“Loving is caring, and caring is sharing, so He shared our nature because He loves us, and He cares for us.”

His Eminence Metropolitan Antonios, Patriarchal Vicar, celebrated the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral of Brooklyn, New York. He thanked the clergy and laity for braving the cold weather to worship in the divine warmth of our Savior’s birth. He also conveyed the best wishes of His Beatitude Patiarch John X of Antioch and All the East.

In the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy, Sayidna Antonios explained the epistle reading from Galatians (4:4-7) in which St. Paul talked about the Law of Moses and God adopting us as His children through the birth of His Son.

“The Law was not given to save us, but given by God to reveal sin,” His Eminence preached. “If there was no Law, there is neither right nor wrong, neither righteousness nor sin. God gave the law to Moses so that the human race grows in the knowledge of itself.”

This knowledge gives us the grace to know our own sins and repent, and to help others through their sins, Sayidna Antonios peached.

“Christ came to teach us that to love is to care for each other. He doesn’t want us to be slaves and submitted to death. He doesn’t want us to be in fear of anything. He came to give us freedom as children of God that is different from freedom in the world.”

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