“Whoever receives Christ receives the courage to love, to forgive, and to live without fear. In Him, fear is transformed into trust, and loneliness into a sacred encounter,” noted His Eminence Archbishop Atanasie in his first pastoral letter for the feast of the Nativity since his enthronement as shepherd of Orthodox Romanians in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
“For contemporary man, the Incarnation is the antidote to solitude, for it shows that God is no longer unknown, but One like us humans.”
In this light, true freedom is revealed: the freedom to live no longer for oneself, but in communion with Him who conquered death through love. And each time the human heart opens to Christ, the whole world becomes brighter, and the darkness of history is pierced by a ray of eternity, His Eminence wrote.
God’s gifts for the Romanian Orthodox Church
Archbishop Atanasie used his Christmas encyclical to recall that this year, dedicated to the Centennial of the Romanian Patriarchate, God bestowed many blessings upon the Romanian Orthodox Church.
“The painting of the National Cathedral, the heart of a nation — the dream of a century, fulfilled in the light of the prayers of the entire nation — has been consecrated; the Holy and Great Myrrh has been sanctified; and over thirty new saints have been added to the calendar: monks and nuns, confessors, and especially holy women, mothers, and monks of our time, who have illuminated the world through faith, courage, and self-sacrifice”, the Archbishop recalled.
God never ceases to watch over His people
Archbishop Atanasie noted that all these achievements call for humble gratitude and greater responsibility.
“In the light of the Lord’s Nativity, all these blessings of the past year become for us gifts of Baby Jesus, who never ceases to watch over His people,” the Archbishop of Great Britain and Northern Ireland added.
“Just as God gives Himself to the world in the silence of Bethlehem, so too He gives Himself to our Church through His peace, blessing, and unseen work. Let us therefore offer glory and thanks for all the good poured out upon us, and keep these gifts with a pure heart, as lights that guide us toward His Kingdom.”
Changing our hearts changes the world
Closing his Christmas pastoral letter, Archbishop Atanasie suggested a shift in spiritual life as a foundation to change the world for the better.
“For it is only where one receives God in his heart that the world begins to change,” Archbishop Atanasie noted.
“Let us pray that the Child born in the manger of Bethlehem may also be born in our hearts, granting us the light of faith, the strength of hope, and the warmth of love, so that each of us may truly be able to say with the Apostle: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’. (Galatians 2:20)”
Photo: Basilica.ro files / Raluca Ene
