Christ is born!  Glorify Him!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

On Saturday before the Nativity, we heard our Lord speak of the Kingdom of God and how He likened it to two things.  One was that of a mustard seed that starts out very tiny and seemingly insignificant by comparison to greater things, but over time it grows large enough to shelter the birds of the air.  The second image was that of leaven or yeast hidden in three measures of meal until the whole batch was leavened, producing a plentiful batch great enough to feed multitudes.  Again, insofar as leaven goes, it is seemingly inconsequential, yet it does its work nonetheless, a work that is quite extensive and necessary (Lk. 13:18-21).   

Today, on this blessed and most holy morning, we gather with the choirs of angels; with the holy Joseph, Guardian of our Lord and His Mother; with the most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary; with the shepherds of Bethlehem made privy to the Birth of this Newborn God-Man by a heavenly visitation of angels; and with the Magi – those Wise Men of Persia – attracted to the side of this Child, Israel’s newborn King, by the stars of Heaven which they studiously observed, perhaps even worshipped. 

In the still dark silence of the night, Sacred Scripture says that this Child “leaped down from Heaven out of [God’s] royal throne”  (WS 18:14-15).  “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not,” says the Evangelist and Theologian.  In fact, St. John further asserts that “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (Jn. 1:10-11).  This is exactly what the Prophet Isaiah had foretold captured in our Nativity icons: “’The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider’” (Is. 1:3).  Though the King of kings and Lord of lords, Whose Kingdom shall have no end (Dn. 2:44, 47; Is. 9:6-7; Lk. 1:33; Rv. 19:16), there is no fanfare save the hymns of the angels heard only by the shepherds at His Birth that night.  Born in an obscure place, He is like that mustard seed and leaven.  He was secreted past the academic theologians and Biblical scholars of the day who knew of the prophecies contained in Sacred Scripture, but who nevertheless did not know the Prophet and Priest and King Whom these prophecies foretold.  Just a few miles from Jerusalem, He went unnoticed by Herod, that illegitimate king of the Jews, until the Magi came knocking on the door of his royal palace inquiring into the newborn King of the Jews.  “’For we have seen His star in the East,’” they say, “’and have come to worship Him.’” 

Truly, God has “’hidden these things from the wise . . . and revealed them to babes’” (Mt. 11:25).  It is only those foolish enough to have faith in God, to see in so small a thing the very Presence of the living God no matter how foolish it is to the world, it is to such that this Child and His Kingdom beckons.  “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men,” says the Apostle.  He goes on: 

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base [lowly, insignificant] things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His Presence.  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, Who became for us Wisdom from God – and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord’ (1 Cr. 1:25-31).

          This morning, beloved, I pray that we are those babes to whom God has revealed the Mystery of His Incarnate Son.  I pray that we are the foolish scorned by the world, the weak and lowly for whom the Saviour has come.  Let our glory, then, be in Him: in His manger, in His cave, in His humble Birth and ignominious Death.  Let us, too, be among those humble souls who prostrate before Him to worship and adore Him this day in the Mystery of His Incarnation: in the waters of our Baptism, in the Myron of our Chrismation, in the laying on of hands in our Absolution, in the Body and Blood upon the Altar, and not like Herod who could not and would not brook this Child’s Presence, even for a moment to the condemnation of his soul. 

May this Child and His Kingdom be even in us – in our hearts, in our minds, in our mouths, in our souls, in our ears, in our eyes – as mustard seed and leaven.  May we become His manger, His cave, His Bethlehem, His natal Star!  May His God and Father – our God and our Father – “make [us] perfect in every good work to do His will, working in [us] what is well pleasing in His sight, . . . .” (Hb. 13:21), “that [we] may be blameless and unoffending, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom [we] shine as lights in the world, holding fast the Word of Life, . . . .” “to Whom be glory forever and ever” (Pp. 1:6; 2:12-13, 15-16; Hb. 13:21).    

          So small a Child.  So seemingly insignificant a Birth.  So seemingly inconsequential a blip on the radar screen.  And yet . . . . . . . . . . .      

Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

          Christ is born!  Glorify Him!

VIGIL PROPERS:                               PROPERS:

Gn. 1:1-13                                                       Ga. 4:4-7

Nm. 24:2-3, 5-9, 17-18                                   Mt. 2:1-12      

Mc. 4:6-7; 5:2-4                    

Is. 11:1-10                              

Br. 3:35-4:4

Dn. 2:31-36, 44-45    

Is. 9:6-7

Is. 7:10-16; 8:1-4, 8-10