December 24, 2024

December: Day 24: Teaching 2: On the Eve of the Nativity of Christ


December: Day 24: Teaching 2:
On the Eve of the Nativity of Christ

 
("Christ From Heaven, Come and Meet Him!")

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The great Divine feast is approaching, brethren, which, as always happens, we await with impatience, and which we wish to meet and spend in joy and gladness. This is the solemn remembrance of the coming from heaven to earth of the Son of God and His manifestation in the flesh. A truly great and Divine feast! The Son of God came to us, was born for us as a man; “not leaving the bosom of the Father,” and without separating from His consubstantial Father, came to earth, “visited our poverty” (Irmos 8th tone), our poor humanity, in order to enrich us with His Divine grace and glory. What an extraordinary visitation! How, brethren, can we meet such an extraordinary Visitor, such a great Benefactor? And yet this must certainly be done. Imagine how we expect, with what cares we prepare to meet and what honor we give to our earthly king, or to the king’s first-born son, the heir to the throne, if they deign to visit us?

Should we not all the more honorably meet the coming to us only-begotten Son, the King of heaven, “the heir of all things” (Heb. 1:2), whose kingdom is the kingdom of all ages, “and dominion to every generation and generation?” (Ps. 144:13). How, I repeat, shall we meet the coming to us Son of God? What honors shall we render Him? How shall we testify to Him of our zeal? What gift shall we bring Him? The Holy Church herself cares with us and for us about a favorable offering to the coming to us Son of God. “What shall we bring to You, O Christ,” she sings on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, “what shall we bring to You, O Christ, for You have appeared on earth as a man for our sake?”

II. The meeting of the earthly king partly gives us an idea of how we should meet the Heavenly King.

What do we do when we are preparing to meet an earthly king? Usually, to receive the king we get new, best and expensive clothes, and in his honor we hold general solemn gatherings. Isn't that how we should meet the Heavenly King? Partly so, and even more so. We have a great desire to get "new clothes" for the feast; also, it is a great custom for us to have fun on the feast. So what? Both are appropriate for the feast; both cannot be refused to a Christian, as a person, and especially on a feast. But how to dress, how to have fun? Dress decently, have fun decently. Excessive finery, magnificent, expensive clothes are no longer made for the honor of the feast, but only for self-love and vanity.

Likewise, immodest, noisy, and ruinous amusements are in no way in keeping with the dignity of the feast. No. All this is more appropriate for an earthly celebration, according to the rules and customs of the world. But a Christian celebration requires completely different honors and sacrifices. What does God need our expensive clothes for? He is omniscient and looks not at our clothes, but at our hearts. Will He accept our celebrations, which consist of worldly rejoicings and amusements? He is the God of love and goodness, the Lord of glory. He needs from us sincere zeal and grateful glorification. This means that we should not meet the Heavenly King in the same way as we meet the earthly one. Yes, brethren, not only like that. It is good for us to meet the Heavenly King in good clothes, in new clothes, befitting His holiness. But what kind of clothes are these, what new clothes, and where can we get them?

a) Such clothes, such new clothes have already been brought to us by the Holy Church. This is the fast before the feast of the Nativity of Christ: here is a beautiful new thing for the feast; here is expensive clothing in which we can worthily meet the Son of God coming to us. Those who did not fast were left without new clothes for the feast, in old and, perhaps, shabby clothes.

And since we always have more than one garment, here too we can adorn ourselves with other new things. For example, we have been at enmity with someone until now; to stop this enmity before the feast and for the feast and to make peace – what a wonderful new thing!

Or if someone has been overcome, especially on feasts, by drunkenness or some other passion; to arm oneself against it and to condemn oneself to abstinence and sobriety, not only on feast days, but also in the future — this is a beautiful renewal! Such new things will be pleasant to the most holy gaze of the Son of God coming to us.

b) And concerning the solemn and joyful gatherings, which are appropriate to the holiness of the feast, there is no need to speak. The Holy Church, as is known to all, opens a bright celebration on this divine feast and calls to it all her faithful children. What magnificence, what glory, what spiritual joy in these sacred gatherings! Here one hears only magnification, glorification, thanksgiving to the Son of God who came to us to save us. Not to be in these gatherings, or not to be in all of them, or to be there but not to take a heartfelt part in prayer, in hymns, in general in the celebration of the Church, means to badly meet, or not to meet at all, such a great Visitor, our Benefactor and Savior. This, brethren, is how we should meet the coming to us of the Son of God, the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

c) Allow me to point out to you one more offering, one more honor with which we can meet the Savior, the Son of God, who is coming to us. This offering is most pleasing to Him, this honor is most precious to Him. We are Russians. And do you know what the Russians have as their most precious custom when meeting the Tsar? They offer the Tsar bread and salt. Shouldn’t we, according to the pious Russian custom, also offer the Heavenly Tsar bread and salt? Oh, how wonderful that would be! Then we would be truly Russian Orthodox Christians. “But how is that?” you ask. Who will accept our bread and salt from us? Our poor and needy brethren, into whose hands we will give our charitable offering. Believe me, this offering, through the hands of the poor, will go straight into the hands of the Son of God, our Savior. "Inasmuch as," He said to us, "you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me" (Matt. 25:40). Our good ancestors understood this very well, and before such Great Feasts they considered it a sacred duty for themselves to distribute alms everywhere with a generous hand. Now, unfortunately, this holy custom is far from what it was before. Our passions and our whims more and more restrict the feeling of love and goodwill towards the poor, and we sacrifice more and more willingly to ourselves than to our needy brethren in Christ. What kind of Christians are we if we do not sympathize with our neighbors, if we ourselves abundantly enjoy God's gifts, but do not even want to think about others? How can one dress richly and sumptuously on a feast and sit at a pleasant and luxurious table, and not remember whether others are dressed and fed in the same way, or at least in some way similarly, and whether there are those who, perhaps, have neither clothing nor bread? How can one indulge in excessive merriment on a feast, and not think that, perhaps, there are people who, due to lack and poverty, or from the misfortune that has befallen them, will only shed tears on the feast? Ah, how necessary it would be to draw general attention to this! How wonderful it would be, if not constantly, then at least before such great feasts, to make a general collection of donations and distribution to the poor! In these times, for everything that serves our pleasure, there are stewards and zealous ones, but for the holy Christian cause - alas! - no, there is little disposition among Christians.

III. Let us imitate, brethren, our pious ancestors in the Christian celebration of the great Divine feasts. Let us, to the extent of our ability and means, give of our wealth to our poor brethren on the feasts. This will be the best of the sacrifices with which we will honor the coming to us of the Son of God. After all, He Himself “became poor for our sake,” was born in a cave, and lay in a manger. How fitting and how pleasing to Him will be our voluntary sacrifice! And He, the all-good and all-satisfied, will repay us generously, “will enrich us” from His saving “poverty” (2 Cor. 8:9), both here with His Divine grace, and there beyond the grave with His Divine glory. Our God, glory to You! 
 
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.   
 

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