CHRISTMAS PASTORAL

Shout with joy, for God is with us

To the Reverend Clergy, the Religious and Faithful of the Eparchy of Stamford:

Khrystos Razhdayetsia!

"Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth; sing to His name, give Him glorious praise." These words from the stikh of the Christmas Prokimen describe the feeling of the Nativity of our Lord. We want to shout from the highest mountain our joy that "God is With Us!" God became man and dwelt among us!

From the first promise to Adam and Eve that there would be a Savior, until the preaching of John the Baptist, humanity waited. It waited to be saved! It waited for the moment that God would keep His promise. The coming of the promised One, Jesus, was the beginning of the fulfillment of all the promises that God had made through the thousands of years that humanity had waited.

Jesus came as living proof that God is love. Jesus came to guide us as to how we can live in that love. God came to us so that our lives might be intimately joined together. In human relationships we can know God's love. It is in our relationships with others that we can be the instruments that God uses to extend His love to others.

God not only sent His Son to be our Savior, but He continues to send gifts of love to us in many ways. Sometimes, a kind word just when we need it is a gift from God, and the person is the instrument God uses. God uses priests as His instruments of healing in confession. The talents a doctor has are God-given and the skills he exercises in healing are what he does with God's gift. God's healing hands are seen in the hands of a person.

Everything we have, all the talents we have, reveal God's gift of love for us. But they are not gifts meant to be used selfishly. Gifts are given to show God's love. They are given to help others. No matter what gifts you have been given, they are meant to be shared. A person gifted with something even as mundane as business skills is to use them to help others. I remember reading about Andrew Carnegie, who said it was wrong to die rich. He amassed an enormous fortune and left behind universities, libraries and museums that still enrich and serve humanity long after his death. God gave him talents that he used well, and, as a result, bettered the lives of countless thousands of people.

Love cannot be contained. Persons who are truly loving cannot keep love to themselves. Love, because it is of God, always expands outward. When we love - a person, a possession - we want everyone to know. This is the message of Christmas. God loves us! We are loved and we want everyone to know the love we have! So we want to shout and we want to express the love we have been given to those who need to know that God loves them.

In our world today, we need men and women of love to express the love of God for all humanity. When Christ was born, the world was at peace - the Pax Romana it was called - the Peace of Rome. Let us work together in love to bring about a new world of peace: the peace of Christ.

Let us together ask our Blessed Mother, who through her maternity on that first Christmas morning brought about the salvation of the world, to intercede so that her prayers may bring about the peace and salvation of the entire world.

If we and all our brothers and sisters work together in love - the love that comes from God alone - we would truly shout with joy from all of the ends of the earth that "God is with Us."

God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Slavite Yoho!

ÝBasil
Bishop of Stamford
(New York and New England)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 19, 2003, No. 3, Vol. LXXI

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