2024 Pastoral Encyclical for Christmas (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Pastoral Encyclical

Sacred Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Christmas 2024

Christ is Born,

With this greeting we announce the Birth in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and we rejoice in this event. With the Birth in the flesh of the Son and Word of God, all the conditions of wounded humanity changed, and from this “Christ is Born” there will follow “Christ is Risen” and “Christ is Ascended”, so that the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost will establish the Church as His Body.

These days, the Christmas tree is decorated in homes and squares, and most often at its base is the Cave of Bethlehem, with the manger in which the newborn Christ is swaddled and next to Him are the two animals, the ox and the donkey. How many times have we not seen this image of the manger, which is tragic for the wickedness of people, but also tender for the hospitality of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also His humiliation?

These events associated with the cave and the manger are real, but also indicative, since they show the state of humanity at that time. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, brother of Basil the Great, who lived in the 4th century AD, interprets what happened in the cave at the Birth of Christ in reference to the situation that existed at that time.

In his sermon on the Nativity of Christ, he explains that when we see the cave in which the Lord Christ was born, we must think of “the dark and underground life of men.” The people of that era sat in the darkness and shadow of death, in the dark and underground life from a spiritual perspective, and into this world came the Light of the world, the Son and Word of God, to give light and life.

Furthermore, Christ, who was born as an infant, is wrapped in swaddling clothes, according to the custom of that time, which means that He, the sinless and pure, took on the burden of our own sins. Just as swaddling clothes tighten the body of an infant, so too is man bound by many burdens of sins, and for this reason Christ became human to free us from them.

Inside the cave is also the manger, that is, “the habitat of the beasts of burden” and there were the ox and the donkey. There Christ was born, so that the ox, which signifies the Jew who is under the yoke of the Mosaic law, and the donkey, which is the metaphorical animal and signifies man who is burdened by the sin of idolatry, might know their Lord and the crib of their Lord and be set free.

In the manger is the grass, which is the proper food for the animals. And Christ, who is the Bread of life who came down from heaven, was placed in the manger so that the rational animal, man, might have the proper food. Thus, rational animals, that is, people who have life, but live with sin irrationally, become rationally connected to Christ the Word.

Christ was born in the manger between the ox and the donkey, so that He could become a mediator between both, that is, the Jews and the Pagans, in order to tear down the dividing wall of the barrier and unite in His person the two peoples into one man, by abolishing the heavy yoke of the Law and freeing the gentile from the burden of sin.

We see how beautifully Saint Gregory of Nyssa interprets the Birth of Christ in the cave and the manger. It is a historical event, but it has many references to the state of the people of that era, since it shows the darkness in which people were and in this darkness the true Light rises.

So when, these days, we see a cave and a manger and the infant Christ within it, we must think about the state of humanity at that time, but also what the work of Christ is, to free it from slavery and to restore it to its “ancient beauty.” At the same time, we must reflect that the image of the manger with the animals and the grass in the dark cave is adapted to our era, the so-called Christian era, and to our country, as well as to other Orthodox countries.

People in our days, even Orthodox Christians, living in the dark caves of passions, distant from the true Light, surrounded by a series of sins, individual and general, with injustices, violence and wars, we continue to be beings with life, but without solid logic and an enlightened mind, we are also deprived of the real food, which is the Bread of life, Christ. In other words, we live irrationally and illogically without Christ the Word.

Christ wants to free us from this dark cave, the cave of social life and the cave of the so-called subconscious and to fill our lives with Light, but we prefer to walk laden with sins and passions, without Christ the Word. We must think about this every time we see in these days of Christmas a cave and a manger where the infant Christ is.

We should not celebrate the great feast of Christmas in a cave-like life and in a manger of irrational-like situations, but in a liberating and resurrectional path towards the Light. This is the Church, since from the dark cave of Bethlehem it leads us to the Light of the Resurrection.

I wish you many, blessed, enlightened and liberating years.

With paternal blessings,

THE METROPOLITAN

+ HIEROTHEOS OF NAFPAKTOS AND AGIOU VLASIOU

 

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.