Writing about the people of the Old Testament just before the coming of Christ, Saint Athanasius the Great observed, "They were fully preoccupied with the sensuous, the worldly, and the tangible, and so the Lord appeared to them in visible form to cure them of this infirmity of their senses."
Christ became incarnate, and He faced the formidable task of getting the believers to see beyond the ritual. They had a glorious temple, an active clergy, and a written law, but in their hearts, they were turning away from the invisible God. The Lord became flesh to defeat death and sin, but He also came to restore true worship of Him. He worked miracles, humbled the demons, and tamed the storms to bring it home to all the people that He was the true Son of God.
Times have changed, but not our preoccupation as a society with worldly and sensuous things. Much like the people of the Old Testament, we wish to see Him born again. Even as Christians, we tend to pay more attention to the ritual and far less to our hearts, much like the believers of the Old Testament. The world needs another incarnation of Christ, His coming in the flesh, just as desperately as in biblical times.
But we know that when Christ comes for the second time, He will come to judge. He will arrive in glory, as the Gospel teaches us. He will appear like a flash of lightning from East to West.
Yet as Christians, we have Christ in our midst. He is given to us. Let the unchurched think that He is history; let them wait for miracles of healings to remind them of His existence. For us Christians He is real. He is present invisibly among us when we are at Church.
Standing before the closed gates to the Altar, waiting for His Holy Gifts is like waiting for the miracle of His birth. Like the Magi who followed the Star to bring their gifts to the newborn Christ, we are waiting to bring Him ours - our faith, hope and Love. We have followed the star, and that star is Jesus Christ Himself (Revelation 22:16).
As Apostle Peter teaches us, the star of Christ does not shine in the sky but rises in the heart of every Christian (2 Peter 1:19). No star of heaven is visible through thick clouds; and likewise, no star of the heart can shine amid our impurity. As the Gospel tells us, the Mother of God left the city that had no place for her. She gave birth to the newborn Christ in a cave in the company of animals; the manger was His cradle. The Mother of God fled the city, the nest of passions and vanity, and found refuge in a barren cave. We, too, must withdraw with our hearts from the passions, strife and vanity of this world that are so destructive.
If we saw in Christmas a table laden with food, the crisp snow and the winter frost, but nothing else, we would be the most miserable people in the world. Christmas is the birth of Christ in our hearts. May His star illuminate our inner selves, and together with the visible beauty of this feast day, fill our lives with joy and meaning.
We can always meet Christ at the Church. The people come to Church to be reborn for everlasting life, and it will remain so until the end of the age. But first, let us welcome the birth of Christ in our hearts.
Hieromonk Dimitry (Volkov)
Source: optina.ru
