Tell Me, O Manger

Video - Christmas Message 2022 from the MECC Secretary General Dr. Michel Abs

Tell Me, O Manger

Dr. Michel E. Abs

Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches

Tell me, O manger, what happened that night when the Word was incarnated?

I swear to you by Him, by His wounds, and by His bleeding on the cross. Tell me, what happened on that enduring night?

Humble, incarnated and transformed into one of us, and settled in the most humble and poor places.

The Sun of Righteousness came down to us and chose to teach us a lesson about His birth: that the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.

With a simple cloth, his mother wrapped Him and laid Him in the manger, although she was the one who knew who He was.

She surrendered to the will of the Almighty, who greeted her through the angel announcing the forthcoming wondrous birth, and walked the difficult path of flight, homelessness and poverty.

It was bitterly cold that night, so the cattle took care of keeping Him warm. It did not need to warm the human beings whom He had come to save.

Is there a more frugal and humbler place than the place where the Incarnate Master was born?

Is there a meeker way than the way the Master was born?

There was no place in the inn, so they went to where they found a place to lay down the newborn to sleep.

The birth was not a celebration or a flashy event, as if it was to say to the Son of Man that you are nothing but an earthly substance that stays for a while and leaves.

Tell me, manger, how were you able to contain the One who suspended the earth on the waters?

How could you contain Him who is bigger than the universe?

You are great, O manger, in whom the Word Child rested, so you provided Him with a little comfort before He endured homelessness and after it, before He preached His message, that lead to His delivery, then to the way to Calvary, then to the crucifixion, then to the resurrection.

The child bearing the sins of the world deserved a little embrace and warmth. Such an embrace was delivered to Him by the was the warmth of the parents, and by yourself the manger, and by the cattle.

They placed the Uncreated Newborn in you, O manger, as a lesson in humility and an indication that He is the true Sacrifice, the Lamb without blemish. In you was incarnated the Lamb of God who carries the sin of the world far from any manifestations of worldly dignity.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Through you, O manger, the Word chose the path of humbleness in order to rule over all hearts as well as in order to teach the world to rise above matter.

You embraced, O manger, the first moments of His kingdom that is not of this world.

He did not come to us as a military leader, or a king in a palace! He chose you, O manger.

Your glory lies in your humble embrace of Christ's second filiation, the event-in-time, in the fullness of time, which began when God sent His angel to the Virgin Mary announcing to her the Incarnation. As for the hypostatic sonship of Christ, it exists without separation, it is eternal and everlasting.

You embraced, O manger, One of the Three Persons, united without mixing or blending,

and without separation or division. The Father is the Source of Love, the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love.

With this Love, God created us in His image and likeness, and He sent His Son incarnated to

redeem us. Through Him God spoke, so He was called the Word, while at the same time He is God's Power and Wisdom.

He is the Alpha and the Omega!

At this specific point in time, a tyrant put children to death in order to preserve his kingdom, and a star lead the Magi, who came from the far reaches of the East to worship Him, carrying gold, incense and myrrh, and angels appeared to the shepherds singing.

The Shepherd of shepherds was born.

O manger,

In the world today, children and the elderly are spending their winters in the bitter cold that may destroy them, just because the people of the world have grown too deep in greed and lust for power.

In the world today, tyrants kill children for reasons they justify with hypocrisy.

In the world today, homelessness, hunger and loss prevail.

In the world today, lives a human race that will not rise above its error, confusion, and misguidedness except through the power of Holy Spirit,

As it stands before the Throne of Grace,

In the world today, colossal events are taking place that warn of something even more forbidding than their present threat.

Only the Incarnate Son of the Most High will keep this bitter cup away from humanity.

He is the true Temple of humanity as well as its Sacrificial Offering.

Glorious is Your Birth!