MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS 2015

“Be glad, you just, heavens rejoice,

mountains leap for joy; Christ is born…”

Sisters and Brothers,

We are glad and rejoice: This night of the Nativity of Christ our senses are open to the divine presence in the simpleness of cave, open to hear the voice of God. This voice is speaking to men, reconciling and filling them with love, light, joy and peace despite the coldness, the disasters and the misery of the outside world. This extraordinary night, millions of people leave all else and become like little children. The angelic praise of the divine services fill their souls with peace and heart-stirring and comforting certainty. Such is the power of the Infant of Bethlehem.

But in spite all this, a great and serious question arises from the depth of our souls: Can we taste the joy in God and forget all the sufferings of the world? How to proclaim the joy in God who has come to save mankind, if we do not identify with the oppressed world?

“How is he contained in a womb, whom nothing can contain? How held in his Mother’s arms, he who is in the Father’s bosom? This is all as he knows, as he wished and as he was well pleased. For being without flesh, willingly he was made flesh…”

This is our hope, our certainty. All is saved by the incarnation of God. It is our conviction that joy has been proclaimed to all the world, to every one of us and to everything around us – to christians and non-christians, to believers and unbelievers.

Here, in the manger, begins a story that overshadows all the other stories. One has come among us who is so humanly human and divinely God. What an incredible manifestation of love!

I wish you a blessed feast of Nativity and a happy new year. May the divine Saviour born in Bethlehem protect you and give you all health, strength and give you success for the glory of His Church.

Yours in Our Lord Incarnate,

+STEPHANOS of Tallinn and All Estonia