Homily Two on the Sunday Before the Nativity of Christ
By St. John of Kronstadt
"He (Jesus Christ) is our peace" (Eph. 2:14).
By St. John of Kronstadt
"He (Jesus Christ) is our peace" (Eph. 2:14).
A great feast for all Christians is approaching – the feast of the Nativity of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ from the most pure, unwed Virgin Mary; the feast of the greatest, wondrous and all-saving event, many times foretold by the prophets, foreshadowed in various images and likenesses for the people of the Old Testament. Soon the Holy Church with the Angels will sing: "Glory to God in the Highest, and on the earth peace among those whom He is pleased" (Luke 2:14). But where, someone will ask, are the blessings of God's peace, the heavenly silence on earth, when wars have never ceased on it from the beginning until now, when the earth has so often been and still is a terrible spectacle of slaughter and bloodshed; when human passions, both in war and in peacetime, continually produce storms and confusion both in the masses and in individual human beings?
Where are the blessings of the heavenly peace, brought to earth by the incarnate Son of the only-begotten Father without beginning, by the quiet Light of His holy glory? The angels undoubtedly proclaim the truth. Peace has been brought and given to earth; but since this heavenly, holy, priceless treasure requires a reliable guardian, keeper and dispenser, lest people in the outbursts of their passions drive it out again from the earth, the King of peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, left peace to His Church, or to the well-ordered, grace-filled society of believers in Him, and especially to the faithful shepherds of His flock and the Church, He entrusted through them the task of giving saving peace to all who seek it. In what does the peace brought to earth by Jesus Christ consist? In the fact that God through His only begotten Son was reconciled with men, that the impenetrable barrier between Him and lawless men was destroyed, the curse was annihilated, the sinful handwriting was torn to pieces, death was struck on the head; saving grace was given to all who desire it, all divine powers were given for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:2-3); free access to God was opened to all, a full opportunity was opened to all to receive forgiveness of sins, to become holy and to be calm amidst all the storms and troubles of the sinful world. "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28), i.e. Come to Me by faith and repentance, all you who are weary and burdened with sins, and I will remove the burden of sin from you, I will drive away the storm of passions, I will turn the storm into calm, and you will know by your experience that I have brought peace on the earth to all those who desire and seek peace, under the condition of faith in Me and sincere repentance. "My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matt. 11:30).
And so the peace brought to earth by Jesus Christ and sung by the angels of heaven is contained and preserved on earth in the blessed kingdom of Christ, or in the Church of God; here all sincere believers and sincerely repentant sinners can draw it in abundance. Do you not hear how often the Church, in the person of the clergyman, imparts peace to all those present, who, in turn, send the good will of peace to him too? Oh, how blessed and sweet is the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ, given to the Church and to all the faithful. Truly, the soul that has been granted the peace of God experiences heavenly blessedness in communion with God. And who among us would not desire this peace? After all, sins and passions rage destructively in the souls of sinners, torment, oppress, scorch, tear, so to speak, the poor soul to pieces.
Come, sinners like me, to Christ the Savior with faith and sincere repentance, and He will give you peace. I have been subjected many times to the destructive, deadly rebellion of passions, and each time, in countless cases, I received from the Lord quick deliverance and freedom from the storm of the soul and blessed heavenly peace. This is the kind of peace that the incarnate Son of God brought to earth! The sinful world does not know and does not seek this peace, which is the forerunner of eternal peace in heaven. The people of this world know the earthly world, charming, momentary - a peace that comes from the successes of self-interest and acquisitions, from the successes of self-love, ambition, carnal indulgence and lust; a peace that comes from the charm of spectacles, from the satisfaction of the feeling of revenge, and so on and so forth. This is not God's peace, but a carnal, sinful, devilish world. The Son of God brought not such a peace to earth. That is why He Himself says: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you" (John 14:27), i.e. I do not give you the peace that the world gives, which "lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19).
And so that we all joyfully and sincerely may soon sing with the Angels: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace," let us be reconciled with God, with our conscience, with people in sincere repentance; then we too will joyfully glorify the blessings of God's peace, as do the Angels themselves, who possess this peace. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
