Bishop Ignatie of Huși reflects in his Christmas Pastoral Letter on the atmosphere surrounding the Nativity of the Lord in the modern world, warning that contemporary society appears to be “suffering from many defects and countless spiritual fractures.”
According to the bishop, the root cause of this condition lies within each individual. Without Christ, he says, humanity is unable to defend itself against self-destruction.
“The moral imbalances of society must be identified in the fact that the Infant Jesus, born in the humble manger of Bethlehem, is no longer understood and assimilated into the flesh of our daily lives as the One who is not only absolute Peace, Joy, Stillness and Love, but also the absolute Truth incarnate as Man,” Bishop Ignatie said. “Without Him, everything in our world can be relativised, distorted and mocked, including the human person.”
“Without the Truth-as-Person, who is Jesus Christ, there is no longer any value capable of defending humanity from destruction and disfigurement,” the bishop states in his message, entitled ‘Herod Is Among Us – Slander as the Perfect Lie’.
Without Christ, humanity is vulnerable
The Incarnation of the Lord, Bishop Ignatie explains, responds directly to the intellectual and existential challenges of modernity. Quoting Saint Cyril of Alexandria, he argues that Christ, as Truth incarnate, is the sole path of deliverance from contemporary ideological distortions.
“Thus, Christ the Child is the Truth-as-Person born as Man, so that we may fully understand that ‘Life is Truth’—as an antidote to the tendency to idolise science at the expense of the inviolable dignity of the human person (scientism), as an antidote to the belief that only what is visible and experimentally verifiable matters, to the detriment of unseen spiritual realities (positivism), and as an antidote to the growing exaltation of pleasure as the essence of human existence (hedonism), instead of a life guided by eternal moral values,” the Bishop of Huși noted.
The faces of Herod
The hierarch went on to analyse the figure of Herod, whom he describes as the prototype of the egocentric dictator and “the first supporter of the post-truth era in the history of Christianity.”
“Herod the Great was not concerned that the Infant Jesus was not a political figure,” Bishop Ignatie noted, “because he was consumed by his own individualistic and selfish ‘truth’—a truth shaped by fear, prejudice and personal certainties.”
Herod, he warns, is not merely a historical character: “Herod the Great is among us today, in his many guises—in society, in churches, on the street, in the workplace, and in political and cultural life. He slanders relentlessly and soils people’s identities. He is present everywhere, like the devil himself, the first slanderer of humankind.”
The Infant Jesus is the Truth
In conclusion, Bishop Ignatie offered a path of healing. If believers allow themselves to be permeated by the presence of the Incarnate Christ, who is Truth itself, they will be freed from destructive passions.
“The feast of Christmas is the good news that Truth is Someone—the Infant Jesus—and not something to be fragmented according to each person’s wishes and opinions,” he said.
“If we allow ourselves to be filled with the presence of the Infant Jesus, the incarnate Truth-as-Person, this Truth will free us from the spell of falsehood, slander and the deception of sin.”
“We will shatter the fragile globe of our egoism, sick with the desire for power and fame, and instead give ourselves in love, joy, peace, forgiveness, patience and service to our fellow human beings,” the Bishop of Huși concluded.
Photo: Diocese of Huși
