Into a remote and beautiful mountain village came an unusual stranger for his summer vacation. He was a very rich man. He was travelling alone, and, being quite tired, he wanted to find a place to stay and rest. He had the intention of rewarding the people who could give him a quiet and pleasant stay. Since he had countless riches, he wanted to give his cordial hosts a present that they had never even dreamed of.

Second. The Divine and Human Natures are always united with the Human Nature in the hypostasis of the Logos/Word without change, confusion, division or separation. This means that they have never been separated and they never are separated. Since the human nature remains inseparable from the Divine Nature, since the Godman always exists for all time, we can even now partake of the deified flesh of the Lord. In partaking of the deified Body and Blood of Christ (Holy Eucharist or Holy Communion) we become one body and one blood with Christ.

The Angel's hymn is also characteristic: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will towards men." The peace which the Angels praised was not a social peace, the absence of war, but the Incarnation and Presence of Christ. Thus the Angels were hymning the peace which came with the Birth of Christ and not a peace that would come in the future. For by His Incarnation Christ gave men peace with God, his neighbor and himself, as well, precisely because the Divine Nature was united with the human nature in His Person. After the fall man lost peace with God, because he worshiped idols without souls and senses and not the True God. Now by the Incarnation man is given the possibility to worship the True God. He also attained peace with the Angels and his fellow men. And indeed the powers of his soul attained peace, because Christ did what Adam failed to do. Adam had to attain full communion with God by the grace of God and his own personal struggle, the powers of his soul had to function naturally and supranaturally. This was achieved in Christ.

The feast of Christmas proclaims something that is inconceivable to the human mind: God came to dwell among us. He came to be united with the human race, to share their pain, to answer their desire for redemption. All religions may point to people searching for God, but what makes Christianity completely different and unique is that Almighty God became one of us "to deify (theosis) each one of us." Christmas is about this shocking reality.

On the Sunday that occurs on or immediately after the eleventh of this month, we commemorate Christ's forefathers according to the flesh, both those that came before the Law, and those that lived after the giving of the Law.

On Christmas Day, "a Child is born to us, a son is given, and the government is upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace...He shall sit upon the "throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and to strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and forever" (Isaiah 9:6-7).