NATIVITY MESSAGE OF HIS EMINENCE, ARCHBISHOP BENJAMIN

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
(Galatians 3:23-29 NKJV, Third Hour of the Nativity)

NATIVITY OF THE LORD 2014

To the Reverend Clergy and Faithful of the Diocese of the West

Dearly beloved:

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Saint Paul challenges us on this glorious Feast of the coming in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ to see the radical change that all who follow Him must make. The world has been “celebrating” Christmas for quite some time, mostly through the liberal use of credit cards. That celebration will basically end on December 25^th. But the Church has spent the past weeks in prayer and fasting in preparation for the fulfillment about to come: the Son of God has become one of us that we might become like Him! Our celebration will explode with that totally new reality and a totally new creation.

The Apostle reminds us that we now live by faith, not just law. Our faith in the new-born Christ has made each one of us a child of God. We have been baptized into and put on Christ. Most importantly, we are now heirs. What are we to inherit? What does this mean for us who struggle to make Christ alive not just in the world, but in our own lives?

What we inherit is life and paradise. What it means is that every single one of us must never again live unchanged. If we truly have faith, if we truly have put on Christ, if we truly have become heirs, then all of creation must be seen in a new light. We are called to allow the new-born Christ into the dark caves of our hearts, to illumine and dispel the mundane. Everything is new and exciting! Nothing can ever be reduced again to simple “behaviors.” We are to be children of the promise — children of the Kingdom. Every one of us must now be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect because Christ is born! That Child has now filled all with Himself, including us. That act has not only made it possible, but has given us the Grace to follow Him despite our own feebleness and inadequacies.

I wish all of you the most blessed and glorious celebration of our Lord’s coming and pray that the path to a new creation and radical change be ever illumined by the Light of the new-born Christ!

In the new-born Lord,

†Benjamin
Archbishop of San Francisco and the West