The Shepherd, December 2009
Behold what happens according to the mores of the new life. He to Whom all houses, all towns, the whole universe belongs, deprives Himself of the least of human dwellings and takes up His abode together with beasts, committing Himself to a manger of irrational beasts in place of the throne of the Cherubim. O people, is it for you to struggle and torment each other for preference in honour, cleanliness and comfort, when God does not disdain being turned away from human habitation and is content with an animal shed! Man, you murmured about your poverty, you looked with an envious eye on the rich and famous, you lamented the poverty of your own shack, you grieved that you are accounted as one of the simple folk. Go down yet lower in your station in life, and you will be accounted to be with God! You considered it a great honour to approach the doorstep of a lord, but look how easily you can obtain a dwelling equal to God’s house. You view palaces with desire, because kings live in them or have lived in them. Look rather at the stall where the incarnate Son of God dwelt. See where is the beginning of the new teaching, of the new life, of the new usage. If you follow Christ in this way, no place will be crowded for you. If everyone takes to heart the image of Christ’s life, there will be plenty of room and no offence for any.
But you will say: I would not grieve about poverty, but I am crushed by my heavy daily labour. I sow and reap bread, but other people eat it. I tend the flock, but the landlords drink the milk. I tailor the cloth, but others wear it. Perhaps the enemy also tempted the Bethlehem shepherds with just such thoughts, when they were keeping watch by night outside the town which was plunged in sleep, and herded the townspeoples’ flocks; but if they had accepted such thoughts, they would not have become the most blessed of people. There were then many people in the town who were rich, famous and not occupied with anything, but it was not to them that the angel appeared, announcing the birth of the pre-eternal One; it was not they, but these paupers deprived of their night’s sleep who were granted the heavenly vision. They taught the whole world to sing those blessed words which resounded in the heavens: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will among men (Lk. 2:14). They were the first people, after Her Who had given birth to the super-essential One, who were granted to behold Him and worship Him and glorify the Most Pure Mother of the Lamb and the Shepherd.
Moreover, Christian, reflect in your mind everything that the Gospel reading about the Nativity of Christ has proclaimed to us. All our customs, all concepts changed into the new life of the whole of human nature. Are you grieving over the fact that you have been subject to unjust persecution? But surely you are not more righteous than Christ, Who was pursued by the impious Herod. Are you grieving over exile or banishment? Remember the flight into Egypt. Do you find the yoke of the law burdensome? Gaze on the circumcision of the Lord and His presentation in the Temple on the fortieth day. Or are you distressed at having to submit to one who is worse than you, while you yourself are more enlightened and better than others? But Jesus was far more superior than you to the elder Joseph, and nonetheless He submitted to him. Do you consider your advisor or superior has acquired his authority unworthily and by chance? But the Lord Jesus revered His ostensible father as a true one. Then understand that the burden of life is not in the labour, not in the poverty, not in obedience, not in bearing offences or even persecution - no, but it is in considering that one has need of idleness and riches, self-will and constant pleasure. All this takes the joy of existence away from man, all this is also what causes evil passions and vices in him and nourishes them, and the Lord has delivered us from all these errors, enlightening both poverty and bearing offences, and heavy labour and abasement by His Nativity. This is why the whole world is now chanting: Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath shined the light of knowledge upon the world. Those who consider that envy is just cannot understand this; nor can those understand it who have received sufficiency and honour in this world, but do not want to give up even a part of it to others of their own free will, but oppress the poor, degrade their subordinates, oppress strangers and mock simple folk. Miserable people! You are more unfortunate than those whom you are mocking: they are purified by their afflictions and come close to the Saviour Who has been born, but you are removing yourselves from His new life and remain in your former death, as it is said: He that loveth not his brother abideth in death (1 Jn 3:14).
And so, the new life in Christ consists in willingly renouncing worldly goods and not grieving when they are taken away by force. Perhaps you cannot direct your mind this way at once. But to the extent that you willingly deprive yourself of earthly enjoyments, however reluctantly - fasting, grieving yourself by giving to the poor or giving way to others, not becoming angry or taking revenge for oppression, but bearing offences in silence; - to the extent that you crucify the old man in yourself, to this extent will a new fount of grace-filled life flow out of your heart. He that believeth on Me, says the Lord, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (Jn 7:38). It is no longer either riches, or health, or glory, or the destruction of enemies that will make you rejoice, but, just as a farmer rejoices over a ripening field, or a hunter over a lot of wild fowl fluttering about, or an artist over the beauty of a sunset - so you will rejoice over prayer, spiritual reading and the opportunity to be kind to your neighbour, either by giving, or consoling one who is grieving, calming one who is angry, or bringing a villain to his senses. The impious Jews did not want to accept this new life: they wanted earthly happiness, and the destruction of enemies, and human glory, and vain riches. It is the same thing which their foolish pupils want even now, Europeans of various nationalities, and many here in Russia. They have forgotten Christ, have come to hate Christ’s abasement and love the treasures of the land of Egypt, not like the great Moses (Heb 11:26), but “like the ancient foolish people in the wilderness.”
And they are not only returning themselves to the former pagan madness, but they are also trying to turn ardent youths and our people from the path of the Gospel, and in their blindness they promise them universal riches and happiness through confiscating property from the rich for common use [a reference no doubt to socialistic policies then being pursued -ed.]. If this distribution of wealth were even possible, even then, what peace, what happiness are possible among the envious? And if people saw their happiness in sufficiency of this kind, then they would not be people, but beasts, who need nothing except satiety and rest.
These people know that they have gone against the Gospel, although they even deny it hypocritically. They deny it, but they feel that for them there is no teaching more hostile that the teaching of Christ, just as the Jewish scribes who roused the people against the Romans in quest of their own power, riches and honour, felt it. It is not justice, but envious malice that they are sowing on the earth, and, striving for rights, they multiply unrighteousness. Christ God taught us, brothers, to teach others not to seek for rights, but to renounce them, not to demand equality with the well-to-do but self-abasement, not to fight but to give way, not to commit crimes but to bear offences. This is how the manifest Sun of Righteousness hath given us light and understanding (1 Jn 5:20), has opened for us the path to eternal and blessed life. This is what all righteousness in human society is based on. Then let us, brothers, glorify the Lord Who has appeared. Rejoice in His Nativity! Nothing will take this joy away from us, neither poverty, nor offences, nor labour day and night. He has blessed all this, and magnified it, and sanctified it with His being in the town of Bethlehem. Let us draw instruction from this, and to Him, Who has loved us, be glory and honour, power and worship, with the Father and the Spirit unto the ages. Amen.
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 
|
