CHRISTMAS CAROLS TO THE BISHOP BY THE CHOIRS AND THE PHILARMONIC BANDS OF CORFU

Christmas Eve in Corfu is special. In the afternoon there was at the Holy Church of Saint Spyridon the Vesper of the feast, which was danced by His Eminence Metropolitan of Corfu, Paxos and Intercontinental Islands Mr Nektarios, who wished Merry Christmas to the faithful and urged everyone to welcome life of the Church. We live in an age in which evil has triumphed, rationality and indifference make the celebration foreign to the mindset of many. But we are called to hope in Christ amidst this global turmoil that gives rise to human fears.

The official speech was delivered by the Protopresbyter fr. George Bogdanos, a pastor of the Metropolitan Church of the Virgin Mary the Spilaiotissa and Deputy Director of Youth of the Holy Metropolis. In his speech, he emphasized, inter alia:

“According to our theology, the traits that man retained after his fall are two. One trait is the sadness of the lost paradise, of the one who had and lost, of all the good things God has given to him, both materially and spiritually, and now he does not have. The second trait is that in his pain, in his anguish, there is a ray of hope that he will not stay forever in the fall, that he will rise someday, somebody will come to save him.

For centuries humans carry within then the cave with the bed. They carry the darkness of ignorance and pain. Today, more than ever before, this inner space of our cave has been overwhelmed by anxiety and melancholy about what we have lost or what we do not have. So our inner manger remains dark, closed to the big visitor. We are not just silent and unaccountable to the miracle of the incarnation of the Word of God but are rational in trying to prove that this cannot be the case, and let the bowed shepherd direct our gaze toward our soil and life away. We decorate our homes with the most expensive ornaments and the brightest lights, but we lock the door well, lest they lose their shine if someone else sees them.

But today is our opportunity to experience the Miracle and get ourselves deep into the Nativity picture. And the hagiographer will accept to put us in his work if we are ready for three things: first to dare to go out of darkness and ignorance to move to Light and truth, second to transcend the rationality of pride and to open our eyes of the heart and soul, and thirdly to lose ourselves, to reduce our ego to accommodate the One, our Lord and our God. He who comes to Earth and takes on all the pain of man, taking upon Him and the sin of Herod, and the inhospitable inhabitants of Bethlehem and all of us, reaching the Cross and Death and this out of love and love alone, because God is only Love »