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In this year’s Christmas encyclical, His Grace Bishop Mihail of Australia and New Zealand emphasizes that the Nativity of the Saviour represents the fulfilment of all Old Testament prophecies. Through Him, divine revelation is concrete, complete, and perfect.
“By the birth of Christ, the prophecies which God the Father revealed to His elect in the Old Testament are fulfilled, and at the fullness of time He secretly intervenes to protect the Infant.”
“If before the incarnation, the Word of God was revealed to the people of Israel ‘in the shadow’ and worked upon the outside world, at His Birth, the Son took in His hypostasis the human nature which He renewed.”
“At the birth of Christ, God’s revelation becomes concrete, complete, and perfect.”
Moreover, the Romanian Bishop of Australia notes that through each Divine Liturgy, the whole economy of salvation is recapitulated. Starting from the statement that the sole purpose of the incarnation is the salvation of humans, he states:
“This is how the new life in Christ began in the world. This new state is present in the Church because here, in the Divine Liturgy, Christ the Lord sacrifices Himself for our salvation. By His descent, death and corruption change into life and incorruption, and the Law becomes hypostasis, a Person.”
“At every Divine Liturgy the whole mystery of God’s economy is recapitulated for the salvation of humans, from the Annunciation to the Nativity of Christ, the Baptism, the work in the world and the preaching of the holy doctrine, the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the Burial, the Resurrection, the Ascension.”
His Grace Bishop Mihail also stresses the importance of active participation in the Divine Liturgy.
“We ought to make our hearts a bright and pure cave, that the Lord and Saviour of our souls may dwell in it. Therefore, let us remember and participate from the beginning to the end with great attention in the prayers during the Divine Liturgy, through which Christ the Lord sacrifices Himself and blesses the faithful people.”
“The feast of the Nativity is a blessed occasion to be close to the elderly and the isolated, to the discouraged and helpless families, and to all our brothers and sisters who need a Christian deed and a word of comfort.”
“Let us celebrate the Nativity of the Lord by showing gratitude for the goodness of God poured out upon us; to share in the joy of the feast with the mind elevated to the Baby Jesus who is born to save the human race,” the Romanian Bishop of Australia and New Zealand urges.
