The hope of Christmas in perilous times

Source: Theology That Sticks

December 22, 2015

    

What child is this?” asks the famous nineteenth century Christmas carol. It’s a question posed since Christ first entered human history two thousand years ago and one that sometimes provokes vitriolic and even violent answers today.

We’ve seen it in public tiffs over religion at home and brutal persecution abroad, but a glance to the distant past can provide both perspective and hope.

The purpose of Christmas

Few people exemplify and clarify the fight for the true meaning of Christmas as powerfully as does Athanasius of Alexandria.

Born in Egypt at the close of the third century, Athanasius thought deeply and seriously about the mysteries of the faith. While contemplating the purpose of Christ’s advent, he penned an enduring Christian classic, On the Incarnation.

“The Word of God,” said Athanasius, “came in his own person because it was he alone, the Image of the Father, who could recreate man made after the image.” This restoration of humanity by God himself in the person of Christ is the meaning of Christmas, and this understanding might have been lost had it not been for Athanasius.

Shortly after Athanasius penned his book, the popular and winsome priest Arius emerged, teaching that Christ was not actually God in the flesh. “What child is this?” Not God, answered Arius.

The fight for Christmas

The emperor called a council to resolve the issue and keep the church from splitting over Arius’s teaching. Athanasius attended.

The atmosphere was tense and heated. St. Nicholas (yes, that St. Nick) famously socked Arius during one session. But from the turmoil arose agreement about the divine nature of Christ, affirming the view that Athanasius advanced in On the Incarnation.

Arius was anathematized and his supporters exiled. But despite appearances, the issue was far from settled.

Shortly after the council, the bishop of Alexandria died and Athanasius was ordained to the office. The weakened Arian faction worked against him from the start. After false charges were levied against him, Athanasius appealed to the emperor. But the balance of power was shifting, and the new bishop was banished.

Thus began many periods of exile for Athanasius, who tirelessly defended the orthodox view against the Arian heresy. It is impossible to adequately summarize the weight of opposition he faced. By political maneuvering and alliances with subsequent emperors, the Arians came to power and brought terrible persecution, the likes of which only pagan powers had ever before exercised.

The faith of Christmas

One night in February 356 Athanasius presided at a midnight vigil. Other than the prayers and psalm-singing the room was quiet.

Suddenly, amid the flickering candlelight, armed men burst inside, shot arrows, and slashed with their swords. Athanasius was almost killed in the struggle, but his supporters secreted him out of the church.

Ransacking was widespread. Churches were seized. Deacons and priests were killed. Widows were beaten. Taking refuge in the desert with monks, Athanasius led his fugitive church from hiding. In 357 he wrote his scattered and discouraged flock:

May God comfort you. I know . . . that not only this thing saddens you, but also the fact that while others have obtained the churches by violence, you are meanwhile cast out from your places. . . . They are, it is true, in the places, but outside of the true Faith; while you are outside the places indeed, but the Faith, within you.

The faith within you was the whole point. To betray it would reenact the betrayal of Adam, the very betrayal that Christ’s Incarnation reversed.

    

Whatever evil and danger befall the faithful, Christ’s advent restored communion with God because God himself came and walked among us.

The gift of Christmas

Enemies of that faith seem at times to prevail, but the gift of Christmas is something they can never steal or destroy. Despite all odds, that faith eventually triumphed and Athanasius with it. Despite a lifetime of persecution for Christ, he died peacefully of natural causes in old age.

“What child is this?”

It is God in the flesh, coming in love to restore his creation. And we can celebrate Christmas today because of the life and sacrifice of Athanasius the Great so many years ago.

See also
The Incarnation is the Fruit of God's Generosity The Incarnation is the Fruit of God's Generosity
Fr. Georges Massouh
The Incarnation is the Fruit of God's Generosity The Incarnation is the Fruit of God's Generosity
Fr. Georges Massouh
In the icon of the Nativity, we see a bull and a donkey surrounding the baby Jesus to warm Him. They symbolize the prophecy from the Old Testament, "The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider” (Isaiah 3:1). Be generous, just as God is generous. That is the feast.
The Incarnation and Humility The Incarnation and Humility
New Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop of Verey
The Incarnation and Humility The Incarnation and Humility
New Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop of Verey
These hymns are given full voice beneath the monastic church domes and fill all present with their content. Hearing them, the Faithfull’s consciousness breaks away from the earth; not for one day or for a few hours, as in the parish churches—no, it breaks away from the earth long before the feast and remains in the heights of spiritual upliftment, spiritual rapture, for nearly an entire week.
Nativity Epistle of His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad Nativity Epistle of His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad Nativity Epistle of His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad Nativity Epistle of His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad
With a feeling of great spiritual joy I greet all of you on the world-saving feast of the Birth of Christ, foretold by the prophets, and bringing heavenly joy to all people, for there has been accomplished the “great mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). I congratulate all of you with this great joy! May the Divine Infant Christ grant all of us this joy. The struggle of faith and its fruits in our days must be that joy which comes from hearing the heavenly doxology and the feast of the Incarnation of God.
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