NATIVITY MESSAGE OF HIS EMINENCE, ARCHBISHOP BENJAMIN

Nativity 2012

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
(Matthew 4:16)

To the Clergy, Monastics and Faithful of the Diocese of the West:

Christ is Born!

We celebrate today the entry of the pre-eternal God into time and human history.  We marvel at the humility of the God who comes to Bethlehem to be born in a cave.  We stand in awe of the Creator who comes forth from the Virgin’s womb, not to accuse or condemn a sinful world that trembles in a darkness of its own fashioning, but to bind up its wounds and to show it love and compassion.  He comes as the Samaritan, Who being rejected and discounted, nevertheless takes pity on mankind that has fallen among thieves, been stripped of everything, beaten and left to die at the side of the road.

Our fallen world still stumbles in the darkness and refuses to accept the gentle light that has appeared in the manger today.  Human beings still love the darkness and choose madness.  And when, as it did at that elementary school in Connecticut just over a week ago, it seems that the evil of men has prevailed and there is no hope, Christ is born and we are humbled by God Who still finds us worth loving, Who still sees something of value in us.

We have been called through baptism and chrismation to be animate icons, to make God’s presence known and felt in the world.  God reaches down and touches the world through our hands.  He hears the cries of His creation by means of our ears.  He sees the harm that men do through our eyes.  And, our lips are called to proclaim His message, the Good News that He loved the world so much that He sent His only-begotten Son to abolish death and restore Adam and his children to life.

I ask God’s blessing upon you and your families.  And, I pray that God can find us all to be worthy co-workers in bringing healing and the Light that can dispel every darkness to this troubled world.

+Archbishop Benjamin

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