{"id":347785,"date":"2021-12-24T16:40:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T14:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=347785"},"modified":"2021-12-24T16:40:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T14:40:54","slug":"metropolitan-nicolae-of-the-americas-the-lords-nativity-restores-man-to-knowledge-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/metropolitan-nicolae-of-the-americas-the-lords-nativity-restores-man-to-knowledge-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Metropolitan Nicolae of the Americas: The Lord’s Nativity restores man to knowledge of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metropolitan Nicolae’s Pastoral Letter for the Lord’s Nativity points<\/a> to the fact that the Lord’s Nativity restores man by bringing the Light of Knowledge: the knowledge of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The hierarch quotes St. Athanasius the Great, who said that Adam’s sin consisted of turning away from the contemplation of God – of the One Who is, becoming oriented towards non-existence.<\/p>\n

“St. Athanasius completes this explanation of the necessity of the Incarnation of the Word for the raising up of man from corruption with that of the regaining of the knowledge of the Creator,” writes the metropolitan, who subsequently quotes from St. Athanasius the Great’s writings.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker? How could men be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word and Reason of the Father, through Whom they had received their being?\u00a0<\/strong>They would be no better than the beasts, had they no knowledge save of earthly things; and why should God have made them at all, if He had not intended them to know Him?” writes the saint in On the Incarnation.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But, in fact, the good God has given them a share in [the] Image [of] our Lord Jesus Christ, and has made even themselves after the same Image and Likeness…\u00a0<\/strong>in order that through this gift… they may be able to perceive the Image Absolute, that is the Word Himself, and through Him to apprehend the Father; which knowledge of their Maker is for men the only really happy and blessed life\u201d, the saint further explains.<\/p>\n

“The Lord\u2019s Nativity acquires deep meaning through the words of St. Athanasius, wonderfully revealing to us the love of God the Father, the Creator, who desires that we be restored to the knowledge of His divine mysteries through the Incarnation of the Son in Whose image we were created,” continues His Eminence Nicolae of the Americas.<\/p>\n

“This restoration of man is demonstrated in the Light of knowledge<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in which man once again partakes through the Birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary. And this\u00a0light<\/em><\/strong> is the gift with which the Creator once again adorns man, who before Christ was lacking understanding.”<\/p>\n

\u201eObserving attentively our world permeated with suffering, fear, and so much misunderstanding, we find it similar to that of 2000 years ago when the Savior was born,\u201d transmitted the metropolitan.<\/p>\n

“The Bethlehem miracle brought to that world the hope that man can regain the countenance illuminated by the glory of God<\/strong>, that he could find the understanding of the meaning of the world and find the path of salvation that leads to God.”<\/p>\n

“More than ever we understand, in these times of trial, that we need this\u00a0light of life<\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0For if the world doesn\u2019t seek it and doesn\u2019t desire to find answers to the acute questions of our times\u00a0in accordance with this seeking<\/em>, Christians can still receive it and can become illuminated, <\/em>that is, those who understand, who know about the way of the world, according to the example of the Magi from the East,” continues the hierarch.<\/p>\n

“They learned from a star\u00a0to worship You, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know You, the Orient from on high.<\/em>\u00a0The Lord\u2019s Nativity, the Troparion tells us, has the profound meaning of the knowledge of God Who reveals Himself to His creation, and of the separation of the Christian from the world of the darkness of ignorance of God!<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Facebook \/ M\u0103n\u0103stirea Putna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Metropolitan Nicolae’s Pastoral Letter for the Lord’s Nativity points to the fact that the Lord’s Nativity restores man by bringing the Light of Knowledge: the knowledge of God. The hierarch quotes St. Athanasius the Great, who said that Adam’s sin consisted of turning away from the contemplation of God – of the One Who is,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":347783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[26863,4144,4145,10386,17702,24975],"class_list":["post-347785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diaspora-en","tag-christmas-2021","tag-metropolis-of-the-americas","tag-metropolitan-nicolae","tag-orthodox-news","tag-pastoral-letter","tag-romanian-orthodox-chuch"],"better_featured_image":{"id":347783,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1200,"height":674,"file":"2021\/12\/mitropolitul-nicolae-nasterea-domnului-restaurare-a-omului-prin-lumina-cunostintei-de-dumnezeu.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"mitropolitul-nicolae-nasterea-domnului-restaurare-a-omului-prin-lumina-cunostintei-de-dumnezeu-890x500.jpg","width":890,"height":500,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/mitropolitul-nicolae-nasterea-domnului-restaurare-a-omului-prin-lumina-cunostintei-de-dumnezeu-890x500.jpg"},"large":{"file":"mitropolitul-nicolae-nasterea-domnului-restaurare-a-omului-prin-lumina-cunostintei-de-dumnezeu-1024x575.jpg","width":1024,"height":575,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/mitropolitul-nicolae-nasterea-domnului-restaurare-a-omului-prin-lumina-cunostintei-de-dumnezeu-1024x575.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"mitropolitul-nicolae-nasterea-domnului-restaurare-a-omului-prin-lumina-cunostintei-de-dumnezeu-360x360.jpg","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/mitropolitul-nicolae-nasterea-domnului-restaurare-a-omului-prin-lumina-cunostintei-de-dumnezeu-360x360.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":347785,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/mitropolitul-nicolae-nasterea-domnului-restaurare-a-omului-prin-lumina-cunostintei-de-dumnezeu.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347785\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=347785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347785\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347783\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=347785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=347785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=347785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}