PASTORAL LETTER
ON THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD, 2024

† IOAN CASIAN
by the grace of God
Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada

To the beloved Clergy and the righteous Christian faithful,
peace and joy from Christ the Lord,
and from us, archpastoral blessings!

“This is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him.”
(Colossians 1:15, 17, 19)

Reverend Fathers,
Beloved faithful,

The Feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ is a time of joy and blessing. It is the moment when we, as humans, contemplate God’s wonderful work for our salvation. This feast day reveals to us the foundation of the Christian faith and the beginning of our renewal. It shows us God’s love and generosity toward us.

St. John Chrysostom says in one of his homilies on this feast: "Come, let us celebrate! Come, let us feast! Strange is the form of the feast, for the word of the birth is glorified. Today, the old bond is loosed, the devil is ashamed, the demons flee, death is crushed, heaven is opened, the curse is lost, sin is banished, deceit is cast out, truth has come, faith has spread and widened everywhere. The life of the heavenly ones has been planted on earth, the angels live with men, and men speak with angels without fear."[1] Here is the way we must understand the fruits that this great event of the Christian life has brought to us and will continue to bring to us until the end of the ages.
The incarnation of the Lord is the event that unites heaven with earth; the incarnation of the Lord Christ removes the barrier that the devil had erected against humanity for centuries; it abolishes the curse and deceit, making the truth rise; through the incarnation, faith spreads and angels communicate and live with men, the heavenly and earthly worlds meet. All things are re-established in harmony and communion as God intended from eternity regarding the good and divine order of our world according to the Holy Scripture: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1, 31).

Why was the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ necessary for our restoration and salvation?

St. Gregory Palamas answers this question as follows: "The Word and Son of God, who was before the ages, the Uncontainable and Almighty One, the Creator, could indeed have saved man from death and the bondage of the devil without His incarnation. For He upholds and sustains all things with the Word of His power, and all things are subjected to His divine sovereignty, and He can accomplish everything. … But the most appropriate and fitting thing for our nature and weakness, and the most suitable for the One who performed it, was the incarnation of the Word of God. This was just, for God does nothing unjust."[2]

Man falls into sin, into death, and into the bondage of the devil. God could have restored humanity by His omnipotence alone. However, the choice of the way this was to be done was made considering the most suitable way to be beneficial for man. The fall of man was not an insurmountable obstacle for God. The manner of the restoration had to correspond to the gravity and depth of the fall, the present condition of man, and the respect for the great gift that God gave to man from the beginning — the freedom to choose.

God knew man’s weakness from the beginning, but He also foresaw how, in the case of the fall, man would be restored. This specific way would help man to recognize God as his Creator and Protector: “God, who has all authority, - says St. Gregory Palamas - when He created the human race by His Word, saw their nature’s weakness; He saw that it would not be able to know his Creator by himself, nor to attain understanding of Him, since He is uncreated, and the creatures are created; He is incorporeal, while humans are made in bodies; and that there is great inadequacy in created things to understand and know the One who created them. … Because God is good, He made man a participant in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ and created him in His image and likeness, so that, through such grace, by knowing the image, that is, the Word of the Father, he might acquire through Him the understanding of the Father, and by knowing the Creator, live a truly happy and blessed life.”[3]

There is a fundamental ontological difference between the creature and the Creator — the created and the uncreated, that that is made and the Maker, the contained and the uncontained. The understanding and knowledge of man regarding God depended on faith, the obedience to the commandment, and grace. The authentic life of man, as contemplated by God, his Creator, from eternity, depended on divine grace reflected in word and deed. Through separation from these, the life, understanding, and knowledge of man undergo a transformation that limits his relationship with God, distancing him from his Creator, and distorting his understanding of himself. Therefore, it was necessary for man to once again be made a partaker of the image of God — our Lord Jesus Christ — who would rebuild him and give him the ability to resemble Him. By this, man would acquire understanding of God the Father and eternal life.

The One who was the Only One and the most suitable to speak of God the eternal Father, knowing Him, was the Son: “For in no other way could we have learned about the things of God, - says St. Irenaeus of Lyon - unless our Lord, existing as the Word, had become man. For no other being had the power to reveal the things of the Father, except His own Word.”[4]
The teaching about God and the true knowledge of Him, and consequently the true understanding of human nature, could not be revealed by anyone other than the Son of God. He alone, being eternally begotten of the Father, of one essence with Him and the Holy Spirit, fully knew the divinity, being Himself God, and could share this knowledge with us for our restoration, healing, and salvation.

The mystery of the eternal birth of the Son from the Father, as well as the mystery of the incarnation of the Lord Christ from the Virgin Mary in time, surpasses understanding and the order of nature: "Today, - says St. John Chrysostom - He who is born of the Father, beyond mind and word, for me is born of a Virgin, also beyond mind and word. Then, He was born of the Father according to nature before the ages, as the One who begot Him knows. Today He is born again, beyond nature, as the grace of the Holy Spirit knows."[5] The incarnation happened by overcoming the order of human nature, which was marked by the sin of Adam and passions.

