SOUTH AMERICAN DIOCESE: January 11, 2018
Nativity Epistle of Bishop John of Caracas and South America

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I greet you all with the great feast of the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Within the mystical space of the Church all is timeless – a single everlasting living mystical present. This is especially true of the divine Incarnation and Theophany of the God-Man, which continues outside of all time as a single everlasting present wherein humanity finds redemption and salvation.

Thus, when celebrating this event, it is in the present tense that we sing Christ is born, glorify Him: Christ down from Heaven, meet Him: Christ upon the earth, be exalted…, for we are not only commemorating a great and salvific event two millennia in the past, but rather celebrating and proclaiming an ever-present reality which continues in Christ’s Church, and should likewise continue in the heart of every believing Christian within whom there abides the living Christ.

In that eternal Bethlehem which is Christ’s Church, we are called, not just to meet the Divine Infant Who is born on earth for our sake, but to receive Him and partake of Him with all our being, so that our hearts are illumined by the Christmas star, and that they resound with the angels’ song of praise and we truly live that peace and good will which they proclaim.

Then will our lives be transfigured into an unending Nativity of Christ and, even in this world, merge with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

John,
Bishop of Caracas and South America