The following in an excerpt from “Eros of Orthodoxy,” translated by Fr. Nicholas Palis and written by Mr. Pantelis Paschou.
Whoever desires to feel something more spiritual, something deeper and more invigorating for the life of our worn souls, it’s not enough to read the philology that every pamphlet offers. They must walk a great distance with the bright star of love and humility as their guide, to find the manger. And after they worship the divine Babe, to communicate the “strange and foreign mystery.” Without this communion of the Mystery, the Birth of Christ is just an occurrence that passes us by as an indifferent event. If Christ does not mystically take birth in the Bethlehem inside of us, and we don’t personally communicate his incarnation, the dark cave of our heart will never become heaven, as it did two thousand years ago, when “the uncontainable to all, was contained in the Virgin’s womb” and was born in the humble cave.
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We should approach the “foreign and strange mystery” of the incarnation with humility and purity of body and spirit. Whoever works unceasingly for physical pleasure has little hope of approaching the incorrupt Birth of our Lord. And it is impossible, when we live in sin, to be made worthy of the great good, in other words to feel the divine birth and the incarnation of Christ spiritually occurring inside of us.
Saint Gregory the Theologian says: “First one must cleanse himself, afterwards one is able to communicate with the clean.” The Christian can live the mystery of incarnation after he cleanses the cave of the Bethlehem inside of him, with the divine bath of the Church.
Today, when man loves God, God then comes to be born inside us as long as we desire it. Divine Maximus assures us of this saying in his “Theological” chapters: “God’s Logos at once born in the flesh, always wishing to be born in spirit to those who desire it and becomes a babe himself in those spreading the virtues.” That divine Babe, who comes out of love and philanthropy to be born inside of us grows and is shaped by the increase of our virtues. Without virtues, He isn’t born inside us—no matter how many Christmases we celebrate, nor does the babe of Bethlehem grow in us.
Christ with his divine Birth lowered heaven to earth and raised the earth to heaven. God became man in order to make man God. Now in this second communion of God and man, God takes on flesh from all pure Mary, in order to divinize our human nature.
This depth of condescension and humility which Christ showed with His divine emptying and His incarnation, assures to what extent man can reach union with God. Here is hidden a great mystery. And man needs great faith without doubts, without perverseness—he toils for high things, but unable to grasp heaven, he slips and again falls to earth—in order to see God’s incarnation which is [So much as (Faith and Love) make man a God, as much as He became man. Because He, (being) without sin became man, in fact, without changing in divinity, the nature will be deified and so much will elevate himself, as much as he brought down Himself for man” (Maximus).
Here we see the depth of St. Maximus’ theological position who reveals to us how far apart Christ’s love and action is from the dialectical and healing habits of the world. In the mystery of divine economy we see Christ’s deprivations healing our own deprivations. The incarnation of the Logos became our theosis. His divine emptying became our fulfillment. His condescension became our uplifting. His Passion’s suffering our own passionlessness. And His death gave us eternal life.
In this way Christ does not follow the approach of the doctors who heal human suffering with the opposite medicine. But with the same He heals the same. The “poverty” of the God-Logos heals our own poverty. His passion heals our passions. His death triumphs over our own death. His corruption heals our corruption and His pain in general heals our every pain.
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Christ’s birth will always remain a “strange and odd mystery” for man. Because Christ even when he is spiritually born inside of us, reveals himself “only as much as the receiver can stand to bear.” No matter how much man tries to trace out the mystery of divine incarnation with his logic it is impossible for him to do it.
One should glorify “without curiosity” Him who chose to become this for us. “Only faith can contain these mysteries which are things beyond mind and speech,” says Saint Maximus.
Concerning this same matter, one of Orthodoxy’s great mystics Saint Symeon the New Theologian notes: “Of good fortune is he who sees the light of the world, that is Christ, being formed inside of him, for he will be considered the Mother of Christ having Christ inside of him as a babe just as the ever-truthful one promised himself. ‘My mother and brothers and friends are those who hear the word of God and carry them out’.”
This “carrying out” during the days of Christmas which are days of joy and celebration, probably seem somewhat severe. But virtues are not reached without deprivations and sacrifices. For the Orthodox Christian the celebration and feasting of Christmas is spiritual. “Let us honor,” says an old ecclesiastical author, “the day of the Master, let us glorify Christ, not with dances, intoxication, and idle conversations. Not with games and songs, and whatever the demon rejoices over us doing. Not with evil stories and gluttonous eating, but with thanksgiving, with doxologies, with clean hearts, but with whatever God rejoices over and is glorified by.”
“Men and women let us not adorn ourselves with decorations, for we shall become dirt and earth. Let us not take pride in clothes and decorations and dresses, for death awaits us. Let us not fornicate and defile ourselves for the eternal fire and the gehenna of fire is prepared for such as these. Let us not get drunk and eat a lot, for tomorrow we will again become hungry as if we hadn’t eaten. What do we gain by drunkenness? What good does our soul grow if we eat a lot and go out? How many spent these days in games, dances, drunk, going out! But now they are dirt alone in the earth and it is fortunate if they did some good for their souls.”
“Brethren, let us take care of the poor; let us clothe the naked; let us feed the hungry; let us quench the thirsty; let us look after the sick; let us visit those in jail; let us be hospitable to foreigners; let us cry over the sinners; and let us praise the saints. Then let us say that we celebrated and feasted; then let God receive our celebration. Then let the angels rejoice over us.” Then let him come, to dwell with His love in us, the foreign and strange Mystery!
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