READINGS 11, 12 & 13 - THE NATIVITY - Continued from page 5
1. The Nativity of the Lord
The Eastern Orthodox Church of Jerusalem and the Ancient Churches [Syrians, Copts, Ethiopians] celebrate on January 7th [=December 25th] the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Armenians have the Feast of the Nativity and the Epiphany on January 19th [= January 16th] in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora communities.
This means that, from December 25th, 2002 [Latin Roman Catholic and Orthodox New Calendar Churches] down to January 19th, 2003 and the Feast of the Theophany of the Lord and His Baptism in the Jordan River, we celebrate different steps and renewal of our faith in God and His only-begotten Son.
The core quotation relating to this event is to be found in the Epistle to the Galatians [4:4-6]: "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the [Jewish] Law to redeem them that were under the Law, that they might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father".
We do need to have some dreams at times, or at least to think that a child was born and that it is a wonderful appearance. Then, like parents or relatives leaning on a newborn child's cradle, we may behave in a very childish if not churlish way. This is normal - taking pictures and videotapes, hugging, kissing and buzzling around. At the time of the birth of our Lord, there were no journalists, media or televisions to show "live" His coming into the world. It was not a scoop nor an event on sale, and the Lord rested in a manger in a separate place. It is a general theological opinion today that if the child and the mother were put apart in a poor isolated place, it was in order to protect the health and comfort of both the mother and her child.
But this event was not broadcast, nor emailed nor phoned through mobiles on the air. The scoop imperiled in fact the life of the Lord because of a tremendous jealousy of power. If the King of the Jews is born, then Herod is no one and he lies in the face of God saying that he wants to venerate the Child. In fact, the only scoop, if any, would have been his will to kill God Who took flesh in His Son.
Jesus or Iesous was not born in Eastern or Western Europe, Asia, Africa, North or South America, Hawaii, the Galapagos Islands or Australia. This shows up quite often and this was also the temptation of Marcion, the theologian who simply wiped away all the verses referring to the Bible or First Testament, as if Jesus were born right out of the blue moon in an undetermined area, context and culture.
When accepting faith in Jesus Christ, many nations which are not connected with the tragedy of the relationships between Judaism and Christianity consider that this enrootment in the Bible is not important and even without meaning. They just accept Jesus Christ and add their own cultural traditions in order to replace the Torah, i.e. the Law, the Prophets and the Historical Chronicals of the Bible.
But Jesus was "ImmanuEl" [God with us]. His full name was "Yehoshua", which means that He received the same name as the spiritual son and successor of Moses, i.e. Josua or Yehoshua bin Nun [Josua the son of Nun, the Fish], which is very symbolic. Josua crossed the Jordan River and entered the Land of Canaan, leading the people to life. Jesus the Messiah came out of Egypt after the death of Herod and through His death and resurrection He shows the way to the Father Who is in Heaven, and Eternal Life.
Jesus was born, shaped and made in the womb of a woman. Therefore the Orthodox tradition insists on showing the Child in the arms of His Mother and never the Virgin alone. He is not a new idol. When we worship Him and glorify Him we recall at the same time His Resurrection from the dead, because otherwise we would be without hope or we would not confess that God reigns over the entire world. Jesus is not a new diety . He is not a product on sale. At present, as was the case in the pagan world and shown again and again throughout history in various regions, Jesus is not a "toy", a "reduced subject" or a product of consumption.
We often mix things and get confused: Jesus is not Santa Claus riding over skies and space to bring gifts and money. He is not the Russian "Ded' Moroz" [Grandpa Freeze] reflecting the ancient, interesting and respectable world of the heathens which progressively were "christianized".
Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah, the city of King David as mentioned in the Book of the Prophet Micha 5:2: "You, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the
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