Pastor's Letter -- December 25, 2021

Beloved parishioners,

Happy birthday, Jesus!
Once a little boy was upset his parents did not give him presents on Christmas Day. The parents lovingly said to him, “Son, when we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. You do not get presents when you celebrate another person’s birthday; instead, you give them presents…”

Many of us could identify with this little boy. We sometimes reduce Christmas to a season only for giving or receiving gifts. There is nothing wrong about this if we keep the true meaning of Christmas alive in our hearts. Unlike the parents of the little boy above, I would say  that God gives us the gift of His Son at Christmas. Even though it is Christ’s birthday, he is the one giving us gifts. So, let us open our hearts to receive all the gifts that Christ’s birth brings. 

Christmas is about Jesus! It is about the incarnation, the enfleshment of the divine and eternal Son of God. It is about God entering into our chaos and restoring it from within. He who is outside of time enters into time to redeem it. St. John captures this very beautifully in the prologue of the fourth Gospel. He writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…” This Word became flesh like you and me and dwelt among us. He took on, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, what was not his originally—that is, human flesh—in order that he might make us to share in his divinity. (The Eastern Fathers are very big on teaching that the goal of our creation is theosis, which is, our divinization). The distortion of the original innocence of creation by the disobedience of Adam and Eve is healed and restored by the obedience of the Virgin Mary who brought forth the Son of God. Christmas is God’s gift to the world; a gift of redemption and restoration. Humanity has sinned and deserved the decay and corruption that come as a consequence of sin; but God would not sit and watch creation go into annihilation. What does he do? He enters into creation in order to put a stop to its self-inflicted wound and to restore it to its original glory. This is what Christmas is all about. And we are recipients of this wondrous gift of God’s self to the world. 

Our response? We need to be grateful for the gift that we have received, even though we are most undeserving of it. We must rejoice and be joyful that God has entered our world as Emmanuel, God with us. And like the angels, let us sing: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). 

In the spirit of the season, I pray that the joy and peace of Christmas will help lighten the burden and pain in the hearts of those who have lost loved ones or who might have experienced a significant  relationship change that might be reason for sadness this Christmas. May Jesus heal all who are hurting. Amen. 

I wish you and your families a very blessed and Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

With blessings from my heart,