Saturday, December 24, 2005
AS WE AWAIT THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
the following passage, taken from “The Winter Pascha,” by Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko, SVS, sent to me in email, places the Nativity into the context of the entire life of Christ rather than focusing upon it as an isolated event.
Christians live between the two comings of Christ. They remember His first coming to be sacrificed. They anticipate His second coming to reign. This is vividly portrayed in traditional Orthodox church buildings where the “royal gates” of the icon screen in front of the altar table are flanked by the icons of the Theotokos and Child on the one side, and the Lord Jesus in glory on the other. To the uninitiated it may seem as though these are simply pictures of Mary and Jesus put on the same level. This is not so. The icons which frame the Orthodox altar are images of the two comings of Christ.
Mary is not alone in her icon; she is holding the Christ Child, who is not shown as a baby, but as the Son of God incarnate “in the form of a slave. . . in the likeness of men” (Phll 2:7). This is the icon of Christ’s first coming. And the icon on the right of the doors is not a picture of Jesus as He was on the earth. It is His image in glory as King and Lord, the icon of His second coming.
The two comings of Christ are held together in Christian thought, action, and prayer at all times. They cannot be separated. When they are, it is the end of Christian faith, life and worship. The first coming without the second is a meaningless tragedy. The second coming without the first is an absurd impossibility. Jesus is born to bring God’s kingdom. He dies to prove His kingship. He rises to establish His reign. He comes again in glory to share it with His people. In the kingdom of God there are no subjects. All rule with the risen Messiah. He came, and is coming, for this purpose alone.
You have taken me captive with longing for You, 0 Christ, and have transformed me with Your divine love. Burn up my sins with the fire of Your Spirit and count me worthy to take my fill of delight in You that dancing with joy, I may magnify Your two Comings.
* * * *
Christ our Judge commands us to be vigilant.
We wait expectantly for His visitation,
For He comes to be born of a virgin.
At Your awesome second coming, 0 Christ,
Number me with the sheep at Your right hand,
For You took up Your abode in the flesh to save us.
At Your first coming to us, 0 Christ,
You desired to save the race of Adam;
When You come again to judge us,
Show mercy on those who honor Your Holy Nativity.
A newborn baby is one of life's greatest joys; but once we leave childhood behind, unqualified joy will never come again. It is always tempered by the losses we've experienced.
There are only 366 dates on the calendar. With millions of people in the world, in the normal course of time it is inevitable that sadness will touch our lives at some moment when the world is rejoicing, and the natural human reaction is to cry "Why now?" "Why me?"
This reflection of Fr. Hopko places the birthday of the Christ Child, who grants us a release from the prison of sorrow, into the very context that we dread--the inevitable loss of death that is guaranteed by any new birth. But then there is the Resurrection. Then there is the promise that death is only a temporary separation. Unqualified joy will one day come again from this Baby who saves the world from the permanence of death. Only that promise can make Christmas worth the celebration.
