“We have found the Truth”
My dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,
Before the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, people all over the world were seekers of Truth. Humanity’s driving question, whether consciously or unconsciously, had always been about the Truth. And, of course, pre-Christian civilizations found seeds of truth, but not the Truth. So, when, “our Savior visited us from on high …, we found the Truth” (Christmas Orthros, Exapostilarion). The Church’s great joy in finding the Truth, expressed in her Christmas hymns, is completely justified because “there is nothing stronger than the truth“, according to St. John Chrysostom. Since the first meeting of the two apostles Andrew and John with the Eternal Truth that was incarnated, all the faithful throughout the ages exclaim with the same enthusiasm as the first-called Apostle Andrew that “we have found the Messiah” (John 1:42), because there is nothing more important and greater concerning earthly and heavenly life than the revealed and salvific Truth.
After the Incarnation of Christ, Truth is neither an ideology nor a philosophical theory; instead, it is personal and carries a Name, “the name that is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). Put differently the Truth is not a “thing” or an “idea,” but a Person; that is, the divine-human Person, our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who believed in Him Who “for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made human” they found not just a truth, nor a part of truth, but the fullness of Truth. Now every follower and believer of Christ does not wonder, as Pilate did, “what is truth?” (John 18:38), because they have discovered it in the life and teaching of the One Who proclaimed, “I am the Truth” (John 14: 6).
Yet, unfortunately, there are still people, who have not found the revealed Truth, either because no one preached it to them or out of indifference or distorted desires. In all three cases, we as Christians, have a great deal of responsibility.
Especially during the age of electronics, when “many have strayed and turned away from the Truth” (1 Tim. 2:18), and as truth has been the greatest victim of deliberate misinformation, deception, and paid journalism with the spread of fakes news, our responsibility is getting bigger and bigger every day. Not only as a reaction to the dissemination of false information, propaganda and the targeting of people and institutions, aiming at their extermination, but mainly with the spread of the Truth of Christ and His Church to all nations “in order to walk according to the Truth of the Gospel” (Gal. 2:14). The more souls that are born in Christ, the fewer people will be affected by the traffickers of lies and of the various conspiracy theories.
Christ, who is the Self-Truth, declares to those who are tired and deceived by all kinds of political, religious, or social ideologies and conspiracies: “Know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). He invites everyone to get to know Him and to enter into a personal relationship with Him which liberates us from all kinds of slavery.
My beloved, we celebrate again this year the joyful celebration of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of the storm of pandemic. Particularly, the world community is in a state of great anxiety concerning the new mutation of the “Omicron” virus, which tests our patience and endurance and banishes joy from the hearts of many people.
Let us, therefore, follow in our daily lives with fidelity and accuracy the Truth of Christ and His uncreated Church on earth; only then “our hearts will rejoice, and our joy no one can take away from us” (John 16:22).
I convey to all of you the festal wishes of His Eminence Metropolitan Sotirios of Pisidia, our Clergy, and our collaborators in the Lord, wishing you “the Grace and Truth that came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17) to always guard our hearts, “so that we can distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.” (1 John 4: 6)
May you and your loved ones have a blessed Christmas in good health.
+ Metropolitan Ambrosios of Korea