The depth of the Divine Providence guiding us to salvation is manifest in the major events of the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The conception and birth of Our Lord by the Ever-Virgin Mary - the Most Pure Mother of God - point out what purity, chastity, humility and thirst for God are needed to reach the state of perfect grace. The conception and birth also bear witness to the true divinity of the Savior. The incarnation of Christ reveals His finite humility and self-limitation. The indissoluble tie between goodness and humility was proclaimed by the Most Holy Virgin Mary in Her hymn My soul doth magnify the Lord. The poverty of the cave and the manger in Bethlehem reveal how different the magnitude of God's love is from to the glory of this world, and how, infinitely loving of man's freedom, God draws man to Himself without impressing man's imagination with externals. The shepherds and the Wise Men from the East were vouchsafed the revelation of this newborn God-Infant as a reward for their humility and for their thirst for truth.
God revealed this secret also to Saint Simeon the God Receiver and to the Prophetess Anna because they cared deeply about the spiritual state of their nation and of mankind, on whose behalf they had awaited the Messiah.
The childhood, boyhood, and youth of Our Lord Jesus Christ are virtually hidden from us. But the little we know about the life in an artisan family and the obedience of a boy who knew His appointed lot at the early age of 12, proclaim again the same humility.
Archpriest Victor Potapov
January 1986