Metropolitan John of Zambia said in his Christmas message that, during Christmas, Christ invited us to meet him, as the hymn writer says: “Christ from heaven, you replied” that is: “Let us hurry to meet Him, he came for this very reason and He is waiting for us.”
Our acquaintance with Christ, he pointed out, will be our true freedom because He said: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) He alone is the Truth: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 1:14).
Read the full message of the Metropolitan of Zambia:
My brethren,
This year’s Christmas will definitely be different. The coronavirus pandemic has brought upheavals, distribution and restrictions that at other times may have seemed unthinkable.
As a result, the demand for “freedom” sounds more and more urgent, more and more intense. But, what kind of “freedom” we have been seeking? We want to be “liberated” from what and from whom? What is the quality of the “freedom” we have been demanding?
Is it the “freedom” that will free us from precautionary health measures but it will enslave us again to our usual ephemeral addictions? We will be enslaved to consumerism, narcissism, individuality, procrastination, social idleness and complacency? Is it the superficial “freedom” that the Grand Inquisitor was seeking in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov”?
After all, this is the burning question: “Do humans really seek their freedom nowadays?” Are they just interested in seeking a so-called “happiness”? A “happiness” which they have bought at a very heavy price; that is their true freedom. This is the question that Christ raises every year and “makes us upset”, according to the Inquisitor. This is the question that each of us must address and internalise at all times and, in particular, these days of the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, the powerful people of our world, of the religious status quo, and of the urbanised version of Christianity, without making any exception, took advantage, according to the Grand Inquisitor, directly and indirectly, methodically and ruthlessly, of the “miracle, the sacrament and the sovereignty”. They have been trying to capitalise on the work of Christ and to persuade people to sell their freedom in exchange for so-called happiness. It is like a “piece of bread” that temporary satisfies our hunger and our conscience is clear.
Christ questions our artificial happiness every year and He makes us upset by raising some fundamental questions. He said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34). A sword that is meant to break the shackles of slavery and to offer the only real freedom.
The freedom that takes makes us selfless and invites us to coexist with tour fellow human beings in need, in poverty, in disease. This is the only way to gain our freedom: to become one with those who live in a hut in Africa or in a shack in the favelas of the Latin American slums; or, worse, in Hell called “child prostitution”, which has been created for people who seek to satisfy their perverted pleasures.
Can we walk the true path of freedom along with Christ? I am talking on behalf of all of us, the “proper” Christians: Have we ever wondered whether we took the place of the Inquisitor and whether we can not stand Christ who will be reborn to make us upset? He will tell us to stop being complacent and will offer us the opportunity to exchange our fake happiness with the real freedom that only He can offer us.
This may be the true meaning of Christmas; the opportunity that Christ offers us to find our lost freedom. He gives us the opportunity to allow him to be reborn within us since He has been always welcoming us despite our heart made of stone. He has been always giving us the opportunity and He will always have the final say.
Merry Christmas!
I wish you all the best,
Metropolitan John of Zambia