Reflections on the Nativity
We congratulate you all on the Nativity of the Lord Christ, this Nativity which was the executive beginning of the story of salvation and the story of redemption.
Therefore, when the elder Simeon carried Him on his arms, he said: “Now, Lord, you are letting Your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen Your salvation” …
The Lord Christ came into the world in order to “seek and to save that which was lost.” And this great salvation was driven by love… Thus: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Therefore, whenever you look at the image of the Nativity, we remember God’s love for us.
For “while we were yet sinners,” Christ came for our salvation… He emptied Himself, and took the form of a servant, and was found in appearance as a man… “and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.”
We do not take from the story of the Nativity only a lesson in love and self-giving, but we also take a lesson in humility…
How did the Lord endure to take the form of a servant and to be born in a manger of cattle, from a poor mother betrothed to a poor carpenter, in a small village which is “the least in Judah”?! And how did He endure to be associated with Nazareth, about which it was said in astonishment: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?!” Yet it is humility and complete distance from appearances, and from the love of greatness and praise…
When the Lord saw that Adam had fallen through the love of greatness and the lust of divinity, and likewise Satan before him, He responded to that by emptying Himself, in order to put pride to death by humility.
Christ came to present to us the divine image which we lost through sin. He created us in the image and likeness of God, but in our fall, we were no longer so. Thus, the Lord Christ came to offer us the life of holiness and the life of perfection in a practical image, which we can follow in our lives…
And He gave us the image of perfection for man in all stages of life.
The image of the Nativity also gives us an idea about endurance: Christ was born in the coldest days of the year. He endured cold and poverty, just as He endured persecution from Herod, and the hardship of exile in Egypt and flight to a foreign land…
Yet He loved endurance, and just as He was far from the manifestations of greatness, so also, He was far from comfort, and found delight in toiling for our sake…
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Seventh Year (Issue Two) 9-1-1976
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