"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."

On the scale of the whole world, the victory of Christ can be accomplished only when Christ dwells in the heart of every person. The transfiguration of the world begins with the transfiguration of the human heart, in which the mystical encounter with Christ takes place. Let us remember that with us, who have accepted Christ as our Savior, who have believed in Him as God, Christ's victory over the world begins. Let there not be one Herod among us. Let us be like the angels who came out to meet Christ, the magi who worshipped Him, the angels who sang a heavenly song in His honor about peace on earth and good will among people.

1996

"A foolish man saith, There is no God." Sunday after the Nativity of Christ

Today, on the Sunday after the Nativity of Christ, we hear the Gospel story of the flight of Joseph and the Most Holy Virgin with the infant Jesus into Egypt (Matt. 1:18-25). In this story, in addition to Joseph, Mary and Jesus, there is another character – King Herod. It was because of his wrath that the Holy Family fled to Egypt, it was he who became the culprit of the death of thousands of innocent babies.

The first thought that came to Herod's mind when he heard about the birth of the King of the Jews in Bethlehem was that this King could encroach on his power. To get rid of this danger, Herod calls for the death of all infants from two years of age and under in Bethlehem and its environs. The liturgical texts of the Orthodox Church say about this: "A foolish man says: There is no God. Whoever is filled with ultimate fury is afflicted with Christ-murder, but has fallen away from reason with insolence, to kill the infant who is not artificial, arm himself with everything, and defile the earth with blood." Here is the main reason for Herod's madness – for him "there is no God".

In other words, the whole life of this man passed only in an earthly perspective. For him, God did not exist, he did not fear Him, so in order to achieve earthly goals, he stopped at nothing, even at terrible villainy. It is known about Herod that he was a morbidly suspicious person, and this suspicion was born and nourished by his passion for power. He killed not only the infants of Bethlehem, but also many faithful servants and even his own wife and sons: all of them he suspected of conspiracy. This Jewish prince of the first century went down in history as a madman who opposed the will of God with his ambitions, his desire to hold on to the royal throne at all costs.