This great mystery of man being made divine is recognized by us, Orthodox Christians, not by way of  human philosophizing, but through our belief that the Lord truly sent His Son, in order to save everyone who believes in Him and to lead him into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let us not be astonished, brothers and sisters, by such immeasurable love of His Creation by the Lord [our] God.  God Himself is Love, acting within the unity of the Holy Trinity.  It was by means of Love that God created the world, both visible and invisible, creating everything in an excellent manner, and observing, with satisfaction, as we read in the Book of Genesis, that everything that had been created by Him was "good." 

Having created man in His own image and His own likeness, the Lord appointed him to rule over all the beasts and over all the earth.  How plentiful were the capabilities wherewith God had endowed man and how great was the obedience He had set upon him: to become His trusted administrator in the judicious superintendence of the entire earth and of all the creatures inhabiting it!

Nonetheless, man did not fulfill the task that had been appointed unto him by God.  The envious foe of human well-being inspired in him the thought that he is free to make use of everything for himself alone.  The seducer suggested: here are the fruits of this tree, take of them, and eat; and there shall nothing happen unto thee; thou shalt be as God.

Rejecting, thus, his holy obedience, and violating the peace and order that had been established by God, he was exiled by God to that very earth which he had been called upon to govern; and having  brought mortality upon himself on account of his sin, he began to share the destiny of the temporal creatures dwelling upon it.

But the Lord, abundant in love, could not be content with this lot of fallen man.  As we read in the secret prayers during the Divine Liturgy: the Lord God, Who had brought us out of non-existence into being, restored those who had fallen away and did not withdraw from His creation until He had raised us up to heaven.  And the loving Father gives His Son to conduct man into the Kingdom of Heaven.

In order to make us understand and to strengthen us along the way into His Kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ offered us His Divine teaching and the Divine food of His Most-pure Body and Most-pure Blood.

Beloved brothers and sisters, let us accept these gifts of God, so bounteously poured out upon us, and with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our thoughts, let us sing out to our Creator, God and Father: "Glory to God in the highest, and upon earth peace, good will amongst men." Amen.

The Nativity of Christ.  25 December 2002 / 7 January 2003.