Christmas is the day that humanity encountered the Logos of God as a newborn baby lying in a manger. Christmas is the day when “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Christmas is the day that our Savior was born in the poverty of a stable, becoming the poorest of the poor and the neediest of the needy to teach us that we must live a life of humility and simplicity: “Though he was rich yet for your sake He became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthian 8:9).
Christmas is about life. Christmas is about birth and joy. Christmas is about love – eternal, unselfish, and self-sacrificing. Christmas is about sharing and caring. It is about forgiving and reconciling. Christmas is about respect for other people’s dignity and personhood. Christmas is about our yearning for peace in Jerusalem and throughout the world. Christmas is about the lowly and forgotten. Christmas is about the homeless and the hungry. Christmas is about the rejected, the battered and abused. But Christmas is also about the best in all of us – the human spirit, our courage and compassion, our dreams and aspirations, our sensitivity and our decency. Christmas is about the enduring love of God richly bestowed on humanity.
This Christmas, let us pray that our hearts be transformed into mangers worthy to welcome our Savior in simplicity and humility. Let us experience the joy of Christmas and feel the presence of the newborn Savior in our hearts every day of the New Year 2024.
+ Methodios
Metropolitan of Boston
