Freedom in Christ
In these times of discord, analogous to the words of Sacred Scripture: “When the last times come…”, the Son of God is coming. Christmas is coming again – the Christ Child, to teach us, to encourage us and to save us from hopelessness.
All of us are familiar with His teachings. He came to teach us and to lead us to His Truth. It is also known to us that as a small boy Christ came to the synagogue and taught and all were amazed at His teachings saying: “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works (Matt. 13:54)?
The Evangelists testify that Christ taught, advised, healed, but Christ never argued with those who listened to Him. When someone would pose a question with the intention of testing Him, Christ would sharply respond and would finally ward off the temper: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23). Therefore with Christ there are no polemics. When He sent His disciples to the world to preach He said: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16).
But today we would engage in polemics with God. We would argue with Him, we would change His teachings, to conform to our way of thinking. This is why quite often the question of clergy is posed as if their priestly service is a common, secular service while forgetting that priests of the Church possess the Grace of the Holy Spirit and the right to preach, judge and perform divine services which they carry from Christ Himself, through His Apostles, through Apostolic Succession.
In Christ’s Church there cannot be any innovations which would affect the essence of our Faith. There is no adapting to the “contemporary age”, to new fashions and trends. The Church is not a market or supermarket where we choose what we want and leave that which does not please us. You either enter the Church and accept everything you find, or leave everything, exit from the Church and go to your world without God.
In the Church there is no “freedom” as understood by today’s fickle man. Christ tells us that His freedom is the only freedom “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Does not Apostle Paul warn us that “the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17)? Freedom in Christ and the Church is not freedom to “use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13). How different is this from the false freedom that is offered and recommended to us from all sides “For…they speak great swelling words of emptiness” (2 Peter 2:18)! Those are the words that lie and flatter “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him he is also brought into bondage“ (2 Peter 2:19). Christ gives us the freedom about which the Church teaches and that is following His path. Therefore, this is freedom according to God, not according to man – an enslaved being. “All things are lawful to me, but not all things edify” (1 Corinthians 10:23).
With the loss of the fear of God shame is lost – says the Holy Bishop Nikolaj. This is why everything today is banality, even the miracle of birth. This is exactly why even the understanding of the Nativity of Christ is often seen as a thing of business, prestige but not of love and that freedom of which the Lord speaks and bears witness to. Everything in this world today is measured according to false freedom and new “key” word of the new world – “democracy” – a word unknown in Sacred Scriptures!
When we say: “Christ is born” it is the same as saying: “The Messiah is born, the king is born, or the Saviour is born” (Thoughts of Bishop Nikolaj, 108). And from Him, the giver of every freedom, we seek to be liberated, especially from sin.
With the joyous greetings of Christ’s Nativity: CHRIST IS BORN!
Yours Bishop of Canada Georgije