{"id":72657,"date":"2021-01-04T13:16:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T12:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/?post_type=slova&p=72657"},"modified":"2021-01-04T13:33:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T12:33:44","slug":"patriarchal-proclamation-for-christmas-2020","status":"publish","type":"slova","link":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/sermons\/epistles\/patriarchal-proclamation-for-christmas-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriarchal Proclamation For Christmas 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u2720 B A R T H O L O M E W<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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BY GOD\u2019S MERCY ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE-NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH<\/div>\n
TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH<\/div>\n
GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE<\/div>\n
FROM THE SAVIOR CHRIST BORN IN BETHLEHEM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Most venerable brothers in Christ and beloved children,<\/div>\n
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As we journey with the All-Holy Virgin, who comes \u201cto give birth ineffably\u201d to the pre-eternal Word, and as we gaze upon Bethlehem, which prepares itself to receive the holy infant, behold we have once more reached Christmas filled with sentiments of gratitude to the God of love. The journey to this great feast of the nativity in the flesh of the world\u2019s Savior was different this year with regard to the outward conditions, resulting from the current pandemic. Our church life and the participation of our faithful in the sacred services, as well as the church\u2019s pastoral care and good witness in the world were all affected by the repercussions of the related health restrictions. However, all this does not affect the innermost relationship of the faithful with Christ or of our faith in His providence and our devotion to \u201cthe one thing that is necessary.\u201d[1]<\/div>\n
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In secularized societies, Christmas has lost its original identity and has been reduced to a celebration of ostentatious consumption and worldliness, without any suspicion that on this holy day we commemorate the \u201ceternal mystery\u201d[2] of the divine incarnation. Today, the proper Christian celebration of Christmas is an act of resistance to the secularization of life and to the dilution or demise of the sense of mystery.<\/div>\n
The incarnation of the Word reveals the content, direction, and purpose of human existence. The all-perfect God subsists as perfect man, so that we may be able to exist \u201cin the manner of God.\u201d \u201cFor God became human in order that we might become deified.\u201d[3] In the profound formulation of St. Gregory the Theologian, man is \u201ccommanded to become God,\u201d[4] \u201ca divinized being.\u201d[5] Such is the supreme dignity afforded to humankind, which renders our existence an insurmountable honor. In Christ, all people are called to salvation. Before God, \u201cthere is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free man, neither male nor female; for everyone is one in Christ Jesus,\u201d according to the divinely inspired theology of the Apostle Paul.[6] This is a decisive reversal in the field of anthropology, the hierarchy of values, and the perception of ethos. Since that time, whosoever insults humankind also defies God. \u201cFor there is nothing as sacred as man, in whose nature God participated.\u201d[7]<\/div>\n
Christmas constitutes the entire divine-human life of the Church, where Christ is constantly experienced as the One who was, is and will come. The One \u201cin His Mother\u2019s embrace\u201d is the One \u201cin the bosom of the Father,\u201d the child Jesus is the One who was crucified, resurrected and ascended in glory into the heaven, the righteous judge and the King of glory. It is this inexpressible mystery that we glorify with psalms and hymns, unto which we minister, while at the same time having been and being ministered by Him. This is what the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon was divinely inspired to define \u201cfollowing the Holy Fathers.\u201d The \u201cdoctrine of Chalcedon,\u201d which describes the way \u2013 beyond reason and comprehension \u2013 that the Word of God assumed the flesh of the world, is \u201cchanted\u201d by the all-sacred Church of Haghia Sophia in the City of Cities, the pride of Orthodoxy and the glory of the oikoumene, through the architectural expression, the organization of sacred space, the impressive dome, which reflects how the divine philanthropy unites all things, the heavenly with the earthly, but also through the icons and decorations, as well as through the unique theological language of splendid lighting.<\/div>\n
In the midst of many circumstances and sorrows, we hear today the resounding voice of the \u201cLord\u2019s angel,\u201d who \u201cbrings the good news of a great joy . . . to all people, for to us is born this day a Savior, who is Christ Jesus.\u201d[8] We celebrate Christmas, praying for our brothers and sisters in danger and illness. We admire the self-sacrifice of the doctors and nurses and all those who contribute to confronting the pandemic. We rejoice as we discover that the patient is approached as sacred person and is not reduced to a number, a case, an object, or an impersonal biological unit. As it has been said so eloquently, \u201cthe white gown\u201d of the physicians is \u201ca white cassock\u201d that expresses surrender from what is \u201cmine\u201d for the sake of my brother, \u201cseeking the interests of the other\u201d[9] and the complete commitment to the suffering one. For this \u201cwhite cassock\u201d \u2013 just as for the clergyman\u2019s cassock, since both are symbols of a spirit of sacrifice and service \u2013 the inspiration and driving force is love, which is always a gift of divine grace and never exclusively our own achievement.<\/div>\n
