2010 Patri­ar­chal Encycli­cal for the Nati­vity of Christ

Prot. No. 1338

BARTHOLOMEW

By the Mercy of God
Arch­bis­hop of Constantinople-New Rome
and Ecu­me­ni­cal Patri­arch
To the Ple­ni­tude of the Church
Grace, Peace and Mercy
from the Savior Christ Born in Bethlehem

Belo­ved bro­t­her con­ce­le­brants and bles­sed chil­dren in the Lord,

Wit­hin the som­ber atmosp­here that recently pre­vails throug­hout the world with the diverse affli­ction of the finan­cial, social, moral and espe­ci­ally spi­ri­tual cri­sis, which has cre­a­ted increa­sing fru­stra­tion, bit­ter­ness, con­fu­sion, anxiety, dis­ap­po­int­ment and fear among many people with regard to the future, the voice of the Church sounds sweet:

Come, O fait­h­ful, let us raise our minds to things divine and behold the hea­venly con­des­cen­sion that has appea­red to us from above in Bet­hle­hem … (Hymn from the 6th Hour, Christmas)

The uns­ha­keable belief of Chri­sti­ans is that God does not sim­ply or indif­fe­rently observe from above the jour­ney of huma­nity, which He has per­so­nally cre­a­ted accor­ding to His image and like­ness. This is why the incar­na­tion of His only-begotten Son and Word was from the very begin­ning His “good will,” His ori­gi­nal inten­tion. His “pre-eternal will” was pre­ci­sely to assume in His per­son, in an act of extreme love, the human nature that He cre­a­ted in order to ren­der it “a par­ti­ci­pant of divine nature.” (2 Peter 1.4) Indeed, God wil­led this prior to the “fall” of Adam and Eve, even before their very cre­a­tion! Fol­lowing the “fall” of Adam and Eve, the “pre-eternal will” of the Incar­na­tion embra­ced the Cross, the Sacred Pas­sion, the Life-giving Death, the Des­cent into Hades, and the Resur­rection after three days. In this way, the sin that infil­tra­ted human nature the­reby infecting eve­ryt­hing and the death that sur­rep­ti­tiously pene­tra­ted life were com­ple­tely and defi­ni­ti­vely dis­pel­led, while huma­nity was able to enjoy the ful­l­ness of the Pater­nal and eter­nal heritage.

Howe­ver, the divine con­des­cen­sion of Christ­mas is not restri­cted to things rela­ted to eter­nity. It also inclu­des things rela­ted to our eart­hly jour­ney. Christ came into the world in order to spread the good news of the King­dom of Hea­ven and to ini­ti­ate us into this King­dom. Yet, He also came in order to help and heal human weak­ness. He mira­culously and repe­a­tedly fed the mul­ti­tu­des who liste­ned to His word; He cle­an­sed lepers; He sup­por­ted para­ly­tics; He gran­ted light to the blind, hea­ring to the deaf and spe­ech to the dumb; He deli­ve­red the demo­nized of impure spi­rits, resur­rected the dead, sup­por­ted the rights of the oppres­sed and aban­do­ned; He con­dem­ned ille­gal wealth, heart­les­sness to the poor, hypo­crisy and “hubris” in human rela­tions; He offe­red Him­self as an example of volun­tary self-emptying sacri­fice for the sake of others!

Per­haps this dimen­sion of the mes­sage of divine incar­na­tion should be par­ti­cu­larly emp­ha­sized this year. Many of our fri­ends and col­le­agues are expe­ri­en­cing ter­rible tri­als from the cur­rent cri­sis. There are count­less num­bers of unem­ployed, nou­veau poor, home­less, young people with “crop­ped” dreams. Nevert­he­less, Bet­hle­hem is trans­la­ted as a “House of Bread!” There­fore, as fait­h­ful Chri­sti­ans, we owe all of our troub­led bro­t­hers and sisters not only the “essen­tial bread” – that is to say, Christ, who lies in swad­dling clo­t­hes in the simple man­ger of Bet­hle­hem – but also the daily tan­gible bread of sur­vi­val and all that “pertains to the bodily needs.” (James 2.16) Now is the time for a pra­cti­cal appli­ca­tion of the Gospel mes­sage with a dig­ni­fied sense of respon­si­bi­lity! Now is the time for a clear and exact imple­men­ta­tion of the words of the Apostle: “Show me your faith with works!” (James 2.18) Now is the time and the opportu­nity for us “to raise our minds to things divine” to the height of the royal vir­tue of Love, which brings us clo­ser to God.

This is what we pro­claim to all the chil­dren of the Ecu­me­ni­cal Patri­ar­chate from this sacred and mar­ty­ric See, the Church of the Poor of Christ, and we invoke upon all of you the divine con­des­cen­sion and the bound­less mercy, as well as the peace and grace of the Only-Begotten Son and Word of God, who for our sake was incar­nate of the Holy Spi­rit and the Vir­gin Mary. To Him belong the glory, power, honor and wors­hip, with the Fat­her and the Spi­rit, to the ages of ages. Amen.

At the Pha­nar, Holy Christ­mas 2010

+ BARTHOLOMEW of Con­stan­ti­nople
Your fer­vent inter­ces­sor before God