Australian and New Zealand Diocese (ROCOR)

†
Christmas Epistle
of His Grace, Archbishop Hilarion
of Sydney, Australia & New Zealand

Nativity of Christ 2006/7

“For there is born to you this day in the city
of David a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord ”
(Luke 2:11).

Beloved in the Lord, Clergy and Faithful
of the Australian and New Zealand Diocese!

For ages, because of disobedience to God’s commandment and the loss of the blessedness of Paradise, humanity languished in the vale of tears in a state of ignorance, sinful captivity and despair, without a spiritual foundation, and only a very few maintained hope in the coming of the Divinely-promised Anointed One, the Redeemer of the world.

When the time appointed by the pre-eternal Providence of God was fulfilled, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), the Word being God Himself ( John 1:1), the Son of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity.

The Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35) and was in all things like us, except for sin, at the same time remaining God. Christ was not an ordinary man in whom God’s Son came to dwell, constituting, in this way, two persons, as Nestorius, a false teacher of the 5th century, once taught in an ungodly manner. The Son of God, having been pre-eternally born of the Father, was born in time from the Virgin Mary, receiving human flesh and nature from her and becoming the God-Man.

It is meet and right, therefore, to call the Most Pure Virgin Mary the “Birthgiver of God,” or “Theotokos,” as the Holy Fathers of the Third Ecumenical Council confirmed and as Elisabeth, the Mother of St John the Baptist, exclaimed, greeting her relative Mary while being filled with the Holy Spirit: “But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43).

Thus Christ, “Who is over all, the eternally blessed God” (Rom. 9:5), “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). After Christ accomplished the redemption of the human race through His sufferings and crucifixion on the Cross, “God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power,” says the holy Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 6:14). This is also our abiding hope.

St Irenaeus of Lyons comments: “The Only-begotten Word was united with His creation by the will of the Father and became flesh, and (the Word) is namely Jesus Christ our Lord, Who suffered for us and arose for our sake and will come again in the glory of the Father, in order to resurrect all flesh and grant salvation to all.”

Ascending to Heaven, the Saviour did not leave us as orphans in this world, but promised to abide unfailingly with us who believe in His holy name: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen” (Matt. 28:20).

He founded His Church, which “is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). This Holy Church, the Head of which is Christ Himself and which is guided and nourished by the grace of the Holy Spirit, stands throughout all ages unshaken and steadfast, despite the many attacks and fierce persecutions against it, as our Saviour promised: “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).

The Church of Christ is the Ark in which we are saved, utilising the abundant grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit.

How remarkably St Cyprian of Carthage writes concerning the significance for us of the Holy Church: “By her womb we are born; by her milk we are nourished; by her spirit we are animated. The spouse of Christ cannot be defiled; she is uncorrupted and chaste. She knows one home, with chaste modesty she guards the sanctity of one couch. She keeps us for God; she assigns the children whom she has created to the kingdom. Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined with an adulteress is separated from the promises of the Church, nor will he who has abandoned the Church arrive at the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy. He cannot have God as a father who does not have the Church as a mother. If whoever was outside the ark of Noah was able to escape, he too who is outside the Church escapes.”

How important and necessary is it for us today to appreciate the significance of these words of the holy Church father Cyprian! For how terrible it would be to find oneself outside the bounds of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ! Let us always remain in unity with the Holy Church and its spiritual leaders, because to be in unity with the Church means to be one with Christ.

Dear fathers, brothers and sisters in the Lord, I wholeheartedly rejoice with you in our Lord Who is born today. During these complex times in which we are living we especially have need of repentance, wisdom in humility, mutual love and prayer for one another, and solidarity in Truth with the Church and its episcopate.

May the coming year bring us peace, joy, well-being and especially mutual understanding. As we are all children of our Father Who is in Heaven, may our Heavenly Father be merciful to us all!

With love in Christ, Who for our sake was born in a cave in Bethlehem,

+ Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney,
Australia & New Zealand