Gospel (Sunday after Nativity): St. Matthew 2:13-23
Epistle: Colossians 3:12-16
Epistle (Sunday after Nativity): Galatians 1:11-19
Summary of today’s Gospel:
God humbles Himself to save mankind, leaving His rightful inheritance as God and becoming man; being born as a baby in Bethlehem. And how does the world He has come to save greet Him? Is He born in a temple? In a palace? These would have been seemed more fitting than what it gave Him: a manger in a stable. Worse yet, when the leaders of the day learned of His birth from the wise men – what was their reaction? Did they submit to the Ruler of All Ages? Did they nurture, serve, and protect Him so that He could grow into manhood as their prophet, priest, and king? No. In today’s Gospel, we hear how the Holy Family had to flee the Holy Land into Egypt in order to avoid assassination. The Holy One, the Savior, had come into the world and it tried to kill Him, with the murder of “Rachel’s children” as the sacrifice on the altar of their own selfish rage. It is a shameful tale, and it serves as a warning to us all. As always, it is less useful for us to see ourselves in the place of the angels, or the wise men, or the shepherds in this bit of history – not when we are so often the very people who humble Christ, persecute Him, and drive Him out of our lives.
Re-summarizing the Gospel
Yes, just as Christ humbled Himself to become a child in Bethlehem so that He could transform the world; so to has He humbled Himself to into our midst – the temple of our hearts – in order to transform us. And unfortunately the parallel between these two stories continues: how is the heart into which He comes? Is it a place befitting the Ruler of the Ages? Or is it more like an animal’s trough in a forgotten section of our lives, our own equivalent of the stable manger?
And having learned that God is within us, how do we react? Do we center our lives on this reality, or do we persecute Him and drive Him our of our minds, out of our thoughts, out of our plans, and out of our lives?
Gnosticism – we need no king but (our divine) ego!
In American, scholars have noted that the dominant religion is not and has never been Christianity – it is instead a form of Gnosticism. A belief that we are in union with the divine, that the divine light of immortal wisdom burns within us and is at the core of who we are. They note that, to the extent we look Christian, it is because we use Christian words to describe this belief. So when we hear – as we have today – that Christ has come to dwell within our hearts, we hear a validation of what we already believe to be true: that we are divine.
The problem is that it isn’t true. God is God and we are not. And while it is His desire to transform us into something more (this is the whole point of the Nativity, after all), when we claim divinity we are doing the same thing Herod did: setting ourselves up on the throne and driving Christ into the margins of our lives. Think about it: why did Herod seek to kill the Christ child? He was following His instinct for self-preservation. Christ was a threat so He had to be dealt with in the same way all rivals must be dealt with. If we are not careful, we will do the same. And in the reality we construct around our selfishness, we will be the good guy (the good god!). God will be working through us. He will be our guiding light. Our powers of self-delusion (prelest) will be so strong that we will claim to have created the greatest temple to God within the best part of our hearts – when all we have done is ratify the continuing worship of our own pride.
The danger of delusion
Christ really has been born within us. He lives in the center of our souls. But our souls are so clouded by our thoughts and by our feelings that we do not even notice. If we are not very careful, if we do not work against our fallen natures, instead of nurturing the Christ within us, we will nurture our own pride and call it “God”. But the god we create is a pale shadow of the true god – enough to delude us, but not enough to save us.
Ego or Christ; Pride or Agape – how do we know?
This has all been a bit abstract, so let me put it in terms that are easy to understand; let me give you a means of evaluation to determine who really sits in the temple of your life. As our bishops reminded us the their Nativity Epistle, the Messiah did not live for Himself – every action, everything He did (His very life!), was in sacrificial service to others. And not just to others, but to others who were not like Him, who rarely understood or appreciated what He was doing. And He did it not out of fear of damnation or hope of a reward (eternal or otherwise), but because He was truly devoted to others – He was love incarnate. If your life really is characterized by this kind of selfless action – then there is no doubt that Christ is growing within your heart. But let me warn you: the god of our pride is the master of illusions. It will attempt to convince us that we are more generous with ourselves than we really are. The practical test is this: are we willing to live outside our comfort zones, deny yourselves (take up the cross, St. Matthew 16:24), and do things for others without the slightest concern about receiving something in return(St. Matthew 5:43-48)? Because this is love of Christ, and it is this kind of attitude that is the sign of the real Christian (St. John 13:34-35).
Perhaps I am still being too obtuse. Let me get specific. What is our attitude towards sacrificial giving and tithing? To secretly giving more than people around us (so that they may give less)? How much time are we willing to give up each day to get down on our knees and pray for the healing of those in need? What does our prayer rule look like? Did we say our communion prayers before coming to church? How much effort are we willing to spend building healing connections with the broken people in our families, our parish, and our communities?
If we are like most men, when challenged to actually do something selfless, our egos will stand up on their thrones and begin making excuses. Christ never made an excuse a day in His life. He rolled up His sleeves and did what needed to be done – and He did it.
Christ is Born! And He has made His home within the manger of our souls. The rest is up to us. [Through Him, we can do well.]
