Dear parents, brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus
As we entered this week, we start celebrating the Christmas season. The Christmas season is a wonderful time of the year. It is a time of gift giving, family gatherings, parties, winter vacations and many more celebrations. Christmas season reminds me of freshly baked cakes, decorations of home and Church.
Yet, while we are generally preoccupied with planning and attending family gatherings, we also know that in the background we patiently awake the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace and the Savior of the World. Sometimes Christmas comes and goes without much thought as we prepare for New Year's parties, and then the thought of returning back from our vacations fills our minds. Unfortunately, the "reason of the season" gets lost in the middle of Christmas shopping and the end of year related business.
The blog posts "Prepare O Bethlehem" is being written so that we can take a few moments out of our busy lives and reflect on the Scripture lessons of the Christmas season in order to make this feast a more meaningful time of the year.
According to the Orthodox Church calendar, the official name for Christmas is: The Nativity according to the Flesh of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, sometimes simply referred to as the Nativity. In addition to the celebration of Christmas on December 25, the Christmas season also includes the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus on January 1; the Baptism in the Jordan river, called the Epiphany or Theophany, on January 6; and the Entrance of the Lord into the Temple on February 2. These three feasts celebrate the gift of the Word of God who is fully revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. These feasts also reveal to us God's saving work in the world through His Son.
You might ask why should we take efforts to understand the traditions of the Orthodox Church and you might be tempted to see these feasts as mere historical events in the life of Jesus. However, if we carefully listen to the liturgical hymnography of the Church, we see that the Gospel of salvation is presented to us in another form. While Jesus did die 2000 years ago, He is very much alive in the world through the proclamation of the Gospel. Thus, Jesus is still alive and present for us today.
The hymns remind us that while Jesus Christ has already come in the flesh and was crucified for us and for our salvation, He also comes again as a child in the manger and in the Temple and as an adult in the River Jordan as a reminder of the great gift of our redemption and salvation. Today, we are saved through our faith in Him, and today, we rejoice in His baptism in the River Jordan. We know that even though He already came as an infant, He will also come again as the judge in order to bring God's justice to the world.
However, while we await His coming again, we also need to ponder the great mystery of His birth in the flesh. Jesus' birth is one of the most solemn feasts of the Church but which is also filed with great joy.
As with all liturgical seasons, we go through a time of preparation and anticipation for the feast; Pasha, or Easter is preceded by Great Lent, the Dormition or Falling Asleep of the Theotokos is preceded by the Dormition Fast, and Christmas is preceded by a Lenten period called Advent. In the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the period of Advent begins from December 1st and in the Eastern Orthodox Church it begins on November 15th, and concludes at the Divine Liturgy on the Christmas Day. Advent is derived from the Latin word "advenire", which means to come. During Advent, we prepare for the coming of the Lord.
The fear of Christmas continues for five more days as we remember the most holy Theotokos on December 26, the first martyr Stephen on December 27, and then the Holy innocents killed in Bethlehem on December 29. Then we encounter the feast of the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus on January 1, which then leads us to the Prefeast services of Epiphany, or Theophany. In the feast of Epiphany, we prepare or anticipate the public announcement or manifestation of Jesus to the world. While at Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, at Epiphany we celebrate the beginning of His proclamation of the Kingdom.
The hymns sung emphasize that while the birth of Jesus is important, His baptism which is the beginning of His public ministry, is even more important. During the feast of Epiphany, the priest blesses water to commemorate the baptism in the Jordan, and to remind us that God continually blesses and sanctifies us through material things such as bread, wine, oil, fruit, flowers and water. We also have home blessings during the Epiphany season.
Finally, the Christmas season culminates with the celebration of the feast of the Entrance of the Lord into the Temple, which is also known as the Meeting of the Lord. This is celebrated on February 2, forty days after Christmas.
Because we are usually so busy and preoccupied with so many things during the holiday season, these feasts sometimes take a backseat to other holiday activities. Sometimes, we have to make difficult choices in life, and very often, Church may not always be high on our list. Hopefully, during this Christmas Season, we shall return to the Scriptures so we can know the truth, which is Christ Himself. The Scriptures are the source for our knowledge of the biblical God, His Son Jesus Christ and the life giving Spirit. In the upcoming blogs, I invite you to return to the Word of God, which leads us to know the Word who became flesh for us and for our salvation.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner.
Reference : Prepare O Bethlehem - William C. Mills
