To the archpastors, pastors, deacons, monks and nuns, and all the faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church
Beloved in the Lord archpastors, honourable priests and deacons, God-loving monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters!
Raising our praises to God, glorified in the Trinity, and sharing with you the joy of this solemn feast, I address you, the Orthodox children of our Church who live in Russia or in other countries under the pastoral responsibility of the Moscow Patriarchate. To all of you I offer my heartfelt wishes for a blessed feast of the Nativity of Christ, the feast of the incarnate love of the Creator for His creation, the feast of the fulfilment of the promise of the coming of the Son of God to earth, the feast of the hope of salvation and eternal life.
A great and wondrous marvel is accomplished this day: the Virgin gives birth and her womb suffers no corruption; the Word becomes flesh and is not separated from the Father. Angels and shepherds give glory, and we with them cry out: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace (stichera of the feast). With these words the Church of Christ bears witness to the mysterious event that took place more than two thousand years ago in the cave of Bethlehem and changed the course of human history. With amazement and devotion we spiritually bend the knee before the mystery of the divine plan of salvation, which is beyond the reach of the human mind. Accepting with gratitude this sacrificial gift of the Creator and of Providence, who willed it for us, we acknowledge His grace, proclaim His love, and do not hide His benefits (prayer for the blessing of waters).
What must we, Christians of the twenty-first century, do in order to become partakers of this truly inestimable gift of God and to become worthy of His Kingdom, prepared from the foundation of the world (Mt 25:34)?
All that we can and must do in this life is to answer His love with our own. This means to believe in God and trust Him completely, to keep the commandments of the Gospel, to turn away from evil and do good (Ps 33:15), to be, as the Saviour asks, the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Mt 5:13–14).
Endowed with free will and with the inviolable right to choose, a person can either accept Christ or reject Him, be on the side of light or plunge into the darkness of sin, live according to conscience or according to the elements of the world (Col 2:8), establish paradise in his heart through good deeds or, on the contrary, do evil and experience the torments of hell even here below. In other words, each of us is called to joy and to the fullness of life – to put it simply, to happiness – but, and it is important to stress and to understand this, happiness is impossible without God, for He is the source of life and of all good things. He is the Creator and Providence, He is a loving Father, our helper and protector. Endowed with a free will, man can choose life and attain the divine likeness, but he is also free to choose a different life, without God, without grace, which leads him to perdition.
That is why the Lord, who created us, does not save us without our participation. In the conjunction of the will of God, good and perfect (Rom 12:2), and the human will, imperfect indeed but striving for the good, lies the pledge of our right progress along the path of earthly life. Ultimately, the eternal destiny of every person is the continuation of the spiritual state that was his during his earthly life.
Keeping this in mind, let us strive, in the words of the Apostle Paul, to acquire love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22–23) and the other gifts of the Spirit. Let us do all we can to remain Christians not only in name but also in our way of life, in our attitude toward our parents and our loved ones, toward our co-workers and colleagues, toward every person in need of our help and assistance, of our compassion and support.
Every day, and even more on this feast, we are called to pray fervently for the peace of the whole world, the stability of the holy Churches of God, for the sick, for those who suffer, for prisoners : these petitions are particularly timely today, for the forces of evil, desiring to sow discord and division, have united against Orthodoxy. They sow enmity and hatred, using every means to carry out their treacherous designs. But we believe and hope that, by divine power, the powerless audacity of the demons and their minions will be confounded. So it has been many times in the past, and so it will be today. The centuries-long experience of the Church convinces us of this.
I express particular gratitude to all those who continue their pastoral ministry in Ukraine today, remaining faithful to canonical Orthodoxy, sometimes at the risk of their lives and health, and to all who walk fearlessly along the path of the confession of the faith, enduring insults and afflictions for the sake of Christ and the Church. May the Lord help these courageous defenders and champions of the Truth in their trials, and may their sufferings be counted to them as to the righteous.
Whatever happens, spiritually we are one. We are one, for we come from the same baptismal font. We are one, for together we form the fullness of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. We are one, for we are bound by the indestructible bonds of love in Christ. We are one, for the word of the Saviour is inviolable, who said: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). That is why we Christians have nothing to fear and must fear no one, as the Apostle Paul reminds us when he exclaims: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31). Inspired by this promise, we live and create, we struggle and conquer in the name of the Lord, for, as the Apostle Peter said: “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There was none, there is none, and there will be none; the Church is a witness to this.
From the coming of the Lord on earth until today, all who believe in Him can become children of the heavenly Father, for, as the Apostle Paul affirms, we are now members of the household of God, and no longer strangers (Eph 2:19). This means that we are all His children, that in Him and through Him we are kin, we are close to one another.
In the liturgy and the rites of the Church, which is the place of encounter between man and his Creator, the veil is parted onto eternity, and even here below, on earth, we can taste the coming fullness of being when, in the words of Holy Scripture, God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28), when nothing and no one will be able to separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:39), from the joy of communion with Him, when He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, for the former things have passed away (Rev 21:4).
Proclaiming to men the good news of the Saviour’s coming into the world, the Church, like a loving mother, calls us all to believe in Christ and to live according to His commandments in order to become heirs of eternal blessedness. Truly, the Lord came to earth to raise us up to heaven. He tirelessly offers people the path of spiritual and moral transfiguration through the keeping of the commandments of the Gospel, through the cooperation of man and God, through the action of His grace, conferred in the sacraments of the Church.
If, in our relations with others, amid the labours and cares of daily life, we learn to be guided by the divine precepts, much will change not only within us but around us: life will acquire its true meaning and be filled with true joy and happiness.
Let us be worthy of the name and calling of Christians. Let us go forward in life with firm faith and unshakable hope in help from heaven, rejoicing in each day and in every new opportunity to do good, loving our neighbours and giving thanks always for all things to God (Eph 5:20), to whom belong glory, honour and worship, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA
Nativity of Christ
2024 / 2025
Moscow