Beloved clergy and monastics, sons and daughters, Our children of Saint Sava, behold, encompassed by the Sun of the Fifth Continent, with humbled heart we bow down before the greatness of the Creator who has not shunned our human nature, rather has placed Himself entirely in it. We rejoice for the Lord has revealed the magnitude for which humanity is created. And therefore it is given unto us to incarnate this Truth in our hearts by the teaching of Saint Ireneaus of Lyons: Follow the only true and reliable Teacher, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Who, because of His great love, became what we are so that He might bring us to be what He Himself is.
Rejoice children of the Living God in Trinity for the Second Person of the Life-giving Trinity has become incarnate for us and for our salvation and therefore let us cry out from our whole heart: Christ God is born for us! In truth, He is born! Thereby, Truth is incarnate! Christ our Saviour is born for us! The God-man is born! The whole of God in a complete human is incarnate and for the first time reveals Himself as perfect man, man in his entirety for in Him heaven and earth are united, the past and future are united and have become for us the eternal present! The Kingdom of Heaven is open unto us for God has come to earth today and humanity has ascended to heaven!
Eagerly anticipating the incarnation of the Redeemer, many Gentiles, according to the words of the great prophet of God Isaiah, walked in darkness and in the deep night of ignorance were paralysed by a false life for they knew not of the Truth (Is. 9:2-21). And even today, many still sit in that night of ignorance paralysed by the machinations of their false lives. Behold! Even here on our Fifth Continent many wolves desire with their false freedom to strip us of our God-given freedom in Christ, who is Truth, Hope and our only Salvation. For we know according to the words of St. Cyprian of Carthage that outside of the Church there is no salvation! Christ is born to free us from our sins and from slavery to sin and thereby only in His birth according to the flesh is man redeemed from falsehood and is able to behold the true light of the Sun of Righteousness.
You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free, said our Lord (Jn. 8:32). And in truth only he who does not desire to be set free by the Truth, i.e. by Christ, becomes a slave to his own lies; and he who slaves to a deceptive truth has completely stripped himself of his personal freedom. Only Christ warns us that such a slave does not have a permanent place in the family of salvation, instead only the sons and daughters of His Holy Church (Jn. 8:35). Therefore, only if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (Jn. 8:36). And that for us is the only plan for our salvation – true freedom in the new-born Divine Infant Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, the Church of Christ – so that we may all achieve perfected humanity according to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:11-13).
The fulfilment of that truth is manifest in the labour of our unity in Christ for we are all parts of one body, according to the words of the Holy Apostle (I Cor. 12:27). And that Body is precisely His Body, His Church against which not even the gates of Hell will prevail, nor overcome (Mat. 16:18). And it is precisely up to us, especially we who live in the Diaspora, to continually perfect the good work of the hands of our holy elder, Patriarch Pavle, who has freed us from slavery and brought us to unity in Christ! Are we now to destroy that holy unity, that Church of Christ which follows the Way of Saint Sava, that Body of Christ? Therefore, only, gathered around our holy Patriarch within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, can we experience the fullness of our unity in Christ, in whom there is neither free, nor slave! (Gal. 3:28).
Rejoice children of God, for we are witnesses of Truth which became flesh, as precisely our generation has been blessed with the realisation of the unity of Christ’s Holy Church! Therefore, at this brilliant and most joyful feast, the event of events, We desire for you every earnest good from the Divine Infant Christ – Emmanuel, and mostly that measureless love and unity in all of its fullness; enjoyment and joy in the growth and development of our youngest in the knowledge of God; understanding and endurance in our weaknesses; and undergirding and support in our virtues. Being in Our paternal heart, in thoughts and in prayers, We desire for you spiritual peace and good health, hope and faith in a better tomorrow, blessedness and prosperity, and all that which makes life a miracle of miracles.
With prayerful regards that the Lord will grant all of us a blessed New Year of the Lord, a new epoch of unity in Christ, We invoke upon all of you His blessings and love, greeting you on this Great Feast of the Nativity of Christ with the joyous Christmas salutation:
God’s peace – Christ is born! Truly, he is born!
Given in Sydney, at Christmas in the Year 2008.