Moses, Suffragan Bishop of Roslindale

In our days, there is much interest in time, and many books have been written about it. Many of them are thought-provoking, such as A Brief history of Time, by Stephen Hawkings, or Genesis and the Big Bang Theory, by Gerald L. Schroeder. Other writers, caught up in the present fad for Buddhism in the popular New Age culture, profess time to be cyclical and promise that we will all return through reincarnation. This is the same as the pagan Greek teaching of the transmigration of souls.

Long ago, Saint John Chrisostom commented on this theory of reincarnation – which is common to the Buddhists and the pagan philosophers – in one of his homilies on the Gospel of Saint John: "As for doctrines on the soul, there is nothing excessively shameful that they have left unsaid; asserting that the souls of men become flies, and gnats, and bushes, and that God Himself is a soul; with some other the like indecencies." When one hears these lamentable ideas that are popular in our confused culture, the words of the Prophet-King David immediately come to mind, "Transgressors have told me fables, but they are not like Thy law, O Lord." But as for us, let us rejoice in the precious gift of the revelation of God’s Truth. In this joyous season we celebrate the appearance of Truth incarnate upon the earth, of the Timeless One Who entered time for our sakes. During this feast, we hear the marvelous poetry of the church proclaiming this spiritual reality revealed by our merciful God in words that express that which is beyond the mind of man.

"For our sake is born a young Child, He that existed before the ages as God" (Kontakion for the Nativity of Christ) "The cave is a heaven; the Virgin, a cherubic throne; the manger, a space, wherein the Uncontainable One hath reclined. Him do we praise and magnify" (Ninth Ode of the Katavasiae for the Nativity of Christ).

In this feast we celebrate the fulfillment of the purpose of the first act of creation – the creation of the ages, that act which preceded the creation of time, the creation of time itself – and all that followed in the creation of the physical universe, the creation of the worlds, the creation of this our earth and all that therein is, the varied plant life and animals, and the highest of God’s physical creation, man. Man was created to commune with God, yet our first parents thwarted God’s plan and voluntarily hearkened to the myths and falsehoods of the slanderer and fell from this inheritance. Nonetheless, the Unapproachable sought to by all means to approach us and bowed the heavens and came down, becoming flesh for our sake, that we might encounter Him and in a strange and marvelous way proclaim, "God is with us." As Saint Paul said, "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we should receive the adoption of sons" (Gas 4:4-5). We, the puny, the small, the limited, and finite, encounter the Timeless, the Infinite, and Unapproachable One, Who came to make us His own. He came to adopt us as sons and daughters of the Most High, yea, and more, in a mystery to make us members of His body.

We encounter the writings of many who, in our confused society, call themselves Christians yet claim that our Savior was a mere man. They must ignore or distort the clear massage of the Gospel to justify themselves. But we, putting our faith in the plain words of the scriptures say to them, "who else but someone outside of time, the timeless One, could create the ages, that first act of creation?" In the scriptures, the chosen vessel, Saint Paul, identifies Him for us by saying, "God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His son, Whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by Whom also He made the ages" (Heb 1:102).

Let each of us marvel at the gift of God’s calling for us to be Christians in these last times, at how He granted us the knowledge of His Truth in this age of falsehood, error and unbelief. Let us not marvel only, but let us respond. We respond by remaining steadfast in our Orthodox faith and way of life, true to our Orthodox world view. In the midst of the billows of error and every wind of doctrine that seeks to sway men’s souls, our Savior gives us a rock upon which to stand. As our holy Savior Himself said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:19-20). Only the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church has preserved "all things," both oral and written, that have come down to us have come down to us from the time of the Apostles. If we stand fast in them we will be console with our Savior's promise:

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