WESTFIELD, NJ –
His Eminence Metropolitan Apostolos of New Jersey shared a deeply theological and pastoral Christmas message this year, inviting the faithful to contemplate the Incarnation and the divine peace offered to humanity through Christ.
His message is as follows:
By God’s Grace we have once again deemed worthy to celebrate Christmas, the Mother of all feasts. On that holy night when God, bowing the heavens, descended to earth and was incarnated of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, the Angels in amazement at this occurrence chanted “Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace, good will among men”. With the birth of the Theanthropos, the “God-Man”, Jesus Christ, God revealed Himself to mankind. He revealed the greatness of His love and the depth of His wisdom, as well as His unwavering plan to save mankind from the devil, from sin, and from death. Now peace is a reality, because by the incarnation of the Son and Word of God the wall of enmity that man had raised between himself and God is now destroyed, and thus man is now at peace with God and with his fellow man. Now “God is with us”, and whoever truly believes in Him, whoever participates in His life sacramentally and ascetically within the Church, whoever partakes with humility of His pure Body and His precious Blood, that person is at peace, both within himself and outside himself, as he awaits the eternal Kingdom of God.
From the depths of our soul, then, on this great feast and celebration of the Nativity of Christ, let us, too, repeat the divine words of St. John Chrysostom: “Come let us celebrate. Come let us keep the sacred feast. Indeed, the manner of this feast is strange, since the manner of His birth is also strange. Because today the ancient bonds have been loosed. The devil has been put to shame. The demons have been put to flight. Death has been annulled. Paradise has been opened. The curse has been utterly destroyed. Sin has been driven far away. Delusion has been removed. Truth has returned. The word of piety has been sown and spread far and wide. The heavenly manner of life has been planted on earth. The angels communicate with men. All things have become one. Why? Because God has come to earth, and man has ascended to heaven”.
Με πατρική αγάπη εν Κυρίω,
†Ο Νέας Ιερσέης Απόστολος
