Bishop Andrei’s Nativity Epistle
“What is more lowly than a cave? What is more humble than the swaddling bands, wherein the richness of Thy divinity hath shone forth?” (Canon of the Nativity)
Dear Fathers, brothers and concelebrants, mothers and sisters,
I congratulate all of you on the great Feast of the Nativity of Christ!
God, invisible and incomprehensible not only to humans but also to the heavenly angelic hosts, took on flesh in order to enter into communion with His rational creation.
“Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh… seen by angels” (1 Tim. 3:16)
God became Man, that we might see and know Him, our Creator and Benefactor – Who He is. In what way did we see Him, the Almighty God? – As a meek and humble Man.
The most distinctive qualities of the incarnate Son of God were meekness and humility. His gaze was always lowered to the ground and He only occasionally raised His eyes up.
God appeared clothed in the robe of humility, according to the words of St. Isaac the Syrian.
“Humility is the robe of Divinity. The Word incarnate clothed Himself in it, and He spoke to us in our body.” (St. Isaac the Syrian).
Christ’s coming into the world was marked with the deepest humility imaginable. The Magi, who came from afar to worship the newborn King, were struck by His poverty. “They were in awe to see, not sceptres or thrones, but utter poverty. For what is more lowly than a cave? What is more humble than the swaddling bands, wherein the richness of Thy divinity hath shone forth?” (Hypakoe of the Nativity canon).
Humility is the spiritual teaching of Christ, which He brought to earth. The Lord says, “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29).
The proud and cruel world rejects the teaching of Christ and wages war against Him. As soon as God incarnate appeared in the world, the world began a murderous war against Him.
When Christ was born, King Herod had nearly reached seventy years of age. What danger could the newborn King-Messiah pose to him? After all, in order to assume the kingdom, the Infant would need to reach adulthood. However, Herod was already old. Blinded by pride and the lust for power, people often act irrationally.
Learning of the birth of the Saviour from the shepherds brought great joy to Bethlehem. Alas, this joy was soon replaced by horror with the slaughter of its infants, and by Rachel’s inconsolable weeping for her children.
Our current celebration of the Nativity of Christ is also mixed with sorrow, because for the fourth year now, killings have not ceased on the day of this great feast.
The aging dictator Putin, dreaming of living and reigning forever, like King Herod, assumes the guise of a pious man. He has already killed and maimed more than two thousand children in this horrific war—one driven solely by his own insane ambitions.
However, Putin is not alone in this crime but also the hundreds of thousands of Russian people who hire themselves out as high-paid mercenaries for murder. The priests who, in the name of God bless this crime in their sermons and prayers, are also guilty. Millions of Russian people around the world who justify this war are also guilty. After all, it is precisely the fact that a significant portion of the Russian people approve of this war, that allows Putin’s regime to continue it.
Why did this happen? Perhaps, because ideology has suppressed the soul’s subtle inner feeling called conscience.
The Russian people have lost their moral compass and stopped seeing the difference between truth and lies, between justice and violence, between aggressor and victim. That is why things have become so complicated and ambiguous.
In the world and in politics, everything is always complex and ambiguous. But this does not absolve us from the responsibility to give a moral assessment of what is happening. King Herod was an outstanding ruler who did much good for his state. But in the Holy Gospel, he remains a murderer of infants.
The war in Ukraine is not a conflict, but a completely unprovoked Russian attack on a neighbouring country, which can in no way be justified. It is a crime. No mistakes or unjust actions by the Ukrainian authorities can justify this senseless murder. Thus, those Russian people who in one way or another justify this war commit a sin before God.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness!” (Isaiah 5:20)
What is especially tragic is that among those who justify the war, there are many deeply devout church people. How is it possible to be both with Christ and with Herod?
The war will end, but the mark of Cain’s fratricide will remain on the Russian people. Only repentance can cleanse Russia of this sin, and repentance is impossible without a profound awareness of what has been done.
The Church has a duty to provide clarity and moral judgment to help people understand these events. Therefore, it would be cowardly for bishops and priests to remain silent about this, even if their voice remains the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Sooner or later, a painful awakening will come and people will be horrified.
Let us turn to God with prayer, that this Nativity may become the last feast on which fratricide is committed, that God’s peace and good will may again come to the Russian land.
Amen.
Bishop Andrei
Nativity of Christ 2025 / 2026