Homily Three on the Sunday Before the Nativity of Christ
By St. John of Kronstadt
By St. John of Kronstadt
"The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the Son of David, the Son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1).
On this day, the Holy Church celebrates its weekly feast – the Resurrection of Christ – and together with it celebrates the Nativity of Christ; therefore, the Gospel of the Resurrection of Christ is read at the Vigil, and of the ancestors of Jesus Christ according to His humanity during the Liturgy. The Liturgy Gospel begins with the words: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." Let us dwell on these words and make them the subject of the present discourse.
What do they tell us? That the Son of God, the only-begotten, consubstantial, co-eternal with God the Father, all-good, all-powerful, the hypostatic Wisdom of God, who arranged the world and everything in the world, the Almighty Himself, who contains all visible and invisible creation, having assumed human nature, entered into kinship with men, created by Himself in His own image and likeness, but who sinned through impudent disobedience and became extremely corrupt because of countless crimes; the Son of God became the Son of man, that is, a man, like us in everything except sin, without ceasing to be God without beginning and all-powerful; He who is complete emptied Himself, He who is rich became impoverished, He who is inviolable in essence became touchable to us for the sake of our salvation. What goodness! What mercy! What extreme condescension! What voluntary impoverishment! Having accepted our nature, impoverished by sins, He is born in poverty, from a poor, albeit royal family, of the most pure Virgin in a wretched cave!
Man! awake from your sinful slumber and consider what this wondrous Providence of God for you means, this wondrous self-emptying of the Son of God for your sake, and respond to the loving voice of God towards you. What does He say? He says: I am come to seek and to save you, a lost sinner (Matt. 18:11). Repent, then, amend the ways of your heart, your whole behavior, renew yourself, put off the oldness of sin, love righteousness and hate lawlessness, for only those are akin to the Son of God who fulfill His commandments. Only call upon Me with all your soul, and I will help you in everything; in My Church I have placed all the means for your salvation; use them with all diligence and you will be saved easily.
"The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." Jesus Christ according to the flesh came from Abraham and David. What great ancestors! What venerable names! Abraham was the friend of God, to whom the promises were made from God that from his seed the Savior of the world would be born (Gen. 22:18); from him the Lord made nations according to the promise, as the sand of the sea and as the stars in the sky, so innumerable (Heb. 11:12). David was the king of Israel, a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), meek and gentle, to whom also was promised the birth of the Savior of the world from his descendants. And so the Lord fulfilled His promise: the Son of God was indeed born according to His humanity from the tribe of Abraham and David.
You, children of Abraham by faith and children of God by the grace of Christ, try to imitate the great ancestors, the forefathers of Jesus Christ. Abraham - in faith, simplicity, hospitality, obedience to God and cutting off your will from all worldly attachments, love for strangers, friendship, constancy in faith, hope and love, in thorns and longsuffering; David - also in faith, hope, meekness, gentleness, repentance, fervor of love, prayer, praise, thanksgiving and patience in sorrows and troubles.
"The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham." Having heard about the relationship of the Lord in the flesh and in the spirit with Abraham and David and with the other forefathers, among whom were not sinless people, – remember brother, remember sister, that the Lord also entered into a close relationship with you; He became not only your God and Savior, but your Brother in humanity, for it is said: "He was not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb. 2:11). He became our fellow creature and bodily, so that we are members of His flesh and bones (Eph. 5:30); and when we alienate ourselves from Him by our sins, He again invites us to restore union with Him, calling us to repentance, and, having sincerely repented, He again accepts into spiritual communion with Himself, communicating to us His Holy Spirit, about Whom we cry out to God, "Abba Father" (Rom. 8:15)! He renews the union with repentant sinners in an inexpressibly loving manner, giving us His flesh and blood to eat and exclaiming with immeasurable meekness and love: "Take, eat, this is My Body" and "Drink of it, all of you, this is My Blood of the New Covenant" (Matt. 26:26, 28). What condescension, what salvation, what an honor - to eat the most pure Body of the Lord Jesus Christ and drink His most pure Blood! This is the highest honor! This is a marvelous salvation! For every time he who sincerely partakes of communion, from being dead in spirit, is now revived, is freed from sins, is sanctified by the Holy Spirit and is deified with glorious deification.
Remember, Christian man, your kinship with the Son of God, incarnate for our salvation, and try in every way to behave worthy of your calling, flee sin in all its forms, resist every sin, as a faithful soldier of Christ, be zealous for holiness in your whole life, as it is said: "Be holy in all your conversation" (1 Pet. 1:15). He who sins and does not repent with all his heart is related to the devil the murderer. Saint John, the Forerunner of Christ, called such people a "generation of vipers" (Matt. 3:7), and the Lord Jesus Christ said of the Jews: "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you want to do" (John 8:44). May God deliver us all from such a terrible kinship with sin and its culprit. And so, no matter how many times you sin, immediately repent in secret before God, break the union with the devil and restore the union with God at the appointed times before your spiritual father. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