The perilous pandemic has shattered much of what we have taken for granted, revealing the limits of the \u201ctitanism\u201d of the contemporary \u201cman-god\u201d and demonstrating the power of solidarity. Alongside the indisputable truth that our world comprises a whole, that our problems are common, and that their solution demands a joint action and agenda, what was supremely manifested was the value of the personal contribution, the love of the Good Samaritan, which surpasses every human standard. The Church actively supports \u2013 in deed and in word \u2013 our suffering brothers and sisters, while praying for them, their relatives and all those responsible for their care, and at the same time proclaiming that the healing of the sick \u2013 as a temporary victory over death \u2013 pertains to transcendence and to the ultimate abolition of death in Christ.<\/div>\n
Unfortunately, the healthcare crisis has not allowed the development of activities foreseen for 2020, as \u201cthe year of pastoral renewal and due concern for the youth.\u201d We hope that the coming year will render possible the realization of planned initiatives for the new generation. We know from experience that, when our young men and women are approached with understanding and love, they reveal their creative talents and enthusiastically contribute to such initiatives. In the end, youth is a particularly \u201creligious\u201d time in our life \u2013 filled with dreams, visions and deep existential pursuits, with a vibrant hope for a new world of fraternity. It is this \u201cnew creation\u201d[10] \u2013 the \u201cnew heavens and new earth . . . where righteousness dwells\u201d[11] that the Church of Christ proclaims as good news and reflects in its journey to the Kingdom.<\/div>\n
Beloved brothers and blessed children,<\/div>\n
In the Church, man is completely renewed and not just \u201cassisted.\u201d There, man \u201clives in the truth\u201d and experiences his divine destiny. As the Holy and Great Council of Orthodoxy declared, in the Church \u201cevery person constitutes a unique entity, destined for personal communion with God.\u201d[12] We share the divinely-given conviction that our present life is not our entire life, that evil and negativity do not have the final word in history. Our Savior is not a deus ex machina that intervenes and annihilates troubles, while simultaneously abolishing our freedom, as if this was a \u201ccondemnation\u201d from which we need to be delivered. For us Christians, the unparalleled Patristic words hold true: \u201cThe mystery of salvation pertains to those who are willing to be saved, not to those who are coerced.\u201d[13] The truth of the freedom in Christ is tested through the Cross, which is the way to the Resurrection.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In this spirit, concelebrating Christmas and the other feasts of the sacred Twelvetide in a God-pleasing manner with all of you, we pray from our sacred Center of the Phanar that the Savior, who condescended to the human race, may grant you health, love for one another, progress in every good thing, and every blessing from above, on the occasion of the new year that dawns and in all the days of your life. Let it be so!<\/div>\n
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Christmas 2020<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2720 Bartholomew of Constantinople<\/div>\n
Fervent supplicant for all before God<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[1] Cf. Lk 10.42.<\/div>\n
[2] Maximus the Confessor, Varia on Virtue and Evil, Century I, 12 PG 90.1184.<\/div>\n
[3] Athanasius the Great, On the Incarnation 54.<\/div>\n
[4] Gregory the Theologian, Funeral Oration to Basil the Great, PG 36.560.<\/div>\n
[5] Gregory the Theologian, Homily 44 on Holy Pascha, PG 36. 632.<\/div>\n
[6] Gal 3.28.<\/div>\n
[7] Nicholas Cabasilas, On the Life in Christ VI, PG 150.649.<\/div>\n
[8] Lk 2.9\u201311.<\/div>\n
[9] 1 Cor 10.24.<\/div>\n
[10] 2 Cor 5.17.<\/div>\n
[11] 2 Pet 3.13.<\/div>\n
[12] Encyclical, \u00a7 12.<\/div>\n
[13] Maximus the Confessor, On the Lord\u2019s Prayer, PG 90.880.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":72654,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"tags":[1384,2198,1573,2560,1172,1385],"category_slova":[3239],"avtori":[],"class_list":["post-72657","slova","type-slova","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bozik-en","tag-christmas-encyclical","tag-ecumenical-patriarchate","tag-ecumenical-patriarch","tag-patriarch-bartholomew","tag-nativity-of-christ","category_slova-epistles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slova\/72657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slova"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/slova"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72657"},{"taxonomy":"category_slova","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_slova?post=72657"},{"taxonomy":"avtori","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/avtori?post=72657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}