We may greet each other with the Orthodox Christian greeting "Christ is Born!" or the secular greeting "Merry Christmas." Whichever one we use, it is often said automatically, almost as a reflex. In the same way, it is expected that the hierarch will issue a Nativity epistle. This is something automatic, a regular part of the hierarch's duties. He or his secretary must construct an epistle that will be meaningful, hopefully moving, but seldom will it be memorable.

So much that is connected with this feast is part of the social fabric that all is done by rote. We may see bumper stickers or lawn signs "Keep Christ in Christmas," and there will be customary carols sung everywhere, and saccharine creche scenes will be seen here and there. The Nativity feast, Christmas, has undergone the reductionism of over-familiarity, of becoming social convention.

It is difficult to pause in the midst of the formalities, the repetitious greetings, gift shopping, school concerts and bustle to think deeply about the feast itself. Good deeds, giving, special cheer, repeated platitudes and an all too sweet, superficial religious "feeling" often belie the astounding, cosmic drama that we are commemorating.

This event took place in the still quiet of a winter's night, in a manger cave in a small city in an insignificant country. Nevertheless, it shook the cosmos to its foundations and interjected irreversibly into the very symmetry of the universe. When we proclaim "Christ is born!" we are declaring that the ineffable, incomprehensible and incircumscribable God has appeared in our midst, the Kingdom of God is manifested on earth and human history has turned on a mighty pivot. All creation has been seized by divine love and impelled onward toward its final destiny of transfiguration and glory.

Somehow, we lose track of this shattering and incomprehensible mystery in the often shallow and meaningless religious emotion of the season. We think of the birth of Jesus and forget the mystery of the Incarnation with all its astonishing implications.

I would like to call on all of you to pause now and contemplate the feast. We are not celebrating the "birthday of Jesus," we are celebrating the incarnation of God, the opening of the mystery of redemption, the rescue of the fallen human nature from bondage and the reunion of man with God. We are celebrating the restoration of the universe, the resanctification of humanity, the triumph of light over darkness and the defeat of the evil-one by the power of the incarnate love of God. Christ is born and humanity is reborn. The fallen nature inherited from the first Adam is healed and restored by the New Adam. Humanity is re-created in Jesus Christ precisely because this is not merely a virgin birth but an Incarnation of God Who has become man.

I ask all of you to struggle to find time during each remaining day of the fast, and most especially on the feast itself, to prayerfully contemplate the fulness of the meaning of this feast. Put aside the conventional image, the sweet manger scenes and notions of "Jesus' birthday," and allow your mind and heart to rise toward the awesome majesty of the events we celebrate. Open your hearts fully, not to an infant in a manger, but to the astonishing love and humility of your God and Creator Who so cherishes you that He bowed down heaven and brought it to earth and took on your form and your sufferings in order to redeem you, and all of us, from the bondage into which we constantly place ourselves. Asking so little of us, He provides everything for us. The Nativity of Jesus Christ is, truly, the rebirth of human-kind. The Incarnation is the opening phase of our redemption, the key to comprehending the meaning of salvation.

Let us try, then, at least sometimes, to think what it means when we greet each other "Christ is born! Glorify Him!" Especially as we stand through the divine services of the Nativity cycle, let us contemplate the Incarnation of God and think deeply of the implications of it and of what it has to say about the eternal and infinite love of our Creator.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

In Christ Jesus, Our Saviour and our God,

+Archbishop Lazar