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Thy Nativity, O Christ Our God, Hath Shined the Light of Knowledge Upon the World; for Thereby They That Worshipped the Stars We

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Thy Nativity, O Christ Our God, Hath Shined the Light of Knowledge Upon the World; for Thereby They That Worshipped the Stars We For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. (Esaias 9:6) Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath shined the light of knowledge upon the world; for thereby they that worshipped the stars were instructed by a star to worship Thee, the Sun of Righteousness, And to know Thee, the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory be to Thee. Troparion of the Nativity of Christ, fourth tone. Today the Virgin giveth birth to Him Who is transcendent in essence; and the earth offereth a cave to Him Who is unapproachable. Angels with shepherds give glory; with a star the Magi do journey; for our sake a young Child is born, Who is pre-eternal God. Contakion of the Nativity of Christ, third tone, the hymn revealed to Saint Romanus the Melodist by the all-holy Theotokos 1 FROM THE FATHERS “THE YOUNG have not yet perfect understanding, and have need to be led forward by those who have advanced to a more per- fect state, therefore when He [Christ] arrived at twelve years, He was obedient to his parents, to show that whatever is made perfect by progressing, before it arrives at that end profitably embraces obedience, as leading unto good.” Saint Gregory of Nyssa, + c. 395 A.D. “WE ARE ENJOINED to receive the kingdom of God, that is, the doctrine of the Gospel, as a little child, because as a child, when he is taught, does not contradict his teachers, nor put together rea- sonings and words against them, but receives with faith what they teach, and obeys them with awe, so we also are to receive the word of the Lord with simple obedience and without any gainsaying.” Ven. Bede of Jarrow, + 735 A.D. “IT WILL BE ENOUGH if you take care to instruct your children in the fear of God, instil them with an Orthodox under- standing, and by teaching them to be faithful, you protect them from reasoning foreign to the teachings of the Orthodox Church. The good that you sow in the hearts of your children while they are young will blossom forth in their hearts when they come to full maturity, after enduring the bitter trials of school and contempo- rary life, which often break off the branches of a good Christian upbringing in the home.” Ven. Ambrose of Optina, + 1891 A.D. 2 The Memory of the Holy Infants, slain by Herod in Bethlehem HEROD, seeing that he had been mocked by the Magi, was exceedingly angry. Whom was he angry with? Both the Magi, who had mocked him, and also with the New-Born King of the Jews. He was angry with the Magi because they had not returned to him and had not informed him about the Child. He was angry with Christ, fearing that his kingdom would be taken away from him, for he considered that Christ desired to reign over a worldly king- dom, not knowing that the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world. So what did wretched Herod do, not being able to appre- hend the Magi because they had left, nor being able to kill Christ, not having found Him? His wrath poured forth on the innocent infants. Like a ferocious beast when it is wounded and does not see that it has been wounded by none other than itself, nonethe- less when something happens to come into sight it seizes it, it rages and tears at it as if it were the one who had caused the wound. So Herod, wounded by anger, and not finding those who had caused the wound, seizes and slays the infants, who had in no way caused him grief. He sent soldiers, fully armed as if going into battle, to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the Magi. Because of this, some say that the birth of Christ was two years previous to the slaying of the infants. So George Ke- drenos [an eleventh century Byzantine historian - transl.] writes: “after two years Herod slew the infants.” But it seems that it was not that way. Given that Herod understood when the star appeared, hav- ing been told by the Magi, then, according to the commentaries of St John Chrysostom and St Theophylact, the star appeared a long time before the Nativity of Christ. How long before? Maybe 3 it was at the very time of the Annunciation, and it would be nine months from the Annunciation to the Theotokos until the Nativ- ity of Christ. Then the arrival of the Magi in Jerusalem might well have been the very day of the Nativity and before the immaculate purification of the Theotokos. They would have worshipped Christ in Bethlehem, and left to make their journey to their own country by another way, without Herod knowing that he had been mocked, but still thinking they