"Are you for or against Christ?"
Literature, music, art, architecture, science, economics and even politics - everything was different. It's hard to even think of any field of human genius, which in any way would not have been affected by the Nativity of the Child of Bethlehem.
You cannot treat Him as if He hadn’t been. Even those who claimed that Christ had not come into this world tried by all available means to destroy the memory of Him. Christians were killed, their churches – destroyed, the faith – blasphemed ... But if He did not come, then why fight with Him and against Him?
We know that immediately after the Nativity there were the ones who wanted His death – Herod and "all Jerusalem with him." There were many who wanted Christ to die later – on the Cross. Today there are those who want him to just disappear. And all these people are not necessarily evil and bad. Moreover, some of them even consider themselves Christians ... So what's the matter?
Let us remember that Christ was followed by thousands of people, but only 12 became apostles. And now millions call themselves His disciples, but only a few live as Christians. The fact is that the initial existence of our civilization, as well as the life of each of us, it is an attempt to answer the question – are you for or against Christ? You cannot say that you are "for" him, but live as if "against." In general, I think that every word, every step of ours should start from this question – "for" or "against". "If I act like that, if I say so-and-so, I'll be with him or left alone?" - That's what we should ask ourselves.
And this concerns not only the individual, but the entire nation as a whole. If people forget God, if they live only with economic problems and turn religion into an adjunct of politics – this nation is without Christ. It has no future; it will disappear from the historical arena.
The Nativity of the Son of God changed the world. But most importantly, it changes people, changes their souls. That is what can be called the greatest miracle. It is important that He came not only to Bethlehem and revealed Himself not only to the shepherds, but that He will come to every home and reveal Himself in every heart. Only then we can say that we are "for Christ!" And we’ll say so by our entire life, not by word.
Christ is born! Give glory!
Read also
God's spy: thirteen days under the lamp
In a Tashkent NKVD cell, the professor of surgery underwent an "operation" that is not found in medical textbooks. The story of the thirteen-day interrogation of Saint Luke.
Demon at the threshold: What Cain knew about prayer
Abel does not utter a single word in the Bible. Four chapters – and complete silence. His only “speech” is the voice of blood crying from the ground. Yet sometimes silence speaks more precisely than any words.
Triumph of Orthodoxy: Why disappointment often hides beneath golden vestments
Why the neophytes of the 1990s withdrew into silence, how to recognize the Church’s “dark double,” and where to look for light in the first place.
Candle stubs and a clear conscience: The story of altar server Sasha
A small temptation in the vast world of war. How an ordinary bundle of used candles became, for a young altar server, a measure of honesty and a path to victory over himself.
A woman who overcame sin
The first reading of the Penitential Canon is coming to an end. And Saint Andrew of Crete reveals the image of a heroine of church history whom God caught with bait.
Rehearsing eternity: Great Lent as an exit from dictatorship of noise
Great Lent is not a diet. It is not a seasonal ban on entertainment. It is a voluntary step into what might be called a corridor of silence – a place where a person removes the masks and finally encounters his real self.