Greetings on the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, the One who opened the doors of heaven for us!
God's coming to Earth had never seemed so unlikely, and so impossible. And it was not because He was avoiding people or punishing them, but simply because the people themselves were not prepared to meet Him and see Him for what He is. Centuries and millennia of spiritual isolation had passed. People had been living by themselves and spending their lifetimes killing, raping and hating. They had thought it was normal.
In these years of dark and gloom, She came into the world to open a new chapter in human history. She ushered in a new era, when the Holy Spirit planted in Her a new life, the New Adam. And She was asked to overstep the limits of human possibilities, the laws of nature and the flesh for the sake of humanity. How was that possible? And where was that spirit? And how could His presence be felt? The Spirit fills the Church. We see the Spirit in some people's eyes and hearts. It creates life, it elevates a person as if he were an icon once desecrated by sin.
On this feast, we glorify God's love for man, and we celebrate His inspiration in every one of us, so we can all seek our happiness beyond the earth, and look to heaven. We will find little on this earth, but we have everything to look forward to in Heaven.
No person can absorb the fullness of the grace of the Spirit in a moment; sometimes, we may even lose it. We know we have to suffer to get it back, and it even makes us afraid. Yet we also know that we must strive for the Spirit if we want to live genuine lives, without pretending to be doing something big and important and losing direction sometime in our fifties. But strangely, many people find the life of pretence more comfortable and convenient. We now understand that overcoming our former self is our greatest challenge. To be successful, we must resist a wide range of temptations, and stand up to the devil, who is always looking for our weak spots to divert us. But we have God with us! "Understand Ye nations and submit yourselves for God is with us!" (Is 8: 8-10).
The Orthodox faith today is the well of pure water from which all people can drink in a world corrupted by sin. From this well, we bring the living water which the Lord Himself had offered us. The Nativity of the Mother of God prepared us for the coming of Christ. It was perhaps the hope of all the righteous, who were looking to heaven and who still remembered about their divine roots. It is a joy-filled feast that opens each new Church Year.
But for a Christian, each new day should begin a new life. We get to choose what to keep for an eternity. As many saints have said, we cannot choose eternal life unless we have Christ in our hearts. And to have Christ, we must find the peace within.
May God save and protect us all! Greetings on the feast.
Preached after the all-night vigil before the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos on 20.09.2014
