Friday, December 24, 2004 Strict Fast
Ven. Martyr Eugenia of Rome & Companions
1st Nativity Vigil Genesis 1:1-13 Epistle: Hebrews 11:8, 11-16 Gospel: St. Mark 9:33-41
Genesis 1:1-13, especially vss. 1-3: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth
was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of
the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." We are at the threshold of the Feast of the Nativity of
Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. At the Divine Liturgy celebrating His birth, we will again affirm our belief in
"the Holy, Consubstantial, Life-giving, and Undivided Trinity." We do this as the Church by taking our part in the prayers
and hymns and actions of the Liturgy, but we also make this commitment to God more personal by saying the Nicene
Creed. Pronouncing the words serves as a declaration of allegiance to "the Father Almighty, Maker...of all things visible
and invisible," which includes ourselves, to "one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God...by Whom all things were made,"
which again speaks of Him Who created us, and to "the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life," which adds to our
affirmation concerning our Creator God, for without the Lord, the Holy Spirit, we would not have existence and life.
Here we come face to face with the great mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ, our Creator Who became one of us. He set
aside the unbounded glory of His heavenly majesty and "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,
and coming in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:7). If we consider the immensity of the universe as men have researched and
described it, then the immensity of the Divine embrace of human limitations becomes even more staggering and difficult
for our finite comprehension, understanding, speech, and thought.
"In the beginning was the Word" (Jn. 1:1), God the Word, saying, "'Let there be light'; and there was light" (Gen. 1:3).
The choosing by God the Father, the uttering of God the Word, and the moving of God the Spirit, yields a result: "there was
light," and water and earth, and living plants and on and on, until our minds realize we exist solely because of His
choosing, uttering, and moving. The delicacy, intricacy, and enormity of the forces, entities, and powers that make up the
creation which God has spoken into existence are awe-inspiring, humbling.
Even more humbling is the condescension of the Word to become one of us in an elemental way, as a babe born of a human
mother into the flux of history at a moment which split time in two, before Christ and the years of our Lord, BC and AD
respectively. Creation is of one piece. We are able to see, touch, taste, smell, and handle the world around us. Sometimes
we feel at home in this creation, settled into it. At other times we are overwhelmed in our tiny self, for we can barely see,
touch, taste, smell, or handle even the tiny piece of the universe immediately before us. Somehow we can declare that
"God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Well enough. But that He became one of us is mentally staggering.
What is the solution to this overwhelming mystery of Our Creator? Simply, we must go back to the tangible bits and pieces
of the ordinary life which He made, which we can touch and handle every day, and there adore Him by means of these
approachable, understandable realities. "Come, ye believers, let us see where Christ was born. Let us follow the star
whither it goeth with the Magi, kings of the east; for there angels praise Him ceaselessly, and shepherds raise their voices in
a worthy song of praise, saying, Glory in the highest to the One born today in a cave from the Virgin Theotokos in
Bethlehem of Judea. Since God willeth, the order of nature is overcome, as it hath been written, Christ hath been born of
the Virgin in Bethlehem of Judea."
Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath given rise to the light of knowledge in the world, for from the east of the Highest Thou
didst come, O Lord. Glory to Thee.
