NATIVITY EPISTLE of Archbishop Lazar of New Ostrog
Monastery 2003/04
As we approach the feast of Christ's Nativity, let us look
for a moment at the period of preparation that precedes it.
Our Lord has never called His people together as a
collection of egos. In every time and place when God made
His will known and acted among the faithful, they have been
established as "community." From the very beginning, in
Paradise, God declared that it was not good for Adam to
be alone. Our Lord created Eve as a mate for Adam so that
there would be community in Eden. Above all, Adam and Eve
could help keep each other from falling into egoism and
self-love. He preserved His creation through the extended
family of Noah, and called Abraham and Sarah to found the
community of the Covenant. The Holy Prophets spoke to
Israel not as a group of isolated individuals, but as the
community of the promise. Each person was responsible for
the whole community.
In the seventh chapter of Joshua we see that fasting and
repentance were fulfilled not only by those who had fallen,
but by the whole community of Israel together. The
spiritual life of the holy nation was not fulfilled
individually, but by the efforts of each to serve for the
purification and sanctity of the whole community. In like
manner, Jesus Christ did not establish some form of
indefinite "Christianity," but rather a clearly defined
community bound together in such a bond of oneness that it
is called "the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:27). When
the Church calls us to observe a fast before the feast of
Christ's Nativity, this is also a call to the community
of the faithful. We do not observe the fasts simply as
individuals. The canonical fasts do not serve only for the
purification and spiritual growth of the individual; rather
they serve for the purification and spiritual growth of the
community. The lenten periods are not only a gift to each
Orthodox Christian to aid in his struggle toward
sanctification. They are a call to the parish to act
together in struggling for the sanctification of the
community. Just as we receive the feast together, so we
struggle to prepare spiritually for it together, as one
body, one community, with one heart and one mind.
It is notable that the holy fathers seldom speak about
guilt, but speak so often about responsibility. Each
Orthodox Christian has a direct responsibility to the
community, and maintaining the canonical fasts with
understanding and dedication is part of that responsibility
- not only to the community but to ourselves. Just as we
come together for the Divine Liturgy and unite our prayers
in all the church services, so we are called upon to fast
together. Our lenten effort, while following the rules
given us by the Holy Spirit, should
certainly focus on the healing of disputes, contentions and
partisan mindedness in each parish. This effort should lead
us to a greater sense of that unity and oneness of mind and
heart to which God has called us. The Nativity lent is a
perfect occasion for such a struggle, because we are
preparing ourselves to celebrate the appearance of the King
of Peace, Who comes into the world in order to "call into
oneness those who before were divided" (Crowning Service of
Marriage). In the words of Saint Basil the Great,
Those who live according to `community'[or, in common]
eradicate in themselves the sin of the forefather Adam and
renew the original goodness, because there would be neither
division, nor strife, nor wars among men if sin had not
cleaved nature asunder. They are exact imitators of the
Saviour and His life in the flesh. For, just as the
Saviour, after composing the group of disciples, made even
Himself common for the Apostles, so with these....They
rival the life of angels, for like them, they observe the
community....In advance they seize on the goodness of the
promised kingdom, in a well disposed life and communion,
representing an exact imitation of the life and condition
there. They clearly express in human life how many good
things the Saviour's incarnation has obtained for them,
because, according to the measure of their strength, they
lead human nature, which has been cut up into a thousand
pieces by sin, back into unity both with itself and with
God. For this is the main point in the saving ekonomy in
the flesh: to bring human nature into unity with itself and
with the Saviour, having destroyed the evil cleavage, to
renew the original unity, just as the best physician, by
applying treatments, again binds together a body which has
been broken in many places.
Indeed, there is no other way to defeat the power of Satan
in our lives than by developing unselfish love both in
ourselves and in our parish communities. Therefore, let the
Nativity fast be a period of healing, a casting aside of
selfishness, enmity, malice and every division among the
brothers and sisters of each parish. Let it be a building
up of unselfish love, a common spirit and a true sense of
community, so that with one mind we may confess:
"The Peace of God, Christ is born. Truly He is born,
Glorify Him!"