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“The Church defends the unborn life because it looks with love to every woman who must give birth to children,” Metropolitan Petru of Bessarabia notes in his Christmas encyclical.
“God’s sign is the child,” His Eminence explains referring to the sign promised by God to the Prophet Isiah and by the angels to the shepherds. “He does not want to overwhelm us with power. He asks for our love: that is why He becomes a Child.”
The Metropolitan of Bessarabia deepens the theological and spiritual perspective of the Jesus Child as God Incarnate, as a “sign” promised by God to humans: “Nothing extraordinary, nothing spectacular is given as a sign to the shepherds. They will only see a Child wrapped in diapers, who needs maternal care, just like every child; a child born in a stable and placed not in the cradle but in a manger.”
“God’s sign is the child; his need for help and his poverty. The shepherds could have seen only with their hearts that in this child the promise to the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled,” Metropolitan Petru wrote quoting Isaiah’s prophecy: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
“And no other sign was given to us. The angel of God, through the message of the Gospel, invites us to start with our hearts to see the child lying in the manger,” the Metropolitan of Bessarabia notes. “The sign of God is simplicity. The sign of God is the child. God’s sign is that He becomes small for us.”
God became small so that we may understand Him
“This is His way of ruling. He does not come with external power and greatness. He comes as a helpless child who needs our help. He does not want to overwhelm us. He asks for our love: that is why he becomes a child.”
The Metropolitan of Bessarabia explains the mystery of love, which goes only in relation to humility: “He wants from us only our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into His feelings, thoughts and will: let us learn to live with Him and to practice together with Him the humility of giving up, which is an essential part of love. God has become small so that we can understand, accept, and love Him.”
The lesson given to humanity by the Holy Child is that “God thus teaches us to love the little ones, to love the weak, to respect children. The Child in Bethlehem makes us look at all the suffering and exploited children in the world, both born and unborn.”
Metropolitan Petru mentions the child soldiers used in armed conflict, the children made to beg, the children who suffer from misery and hunger or lack of love: “In all this, the Child of Bethlehem is the one who calls us; The God who became small is the One who calls us.”
“Let us ask God to help us do all we can to ensure that the dignity of children is respected; so that the light of love, which man needs more than the material things necessary to live, may be born for all,” the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan of the Republic of Moldova urges.
The incarnation of God gives dignity to humans
“With the eyes of faith, we can discover with great clarity the infinite value of every human being. The gospel, proclaiming the good news of Jesus, also brings the good news of man, the news of his great dignity,” Metropolitan Petru highlights.
“The Church, when defending the right to life, appeals to a broader level, to a universal level that binds all people. The right to life is not a matter of ideology, it is not just a religious right, it is a human right, the most fundamental human right,” the hierarch emphasises.
“The measure of civilisation, a universal, perennial measure, which encompasses all cultures, is its relation to life,” His Eminence added.
“The Church, faithful to the mission it has received from Christ, in spite of the weaknesses and infidelities of many of its sons and daughters, has constantly proclaimed in human history the great truth about love of neighbour,” the hierarch explained.
Unborn children cannot be excluded from the great human family
“He learned by word and deed that no one can be excluded from the great human family, that no one can be left out of society. If the Church defends the unborn life, it is because it looks with love on every woman who is to give birth.”
There is a struggle in the world for the defense of life, the Metropolitan of Bessarabia cautioned.
“That is why it is so important to build a culture of life: to create cultural models that emphasise the greatness and dignity of human life; the creation of scientific and educational institutions that promote a correct vision of the human person, of conjugal and family life; the creation of environments that embody in the practice of daily life the merciful love that God gives to each person, especially to the suffering, the weak and the unborn poor.”
“Let us ask the Compassionate God to grant us the humility and faith with which St. Joseph looked upon the Child Incarnate, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us ask Him to allow us to look at Him with the love with which Mary contemplated Him,” His Eminence Metropolitan Petru of Bessarabia wrote in the conclusion of his Christmas encyclical.
