy Fathers confirmed, we also
witness to you today, on Christmas day, for “Christ is the same today,
yesterday and forever.” (Heb. 13:8) That is why we call upon you, with
our pastoral care and love, to together take part in the Christmas
celebration, to lay aside all earthly cares, to offer our gifts to the
God-Child Christ – our spiritual gold, frankincense and myrrh; this
means our faith, hope and love – to meet the Lord and our neighbors.
Saint John Chrysostom has called Christmas the root of all Christian
feast days, because in Christmas we are promised, and in some mystical
and grace-filled way we are given before hand, the Meeting of the Lord,
his Baptism, and Transfiguration, as well as the Cross and Christ’s
Resurrection. That is why our people say: “Without God not even over the
threshold” and “there is no greater slava (patron feast day) than
Christmas”, for in Christmas our people have foretasted the Mystery of
God and the salvation of all people in the Church of Christ.
The
Serbian people are a people of Christmas, a part of the People of God
and of all generations of Christians; the people of Saint Sava, the
people of Holy Tsar Lazar of Kosovo and of all the other martyrs and
new-martyrs who have suffered in evil times, as did the slain children
of Bethlehem (cf. St. Luke 2:16), for the truth and justice of God. We
remember their sacrifice and beseech them to remember us in their
prayers in the Holy Bethlehem that we may be worthy of our holy
ancestors, as His Holiness Patriarch Pavle of blessed memory used to
say.
Christmas reveals to us the goal and meaning of our life on
earth. As expressed in the language of the holy Fathers, God becomes man
so that we may become gods, so that we may become “gods by grace,”
fulfilling our existence with the fullness of divine grace. This is not a
Christian exaggeration nor anthropological utopia. This is a reality of
life in Christ. This is a reality that is a gift of God. Let us not
allow anything of this world, the world that lies in evil (cf. St. John
5:19), to separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our
Lord (cf. Rom. 8:35)! The fullness of this love is seen in the Birth of
Christ. That is why Christmas truly is the “day which the Lord has made
to rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)
Christmas also
points to the holiness of human life. This Feast Day calls us to
theosis, not to destruction, to the service of life, not only biological
but also eternal, and not to slavery or death. Saint Silouan the
Athonite Elder tried in his life not to step on a worm, an ant, a
flower, nor the smallest blade of grass. Life is given to everything by
God, but especially to human beings, which in Christ are the icons of
the Living God. (cf. II Cor. 4:4) Christmas strengthens and returns to
us the biblical blessing: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the
earth.” (Genesis 1:22) May the Lord grant that this blessing becomes a
rule of life for the Serbian people and for all nations on earth, for
in this way the hell of murdering brothers and unborn infants would be
replaced by peace from paradise and the fullness of life. With this
Christmas may Serbia come to life and may our families be filled with
joy and children’s play! The Holy Gospel reminds us that if we do not
become innocent like children we will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
(cf. St. Matthew 18:3) That is why Christmas is a feast day of our
children as well, the feast day of the youth and future eternity.
On
this blessed Christmas day we pray to the Lord, the King of peace, (cf.
Hebrew 7:2) to extinguish enmity among the nations, to save His people
throughout the world, and to be merciful to us. May this Christmas call
into communion all those who in any way have estranged themselves from
the Church of the Living God! May heresies and schisms disappear, that
all people, with fear of God, with faith and love, may approach the
unity and life of the One, Holy, Catholic (Saborna) and Apostolic
Church! For this unity the Lord Himself prayed in his archpriestly
prayer: “That all may be one”. (St. John 17:21)
We greet all our
spiritual children in our Fatherland and those abroad with the Christmas
salutation, calling them to live in mutual brotherly love – Christmas
love. We especially pray for the crucified Kosovo and Metohija, our
spiritual and national cradle, which the great Njegos has called a
“great tribunal”. As long as there are Serbs, there will be Kosovo!
Kosovo is the Serb’s soul! That is why Kosovo and Metohija will remain
our country, for there is present both our Golgotha and our Jerusalem.
May our God, the Only Lover of mankind, grant peace and blessing to all
of His people, and according to the words of Holy Silouan the Athonite,
grant that all people on earth may recognize Him by the Holy Spirit in
the miraculous light of Christmas!
PEACE FROM GOD - CHRIST IS BORN!
INDEED HE IS BORN!
A BLESSED NEW YEAR OF OUR LORD 2017!
INDEED HE IS BORN!
A BLESSED NEW YEAR OF OUR LORD 2017!
Given at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade at Christmas, 2016.
Your intercessors before the cradle of the divine Christ-Child:
Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci andSerbian Patriarch IRINEJ
Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Coastlands AMPHILOHIJE
Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana PORFIRIJE
Bishop of Sabac LAVRENTIJE
Bishop of Srem VASILIJE
Bishop of Banja Luka JEFREM
Bishop of Budim LUKIJAN
Bishop of Banat NIKANOR
Bishop of New Gracanica-Midwestern America LONGIN
Bishop of Canada MITROPHAN
Bishop of Backa IRINEJ
Bishop of Great Britain and Scandinavia DOSITEJ
Bishop of Zvornik-Tuzla CHRYSOSTOM
Bishop of Osijek and Baranja LUKIJAN
Bishop of Western Europe LUKA
Bishop of Zicha JUSTIN
Bishop of Vranje PAHOMIJE
Bishop of Sumadija JOVAN
Bishop of Branicevo IGNATIJE
Bishop of Dalmatia FOTIJE
Bishop of Bihac and Petrovac ATANASIJE
Bishop of Budimlje and Niksic JOANIKIJE
Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina GRIGORIJE
Bishop of Valjevo MILUTIN
Bishop of Ras and Prizren TEODOSIJE
Bishop of Nis JOVAN
Bishop of Western America MAXIM
Bishop of Gornji Karlovac GERASIM
Bishop of Eastern America IRINEJ
Bishop of Krusevac DAVID
Bishop of Slavonia JOVAN
Bishop of Austria and Switzerland ANDREJ
Bishop of Frankfurt and all Germany SERGIJE
Bishop of Timok ILARION
Bishop of Australia and New Zealand SILOAN
Retired Bishop of Zvornik-Tuzla VASILIJE
Retired Bishop of Canada GEORGIJE
Retired Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina ATANASIJE
Retired Bishop of Central Europe CONSTANTINE
Retired Bishop of Slavonia SAVA
Retired Bishop of Mileseva FILARET
Former Bishop of Nis JOVAN
Vicar Bishop of Moravica ANTONIJE
Vicar Bishop of Toplica ARSENIJE
Vicar Bishop of Dioclia KIRILO
THE ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF OCHRID:
Archbishop of Ochrid and Metropolitan of Skoplje JOVAN
Bishop of Polos and Kumanovo JOAKIM
Bishop of Bregal MARKO
Vicar Bishop of Stobija DAVID