1999 Nativity Message of Patriarch Pavle of Serbia (+11/15/2009) [Part 6 of 8] In contrast to this dismal picture of the twentieth century, today we see before us a young mother holding her newly-born Child to her bosom, and are moved to feel one of the greatest of human virtues and attributes: a warm heart. The motherly love of the Most Holy Theotokos permeates todays entire event and radiates a warm feeling within us. Christmas is the feast of warmth and of warm human hearts. If it seems that there is no place today a person can warm himself, it is because human hearts have grown cold. They have become hard and unfeeling --- even towards the suffering of so many of our brothers and sisters who - in recent years - have been left homeless, exiled from their birthplaces, and some even without their loved ones. That life is hard is not the exception but the rule. Only the twentieth century has brought the simple-minded dream that life should be easy and leisurely, which it never has been throughout history. In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, the Lord tells Adam [Genesis 3:19], and that is the law of human life. But afflictions and difficulties and limitations are easier to bear when we have warmth in us and amongst us. For in the day of His second coming, the Lord will not ask us what kind of times we lived in, but how we related to our neighbor. Was he our hell or our heaven? We ourselves build either heaven or hell in our own hearts out of the momentary circumstances we are given, and the warmth of the human heart is able to transform any situation --- even to make a cave in Bethlehem the most beautiful palace and birthplace of the King of kings.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 04:50:44 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015