The Gospel this Sunday presents us with an abundance of names, all those who were the ancestors of Christ. By this we see that on this feast, the Son and Word of God becomes a part of the human family and a part of human history. In this Gospel Jesus is also given a name, the final verse tells us that the child will be known as Jesus – Savior. In verse 22, though, he is given the name “Immanuel,” “God with us.” This gives us the theological meaning of the feast, the incarnation signifies our deification.
We all have names, but for the ancients, names had meanings, they did not simply give us an identification tag, but told us something of who we were. In that sense, we do not name ourselves, but we are given a name, we are all “called by name” by God, and so we enter into the ancestry of Jesus. The names are the forefathers of Jesus, but also the foremothers are mentioned: Tamar, who bore a son by trickery of Judah; Ruth, the grandmother of David, who left her people to follow Naomi; the unnamed wife of David, Bathsheba, who David married by arranging for the death of Uriah. We see, then, that even trough questionable and evil actions, as well as by faithfulness, Jesus becomes “the son given to us.” The greatest of the woman in his genealogy is, of course, Mary, his mother, who by her obedience cancelled the curse of Eve, and united God with humanity in her womb.
Today, we celebrate the Son of Abraham, according to the Law, and the Son of David, the everlasting King, to whom even David bowed, and even the Son of exile, for we are all citizens of the spiritual, not the earthly, Jerusalem. Today we must be named as a follower of Christ.
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
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The Feast of the Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Children [in the fiery furnace] has always been closely connected with Christmas. Proper for them are found on the two Sunday before Christmas and today we sing, “Come, O faithful, let us celebrate the forefeast of the birth of Christ; offering a spiritual canticle by way of a star. Let us join the Magi and shepherds in their hymns of praise: Behold, the Savior has come from a virgin’s womb to call back to himself the whole human race.”
The prophet Haggai, in 520 B.C., preached that the temple must be rebuilt for the sake of the faith of the people. In this way he foreshadowed that Jesus, the Messiah to come, would be the Temple of the New Covenant in his body. His birth, then, is the completion of God’s promise to make his dwelling among his people.
St. Spiridon is commemorated with special solemnity in the Greek Church. The Synaxarion tells us, that “he led the peaceful life of a simple shepherd. He was a plain, unpolished countryman and yet without equal when it came to love of neighbor, meekness, acts of kindness, almsgiving and the practice of virtues.” He was a man of hospitality, who would break his ascetic fast to feed a stranger in need. He was a man of simple and plain words, who put to shame the vain eloquence of a prelate “who wanted to show off by altering certain words of the Gospel too common for his taste.” He was a perfect example of a saint, for through him the love of Christ manifested itself, raising the dead, stopping droughts, looking into the hearts of sinners and forgiving them. Because of his Christ-like virtues, he was called from being a shepherd of sheep in the field, to being the bishop pastor of Christ’s rational sheep in Tremithus. In this way, he was the fulfillment of the shepherds who came to Christ at his birth.