The Star of Bethlehem for those who have gone astray

This message is also available in Arabic.

Christmas Message 2021 from the MECC Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs

In the dome of heaven, a star shone, announcing to us the Advent of the one coming in the name of the Father.

From the heights of heights, the star came, telling us that the Awaited One had arrived, and that humanity was on the threshold of an era in no way like the one that had preceded it.

Heaven could not be silent when the Incarnation took place, so it spoke through the star.

The star was the herald of the Incarnation just as the Cross was the herald of victory over the forces of darkness.

The star was shining serenely yet reserved.

Shining with the news that the Creator had entrusted it to carry  and reserved according to the humility of the One who had come.

The star shone on the wise men as they perceived in its appearance that which they had read from the signs of the times and were intent to carry out what those signs had entrusted them to accomplish.

And this star was reserved as it told us about a humble child born to humble parents born in a humble manger.

How pregnant with meanings was this event, an ordinary occurrence in its time and fateful in its fate.

A little child with no power and no might upturning the dwellings of those who excelled in the praxis of supremacy and dominion

A little one had just entered life, the wise bowed down to Him and the mighty feared Him.

The wise men, who understood the message of the star, offered him gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

With their wisdom, they realized the meaning of what was awaiting Him.

As for the arrogant, who only discerned in the Advent of the Child that which affected their authority and their haughtiness, they enlisted all their selfishness and malice to protect their earthly gains.

A little one who had barely seen the light of day frightened a tyrant who drowned his people in a bloodbath that came to be exemplary in human history.

Tell me, O eternal star, how were you able to appear to the worthy and hide your light from the befallen?

How were you able to guide the Magi, the wise Chaldean kings, who came from the far reaches of the Levant, from Mesopotamia, to where Emmanuel dwelt in the land of Canaan?

Are the secrets of Divine Wisdom to survive the Incarnate as He awaited the torment of Redemption?

Or is the human will, in its unconsciousness, longing for an Incarnation that nations had been waiting for since times immemorial?

Or is it the living person who is immersed in his servitude to the strongest, to error and sin, aspiring to be liberated from them at the hands of the rebellious Incarnate?

Or was humanity  who yearned for eternity, eager to witness the conquest of the Crucified over the crater of nothingness?

All these paradoxes were testified by the star.

It was the angel who had led the Magi from Jerusalem to Bethlehem as Saint John Chrysostom affirmed.

What the wise men saw was the angel of the Lord who sent them a light that glimmered more than all light, to announce to them the incarnation of the Source of all Light, to announce to them the coming of the Most High, who took a body from the Virgin and accepted to assume the despicable earthen vessel of the sons of men, in order to lead them from the world of darkness to the world of Light.

The Word was incarnated.

The Holy Eternal One Whose righteousness cannot be comprehended was incarnated.

How great are you, Bethlehem, in what you had witnessed on that pivotal day for humankind.

Beth Lahmo - The House of Bread in Syriac Aramaic- the language of the child, the language of His people and the language of His civilization .You summarize all beginnings.

Since that day, there are those who got to know the Way and there are those who have lost it.

Among them are those who knew the Emmanuel, the Cornerstone, and realized the essence of His message and made it the hypostasis of their lives and among them are those who understood but little, but the worst of them are those who rebel against Him.

How can a person not know the Truth that liberates him?

How can a person not see how the Lowly-Born conquered the tyrant, and not discern the victory of love over hatred, the victory of the Word over the sword?

Whomsoever did not discern what the star of Bethlehem was all about, who did not realize the meaning of all the symbols surrounding it and did not comprehend the message of the star of the wonder birth, did not get to know the foundations of human relations and the civilization upon which it was built.

These are the sheep who had by far lost their way.

They dwell in the  night of a scattered and tired life, and the selfishness of their blind divisions is heavy on them like mountains. Their small, limited existence oscillates between accepting and rejecting the Awaited One. They yearn for He Who Is and reject Him at the same time.

They opted for their own world rather than for their own faith and plunged into selfishness and materialism to the point of intoxication.

They are right now in this day and age rejecting the roots of their own civilization refusing to acknowledge the virtue of these roots.

The cross logo on the pharmacy door bothers them.

The promises that Christmas ushers in disturb their sleep. They have come to give its holiday season as well as its prayers meanings that hide what they truly bear.

The city and town squares dedicated to the names of saints and the symbols and artistic work they contain have become difficult for them to live with.

They have forgotten that God is embodied in the birth of every child and that the promise is renewed whenever the earth is filled with life.

They have forgotten that when the Lord told the fishermen to go and preach to all nations and baptize them in the name of the Holy Trinity, they were in the age of darkness, and that it was this Trinity that brought them out of it.

Bad are the times in which that which is holy is thrown to the dogs and in which pearls are cast before swine to be trampled under their feet (Matthew 7:6).

It is the wild boar that tore Adon apart ignorant of the fact that Adon is the Son of the Resurrection

In the name of secularism, they desecrate that which is sacred however, secularism of them is in the clear.

In the name of secularism as well as in the search for new identities, the message of the Incarnate One is besieged and smashed down. However there are those who stand up for the Christian Faith which they consider as their identity.

To these honorable people, we say that the star of Bethlehem is still shining, spreading light, love and joy whenever life is renewed with a newborn infant coming into this world.

To these honorable people we say : preserve the source of your values, ideals and culture by preserving the message of the Master to your societies.

Do not allow unruly vandalism  to spread among you, because that will bring your civilization to its end.

Whoever urges perfidy in your beliefs, pleading with disguised goals and shining promises, aims to destroy your civilization, end your culture, and drag you into the bondage of his purposes for you as well as through you.

He ridicules your beliefs while placing his practices in the ranks of the sacred.

It is the Master's message that separated religion from the state, as He gave that which belonged to Caesar to Caesar and that which is God's to God.

It is the message of the Incarnate that laid down the foundations of social justice and human rights.

It is the message of the Rebel that preserved human dignity and made women equal to men.

It is the message of the Lord that protected the refugees, the marginalized and the heavy-laden.

In the message of the Incarnate, the Crucified and the Rebel against perdition, you will find the roots of all that the civilizations of the world aspire to for a better future for humankind.

Is this a message the bearer of which is to be ashamed of?

Herein lies an appeal to the honorable people in all nations who are oppressed by the tyranny of nihilism and the value of emptiness.

Take the one-man stand against those who seek to uproot your memory and uproot your faith!

Join the stand of the Incarnate Master in front of the temple merchants!

Do not allow the Master to be crucified twice!

Forgive, but do not give up and do not surrender everything that is dear to you!

Faith is equal to existence because it is the way to improve existence.

Belief guides your life in its diaries as well as in its goals.

O honorable people of all nations,

Tell those who have lost their cultural and moral memory to be inspired by the star of Bethlehem, as they have gone astray.