had not found the one they sought and were therefore ashamed to appear before him again on account of this failure. Rather than that, expressing amusement, they had gone off secretly, and it was he that was shamed. Then forty days passed for the purification of the glorious Theotokos in the Temple of Sol- omon. Simeon the Elder and Anna the Prophetess bear witness to Christ, and many of the people are thus evangelized. Then it was that Herod perceived that he had been mocked of the Magi, for ev- eryone in all Jerusalem at the time of the immaculate purification and the meeting of the Lord in the Temple heard of what had come to pass, and King Herod was among them. And Herod reasoned that actually the Child had been found, and that the “evil” report in the words of the Magi concerning the New-Born King had not been false. That they had found Him in Bethlehem and not returned to him, because they recognized His authority. He was roused to an unspeakable, blackguardly wrath. Through secretive contrivances and craftinesses he sought to find the Child. Many worked assidu- ously on account of much money being offered, but it proved im- possible to find the One Who after the purification had fled into Egypt. And the time Herod expended in his concern to find Christ even extended to a whole year. Then he was required to make a journey to Rome, to Cæsar, because of some necessity, and he was extremely grieved that he had not found the Child he sought, fear- ing that if He were not found He would be hailed as king among the people and the kingdom of Judea would be wrested from him. Therefore the idea lodged in his mind that he would kill all the children in Bethlehem, so that the One born king would be killed with them. And he implemented this lawless act of infanticide a 4 th year after the Nativity of Christ on 29 December, from whence derives the Church’s commemoration of their veneration on that day. Thus from the time of the appearance of the star a year and nine months had elapsed. Thus it was that children of two years old and younger were slain, and this was done from fear and from the likelihood of an increase of danger. So Saint Chrysostom says: Do not marvel that Herod ordered the slaying of the infants from two years old and under, because within the persecutor fear and fury had taken hold of him. For that reason he was exceedingly fearful, and from the plenitude of dangers involved in allowing a greater delay he appointed the slaying. St Euthymius agrees with this, saying: Herod considered that it was not simultaneously with the Magi that the star appeared, but that the star appeared a considerable time earlier than the birth of the Child, wherefore the danger was great and to take the time into account he or- dered [the slaying of] two-year-olds. The infants were slain is various ways: some were cut down with the sword, some were dashed against rocks or walls, some were struck against the ground and trampled under foot, some were strangled by hand, and others torn in pieces and lacerated, some pierced through, some cut in half, to the anguished laments of the mothers. And even unto the heavens their great wailing as- cended, as they tore their hair and their clothes from them and tore at their flesh, and thus was that spoken by Jeremias the Prophet fulfilled, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not (Matt. 2:18). Rama was a town so named because of its elevated position, and it stood within the portion of the tribe of Benjamin. Bethlehem was called Rachel’s by some, because Rachel, the wife of the Patriarch Jacob, the mother of Benjamin, was buried there. From having the grave of Rachel, Bethlehem adopted Rachel’s name. Thus when in Rachel, that is in Bethlehem, the infants were horribly slain, then in the town of Rama, which was not far from Bethlehem, the voice of lamentation, weeping and great mourning was heard, the 5 mothers weeping over their slain children. The two saints John, Chrysostom and Damascene, write about their lamentation. The first of these proclaims the following: Beholding these mothers, I ask the murderers: For what reason do you slay our children? What offence did they cause the king or you? And will it be that any will answer to them for this needless killing? Will it be that any will comfort them in their great lamentation? And they cried out to the soldiers: Have mercy on us, O men, have mercy on us? Can it be that you did not have mothers? Do you not have wives? Are you not ashamed to see our bosoms and breasts laid bare? Are you not beloved of your mothers? Do you not fear, lest the same befall your own children? Have mercy on us, O men, do not deprive us of our children, but rather kill us first, for we cannot bear to witness the death of our children; it pierces us through.
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