December 25, 2025

🕀 The Nativity in the Flesh of Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Feast of our Lord.
Galatians 4:4-7; Matthew 2:1-12.

Read Matthew 2:1-12

Imagine the world’s most powerful ruler entering your city—trumpets sounding, guards marching, banners bright with gold. The streets overflow, the dust rises, the road itself disappears beneath the weight of glory.

In 1324, Mūsā I of Mali set out on the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. His caravan stretched for miles—some say sixty thousand people—laden with gold, gifts, and grandeur. Cairo remembered him for years. It was power made visible, greatness measured by scale.

Then Christmas turns the picture upside down.

G.K. Chesterton captures the wonder of Bethlehem in one piercing line: “The hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle.”

The God who flung the constellations into space does not arrive with heralds or armies. He comes as a child. No velvet. No spectacle. Only swaddling clothes, a manger’s wood, and the quiet faith of Mary and Joseph.

In our Byzantine hymn we sing, “Christ is born! Glorify Him!” And we glorify Him here—in the cave, in the straw, in the stillness and humility.

For us as Ukrainian Catholics, this is not sentiment or symbol; it is salvation’s pattern. Christ conquers not by domination but by self-emptying. The Prince of Peace begins His reign not by taking, as we see from Russia today, but by receiving—warmth, milk, shelter, and the adoration of the poor.

So pray this Christmas for the great ones of the earth—and for the great one within your own heart. Peace will come when the mighty learn to bow low, when strength takes the shape of love, and when the Great God of the Sky becomes small enough to be held, near enough to be loved, and strong enough to save.