The greatest miracle of the Incarnation of God is that, having been accomplished once in history, it is renewed in every person who comes to Christ. In the deep silence of the night, the Word of God was incarnated on earth: thus it is incarnated in the silent depths of our souls, where the mind is silent, where words are exhausted, where the mind of man stands before God. Christ was born unknown and unrecognized on earth, and only the magi and shepherds, together with the angels, came out to meet Him: so quietly and imperceptibly for others Christ is born in the human soul, and it comes out to meet Him, because a star is kindled in it, leading to the Light.

We mysteriously meet Christ in prayer when we suddenly discover that our prayer has been accepted and heard, that God "came and dwelt in us" and filled us with His life-giving presence. We meet Christ in the Eucharist when, having communed of the Body and Blood of Christ, we suddenly feel that our own body is permeated with His Divine energy and the Blood of God flows in our veins. We meet Christ in the other sacraments of the Church, when, through contact with Him, we are renewed and quickened to eternal life. We meet Christ in our neighbors when a person suddenly opens up to us and we see into his innermost depths, where the image of God shines. We meet Christ in our daily life when we suddenly hear His calling voice in the midst of the noise of it, or when we see His clear and sudden intervention in the course of history.

This is how, suddenly and unexpectedly, God intervened in the life of mankind twenty centuries ago, when He turned the whole course of history with His Birth. This is how He is born again and again in the souls of thousands of people and changes, transforms and transforms their entire lives, making them believers from unbelievers, saints from sinners, salvation from those who are perishing.

May the feast of the Nativity of Christ become the feast of the birth of Christ in our souls and our rebirth in Christ. Let us be silent for the sake of peace, so that the Word of God may be born in our souls and fill us with Divinity, Light and holiness...

1997

Christ is persecuted. The Second Day of the Nativity of Christ

"Out of Egypt I have called my son." These words of the prophet Amos about the fate of the people of Israel, who were led out of Egyptian captivity by God, sounded today, on the second day of Christmas, in the Gospel reading dedicated to the slaughter of the Bethlehem infants by the lawless King Herod (Matt. 2:13-23). Fearing that the newborn King of the Jews would someday encroach on his own kingdom, Herod sent soldiers, ordering them to kill all babies "from two years of age and under", in the hope that the newborn King would be among these babies. And Mary with Joseph and the Divine Child flee to Egypt to avoid death at the hands of the earthly king.

Thus, as soon as He is born, Christ finds Himself involved in the conflict between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God. He has not yet done anything, and they already want to kill Him. He has not yet learned to speak, but is already forced to flee to the land of exile. And His entire earthly life will be marked by the unceasing enmity of this world. For all the good that He has done for people, this enmity will repay Him with insults, perjury, betrayal, cruel torments, and in the end will lead Him to the Cross.

The conflict between God and "this world" began before the incarnation of the Son of God and did not cease after His death and resurrection. Long before the coming of Christ, the prophets predicted that Christ would not be accepted by His people, that He would be cast out and put to death. The prophets denounced the people of Israel and called them to repentance, but they did not listen to their voice and met Christ with all the strength of their hatred and malice. The people of Israel were waiting for a powerful "prince of this world" who would free them from foreign dominion, but they saw the meek King of Heaven and rejected Him. Christ "came to His own, and His own received Him not" (John 1:11).

The conflict between God and the world continues today. And in our days the lawless Herod raises his hand against the sons of his fatherland and puts them to death. Even today, the blood of the innocent is being shed, and no one seems to be able to stop the bloodshed. But where there is no peace, there is no Christ; where death reigns, there is no place for the Kingdom of God; where Herod rages, Christ cannot reign; where children are killed, "life cannot live". And if Herod builds a temple to God with one hand, and with the other continues to commit the murder of infants, God will not accept this temple. And if he builds up the kingdom of Israel, but at the same time banishes Christ into Egypt, his kingdom will not stand.

Christ brought peace to earth, which the angels announced: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14). These words are about the fact that reconciliation between God and man, between heaven and earth, comes when people are ready to reconcile with each other, when benevolence comes to replace enmity and war – good will. As long as people do not have the will to reconcile and stop internecine strife, there is no place between them for the born Christ.

Biblical Israel is a symbol of the Kingdom of God; Egypt is a symbol of world evil. The confrontation between Israel and Egypt runs through the entire Holy Scripture of the Old Testament. We remember the beautiful Joseph, whom his brothers betrayed out of envy and sold to Egypt. But God exalted him there, made him "the god of Pharaoh," put him above the whole country. And Joseph became a savior for his brothers, who had once betrayed him... We also remember the exodus of the people of God from Egypt, the land of slavery, to Israel, the promised land. We remember how Pharaoh chased after the Jews in order to destroy them, destroy them, trample them with horses, crush them with chariots. But the Lord led His people across the sea "on dry land," and Pharaoh's chariots perished in the abyss.

All these biblical stories prophetically and preformatively speak of one and the same thing – about the Son of God, Whom the world betrays, sells, persecutes and crucifixes, but Who rises in power, rises in glory. The struggle between the truth of God and the lies of this world continues. But it will end with the victory of Christ's truth. "And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith" (1 John 5:4). The Christian faith, which is the path from Egypt to Israel, the path from death to resurrection, has already been given to us as a pledge of the future victory of the Kingdom of Christ over the kingdom of the "prince of this world."