“He who is rightly called the Lord of Peace faces the light of the world in conditions of hatred and persecution, to show us once and for all that the things that count in the life of every human being and are valid in all times, are not determined by external circumstances. No injustice, no misery and no pandemic alone can deprive us of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” pointed out Metropolitan Augustinos of Germany in his Christmas message.
The Metropolitan of Germany stated as well in his message: “He knows from experience human pain, human weakness, our impasses and fear in the face of myriad external threats and internal traps, and He comes to heal them quietly and gently. Jesus Christ stands with affection by anyone who freely seeks the security and power that comes from Him.
Read below the message of the Metropolitan of Germany:
My dear Christian Orthodox of Germany!
The apostles Matthew and Luke are those two disciples of Christ, who tell us in their Gospels all the events surrounding the birth of the Savior and describe it as follows.
Joseph and his fiancée Maryam, who is in an advanced stage of pregnancy, make a painful journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They have to take part in the census that Emperor Octavian Augustus has ordered to be done in all parts of the Roman Empire. And when they reach their destination there is no place for them to stay. After Jesus is born, His Blessed Mother swaddles Him and lays Him in a crib, the place of the stable where the animals eat. It is not long before wise men from the East come to venerate Him, and it is revealed that King Herod is seeking to find the child to kill Him. In the middle of the night, Joseph takes the child and His mother and they leave for Egypt, where they stay until the day when an angel sent by the Lord informs them that those who wanted to kill the child died and that they could return to the land of Israel. Earlier, Herod had given a horrific order to the soldiers to kill all the children of Palestine from the age of two and under, who fell victim to the absurdity of human evil.
Already at His birth our Lord had no place to tilt His head, as He later said on another occasion. And even as an infant he had a deadly enemy, who to escape his murderous plan became one of the many refugees in human history.
From these testimonies of the two Evangelists we find that the fact of the birth of Christ has nothing imaginary, nothing romantic and nothing spectacular. On the contrary, the Son of God becomes man silently, and His birth, which was to determine the measurement of time, takes place in obscurity and indescribable humility.
He who is rightly called the Lord of Peace faces the light of the world in conditions of hatred and persecution, to show us once and for all that the things that count in the life of every human being and are valid in all times, are not determined by external circumstances. No injustice, no misery and no pandemic are capable of depriving us of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. All of these are the fruits of the Holy Spirit; all of these are the things that count and, even in the darkness of ugliness, give meaning to our lives and make them beautiful and bright.
We owe all this to the child born in Bethlehem, Jesus Christ, who is always with us. He knows from experience the human pain, the human weakness, our impasses and the fear in front of myriad external threats and internal traps, and he comes to heal them calmly and gently. Jesus Christ stands with affection by anyone who freely seeks the security and power that comes from Him.
The seemingly weak child of Bethlehem is the ruler of human history, its hope and redemption. Thus Christmas gives the unique opportunity to us and to Christians all over the world to accept in our lives and to embrace with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths “the most beautiful and sweetest offspring of the East: Jesus Christ”. This is my paternal wish for everyone. Blessed Christmas!
Your Metropolitan,
+ Augustinos of Germany
