Homily
The
Child Who is God
The Nativity of Christ - December 25, 1999
St. Andrew Orthodox Church
Father Josiah Trenham, Pastor
The Joy of Human Birth. Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Christ is come from heaven!
Receive Him! Christ is on
earth! Be ye
lifted up! In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Every human birth we rejoice in. Not in every human life, but certainly in
every human birth we rejoice. And this for many reasons.
Each birth we receive as a small consolation against death, which
consumes everything. In the birth of a
new person we sense a small victory, a glorious cooperation with God in the
multiplication of life, even if it is but a delaying of death. So glorious is such an event that the Lord
Jesus says, “Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour
has come; but when she gives birth to
the child, she remembers the anguish no more for joy that a child has been born
into the world” (St. Jn. 16:21). Why else do we rejoice in birth? Because we know that we have contributed to
the multiplication of God’s image on the earth.
Any child who is born is God’s image, and the immaterial spirits gaze in
awe at one who holds within himself both a soul and a body,
uniting the unseen and the seen as nothing else in creation. We know that every child who is born has the
potential to be a Saint. Every child
born has the possibility of knowing and loving God in such a way that he will
not only heal himself but save thousands and thousands around him. Every child born has that potential. And our rejoicing at birth is emphatic and
doubly joyous when the one born is born into a dignified state: such as being born to a pious family, or
perhaps royal offspring which will grow up and benefit the entire nation, the
whole people. For these reasons and for
more it is right and normal for us all to rejoice in birth.
The Exceedingly Great Joy of the Birth of Jesus
Christ. Tonight we celebrate a birth and we are filled with
joy. Not any joy, but a joy that is
radiating throughout the universe. A joy
that permeates heaven and causes the angelic choruses to break out into song, “Glory to God in
the highest! And on earth peace, good
will among men!” This joy unites all of
mankind, kings and princes, shepherds and peasants, prophets and priests. And
our joy is uncontainable because we know that this is not a normal human
birth.
We are not simply rejoicing
that we have in this birth won a small victory against death and participated
with God in the creation of life. Wonder
of wonders! We have indeed participated with God in such creation, for we have
offered to the wonderworking God the Immaculate Virgin Mary who is the context
and means of this mighty miracle! But He Who is born offers more than a small
victory over death. He is the death of
death! Today we have delivered a fatal
blow to death! Not only will this Holy
Child completely overturn death’s presence in His own life, but He will
eradicate death from mankind. “I have
come that you might have life, and have it abundantly” (
Today we rejoice not just in
the fact that God’s image has been multiplied on the earth, and that the Child
born today has the potential to be a Saint.
We rejoice with “joy inexpressible and full of glory” because the Child
born today is holier than all the Saints.
He is “the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation”
(Col. 1:15). He Who
is born today is the “radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of
His nature” (Heb. 1:3). Those Magi and
shepherds today who gaze upon the Christ child gaze upon the eternal,
immutable, incomprehensible, inexpressible God!
Let the Jews and Moslems be offended, and let the heretics talk until
their tongues ache, as St. Gregory says.
For they will believe when they see this come coming
in glory to judge all men. He Who “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3)
today is held in the arms of His Virgin Mother.
He by Whom and for Whom “all things were
created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible” (Col.
1:16) today this Creator-God nurses from His mother’s breasts. The eternally Existent One Who
is above everything we know as being and existence becomes! He Who is without a mother as God is Man without a Father. Today God the Father proclaims, “Let all my angels
worship Him” (Heb. 1:6), and to His Son born in the cave He declares, “Thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Heb. 1:8).
And today we do not rejoice
emphatically because a child has been born into a pious family or even into
human royalty and will grow up to offer some benefit to the entire people or
nation. We rejoice because He Who is
born today is the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords, and without
leaving His family of the Father and Holy Spirit has entered into our family,
bringing together what was considered impossible, even God and Man in perfect
union. Mystical conjunction! The Self-Existent comes into being, the
Uncreated is created, that which cannot be contained is contained! He Who gives riches
becomes poor, so that we who are poor can become rich. He Who is always
full empties Himself of His glory for a short while so that we who have become
bereft of glory can be glorified in Him.
For those who have bent themselves down to the ground because of sin He
bends down from the heavens to raise us up with Himself from the earth. This One does not do merely do good to a few
or offer some benefit to His nation. The
Child born today, this Son given to us today, is the Wonderful Counselor, the
Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, and He comes to redeem the entire human
race.
And so let us rejoice today
in the enrollment prescribed by Quirinius for by it
we are written in heaven. Let us adore
the birth of Christ by which we are loosed from the chains of our own
births. Let us honor today little
*Throughout this homily images and phrases have
consistently been taken from the Homily
on the Birth of Christ by St. Gregory the Theologian.