St. Gregory Palamas says that the incarnation took place by the Son of God clothing Himself with our human nature to show that the Creator originally made it pure, without passion. Sin and passions took control of human nature due to the temptation of the evil one, the fall, and man’s separation from God: "Because if the Word, who is always with the Father, had not incarnated in man, - says St. Gregory Palamas - it would have been believed that sin exists in human nature, since there was never a man without sin; and it could have happened that the condemnation would be transferred to the Creator, as if He were not the Creator of good things… For this reason, God took human nature, to show that it is pure and sinless enough to be united with Him in His person and to remain with Him forever.”[6]

The incarnation shows the goodness of the creation, of our world, and of our human nature made by God. It strengthens the words of Scripture and proves the inspired work of the Holy Spirit in it.
The incarnation of the Word of God happens to carry fallen man, influenced by the senses and materialism, to the Unseen, his Creator. The knowledge of God by man will not happen only through words but by direct participation in the Word and Son of God. Through the incarnation, He will recreate this unity that God originally gave to Adam and even surpass it: "The nature is overcome, the limit of human disposition ordered by God is overwhelmed, where God wills, - says St. John Chrysostom.… The Only Begotten One, before the ages, the Untouchable, the Pure, the Immaterial, entered my visible and perishable body. Why? To teach me by being seen, and by teaching me to guide me towards what is unseen... For this reason, He endured so that we might see Him in the flesh, to dispel doubt.”[7]

Inexpressibly, the Uncontainable and Uncreated God is united with limited and contained man. In the same inexpressible way, in this union according to hypostasis, man is raised to the dignity of a son of God by grace. The nature of man in Christ is clothed in its former glory, which the disciples glimpse on Mount Tabor.

Through the Incarnation of the Son of God, our nature receives a new life and a new understanding. It becomes the dwelling place of the Son of God and a participant in His saving work for mankind, according to its hypostasis: “For this He takes my body, so that I may make a place in my mind for His Word, - says St. John Chrysostom. He takes my body, so that He may give me His Spirit. He gives and takes, so that He may give me a treasury of life. He takes my body, to sanctify me. He gives me His Spirit, to save me.”[8]

The Incarnation of the Son of God means the re-creation of our human nature. The human mind, which was distanced by the temptation of the evil one from the presence and contemplation of God’s Word, again becomes a dwelling place for this presence and beholds the Word "face to face," as Adam did in the beginning. The body, once a bearer of death, receives the Holy Spirit and becomes a bearer of eternal life. From a mortal body, it becomes a holy and sanctifying body. From a body devoid of spiritual breath and directed towards death, it becomes a transfigured body, a participant in salvation. The entire human nature - mind, soul, and body - is penetrated by the redeeming, transfiguring, and saving work of God. Humanity approaches the spiritual stature for which it was created - namely, the image and likeness of God.

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

The Feast of the Nativity of the Lord should be an occasion of strengthening ourselves and receiving the blessing, for boldness and courage in preaching. Christ came and dwelt among us. He still dwells among us through grace and through His Body and Blood, which we partake of in the Holy Liturgy.

The year 2024, dedicated to the pastoral of the sick and to the holy unmercenary saints has directed our attention to those near us with weaknesses and infirmities, with special needs and illnesses, but also to those who give us courage and inspire us in this work of easing suffering and bearing the burdens of the afflicted. The holy unmercenary saints are our guides, our inspiration, and help. We have also rejoiced especially in the canonization of the new Romanian martyr saints and confessors from the communist prisons. Some of them were personally known to our faithful and received blessings from them. What could be more extraordinary than living among saints? They were and are the saints of our days; they were the saints of the generations that helped us growing and passed on to us the faith in God. Likewise, now, there are other saints who live among us. Some we will know in this life, while others only in the Kingdom of God. Each saint is an image of God, a son by grace, Christ on a human scale. Each of them gives us courage and strengthens us, showing us that the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven are not far from us; they are right next to us and among us.

Let us dare to bear on our shoulders what the saints bore: the burdens of life, the sufferings caused by adversaries, the persecutions of godless social or political systems, and many other countless difficulties arising from the sinful realities of our times. But let us also show the joy of communion with God and His grace, the courage of confession, the clarity of decision born from discernment enlightened by the action of the Holy Spirit, and from the long hours of prayer, bodily and spiritual effort.

Let us live all of this with the joy, enthusiasm, and in peace that come from the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ. This feast day shows us how God found the way to put everything in good order according to the natural course of human life.

On the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord, the New Year, and Theophany, I send you the greeting of St. Paul the Apostle: “Grace be with you all! Amen” (Hebrews 13, 25).

A Feast of the Nativity of the Lord with grace and joy!
A blessed New Year!

Brotherly in humble prayer to Christ the Lord,
† IOAN CASIAN

Saint-Hubert/Montreal 2024

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[1] St. John Chrysostom. Sermons at royal feasts and eulogies at Saints. EIBMBOR Publishing House, Bucharest 2006, p. 29

[2] St. Gregory Palamas. Homilies (vol. I). Anastasia Publishing House 2004, p. 221

[3] St. Athanasius the Great. Treatise on the Incarnation of the Word. EIBMO Publishing House, Bucharest 2010, p. 152-154

[4] St. Irenaeus of Lyons. Against heresies. Ex Fontibus, Jackson, MI, 2020, p. 508

[5] St. John Chrysostom. Homilies…, p. 25

[6] St. Gregory Palamas. Homilies. p. 229-230

[7] St. John Chrysostom. Homilies, p. 26

[8] Idem, p. 27