| THE NATIVITY ADDRESS OF HIS GRACE THE RIGHT REVEREND MERCURIUS, BISHOP OF ZARAISK, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE PATRIARCHAL PARISHES IN THE USA |
|
|
| To
the Venerable Clergy and Faithful of the Patriarchal parishes in the
USA Dear Brothers and Sisters: During these holy days our hearts are once again filled with an exceptional joy, for the heavenly is now being united to the earthly: God, Who is coming to earth, “took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Phil.2:7). He comes year after year in order to unite the likeness and the Original. This is why the Feast of the Nativity of Christ is a triumph of our faith and a fulfillment of our hope for salvation and eternal life with Christ in His Heavenly Kingdom. This celebration of ours, surely, differs sharply from all other celebrations and feasts. His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, of blessed memory, writes: “On this day, when God became man, when the living God Himself dwelt among us in the flesh, He united Himself to the hardest human wretchedness. No one took His Mother under his roof; all considered Him a stranger, all sent Him into a long and endless journey, which awaits all homeless and rejected wanderers. And they went on. And this night Christ partook of the destiny of all those who, century in and century out, walk through life physically and spiritually rejected, despised, unwanted, expelled from society”. “There have been an incalculable amount of people like these during whole human history. Up to this day – alas! – in big cities and in the vastness of the world there are so many people, who have no place to go to; whom no one waits; who is not shown compassion by anyone; and to whom no one is ready to open the doors of their house. Because it is frightening to become a part of the destiny of these men. Because people, other people have cut them out of their hearts and their destiny. Loneliness – the feeling that consumes the hearts of so many people, - was the allotment of the Most Pure Theotokos, Joseph, and Christ, Who was just born. This is the beginning of His earthly path, which made Him one with all those who live like this today also. These wanderers are strangers among people, who have had to be their brothers. They are despised through human villainy, cowardice, and animosity. They are easily hurt due to their fragility and defenselessness”. It is up to us, the Christians, to see in them the image of That God, Whom we reverentially honor today. We have to accept them in such a way as if we would accept now Christ Himself, would He have appeared before us deprived, vulnerable, rejected, hated, and persecuted”. Why should we remember all of this? Isn’t Christmas nowadays very often merely a fireworks of impressions, bright colors, and presents? The memory of this is necessary so that we do not loose the true meaning of our life; so that we remain Christians – id est, those, who are the followers of Christ in the very essence of our service to our neighbors, not in the name alone. This year the Lord blessed me with a group of clerics of the Patriarchal parishes to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of Palestine. We stood on the ground that was consecrated through the touch of the feet of our Savior. In the life-giving tomb of the Lord, in Gethsemane, in Bethany and Jericho, on the Jordan shore and in Galilee we offered prayers for all of you, the true children of our Mother, the Russian Orthodox Church. We prayed at the very place where the Most Pure Virgin Mary gave birth to Christ the Savior; where he laid in the manger; where in the field of Bethlehem the angels cried a wonderful song of God’s incarnation to the simple shepherds. This is why in this Address I would like to extend to all of you, my dear ones, the blessing of the Holy Land and share with you that warmth, that it leaves in the soul of a pilgrim. Let us end this year with thanksgiving to the Lord for all His manifold blessings and unceasing help, which He granted to all of us, both pastors and laymen. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and all Russia we had successfully held the Tenth Convocation of the Patriarchal parishes and elected new members of the Bishop’s Council. In this Address I would like to wish to them and to all those, who labor in the Church, a continuous help of God and earnest fruitful work. This year we several times celebrated the Divine Liturgy together with almost all the clerics of the Patriarchal parishes – on Bright Saturday in Garfield, at St. Nicholas Cathedral of New York during the days of the Convocation, before the great treasures of the Russian Orthodox Church, the wonderworking icons “Tikhvinskaya” and “Kursk-Root”. The latter was brought to the Cathedral with the blessing of the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Metropolitan Laurus. These are the special signs of God’s mercy and benevolence of the Mother of God towards our flock. Greeting you all, my dear ones, with Christ’s Nativity and New Year, I am prayerfully wishing to you that the Lord, with His generous hand, would bestow upon you His great blessings, give you peace and strong health! + MERCURIUS, Bishop of Zaraisk, Administrator of the Patriarchal parishes in the USA |
Back
to Hierarch PageNativity of Christ, 2005 New York City