+SILUAN
BY THE GRACE OF GOD THE ORTHODOX BISHOP OF ANZ
To all clergy, monastic clergy, monastics and the faithful people of the God-saved Metropolitanate of
God's Peace - Christ is Born!
My dear spiritual children in the God-child Christ,
The feast of Christmas, the Birth of the God-child Christ, is the greatest joy, consolation, hope and strength of humanity, a humanity which has, under the burden of its worries, distanced itself and forgotten its higher calling and dignity in this world.
In the feast of Christmas man is newly reminded that he is created for the eternal and unceasing, that he is, according to the words of the Venerable Justin Popovic, "a small God in the mud", created in the image and likeness of God, an icon, which the Son of God in His incarnation and birth came to reestablish in himself, complete and uplift to heavenly heights.
The Word of God is born as a child in the cave and placed in a manger, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Most-holy Trinity, who willingly emptied and reduced Himself, so that we who are spiritually expended and depleted, may be filled, enriched and uplifted by His grace.
Let us try to fathom, brothers and sisters, the Creator and All-ruler, the Pantokrator, the One before whom the heavenly powers tremble, Whom King David recognised in the Spirit and exclaimed: "All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name"! (Ps. 65,4), is born in a dark cave and becomes a servant, so that he may free us from the captivity of sin, and make us sons of His Everlasting Day!
In the joy of this mystery revealed in Christmas, Christ's Church in this Christmas night exclaims: Who is the great God, like our God!
Having before us this good news, may our hearts be joyful this evening, may the light of Christ and His peace, which are so necessary for the human race, be for all of us a guiding star that will lead us to Him - our peaceful harbour and rest.
Observing the wars and conflicts in the world, the suffering, agony, death and horror, we are called to earnestly pray to the Lord - the King of peace, to illumine the hearts of fallen humanity, so that all will begin to see through the lens of His grace-filled peace. For the good news of Christmas proclaimed in the praise giving song of the angels, "Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, good will among men!“, reveals to us a mystery - that without a return to God, without the vertical doxology and praise due unto God in the heavens becoming enthroned in the hearts of men, there can be no peace and good will in the horizontal plain, that is, among men on earth.
Let us know, brothers and sisters, that the struggle for Christ's peace, begins and develops in the expanse of a man's heart. The triad of sin, death and the devil unrelentingly besiege and assail the walls of the castle of the heart - the centre of man's psychosomatic being, so that after conquering man it could sow its destruction not only within him, but within the entire world.
Because of this, my beloved in the God-child Christ, let us endeavour this Christmas to renew our life in the Lord! May our visits to the holy temple of God – to church, be regular. May we bring our children with us, our grandchildren, to acquaint them with Christ, with the only true Way, Path, and Life. May we confess our sins and partake of the Holy Cup, because without repentance, without the holy-virtuous and holy-sacramental life in the Lord Christ, there is no true life nor salvation.
This Christmas we are once again in prayer and thought with our brothers and sisters in crucified Kosovo and Metohija. Even though we are living on the Fifth Continent, we are called never to forget, neither we nor our offspring, the Holy Patriarchate of Peć, the Great Monastery Decani, Gazimestan and all our Holy and revered sites in Kosovo and Metohija.
Let us be one and united as children of Saint Sava. Let us know that the greatest victory of our enemies is our disunity. Christ is one, as well as His apostle among the Serbian people- Saint Sava. There can be no two Saint Savas, nor two Gospels of Christ!
Asking for forgiveness this Christmas, let us forgive one another that we may receive the grace of forgiveness. May Christ's peace rule in our hearts, in our families, in our people and in all the world!
Wishing you all much joy, endurance in faith, hope and love, as well as all blessings in the upcoming New year of the Lord, I greet you with the joyous greeting,
God's Peace – Christ is Born! He truly is born!
THE BISHOP FOR AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
+ Siluan