Merry Christmas to you all, my friends.

Unfortunately, in our culture we had reversed the meaning of the holiday. In the secular sphere, we went from St. Nicholas to Santa Claus, from an example of a humble, Christian servant to a big old man in a red suit who meets our needs. Even more sadly, we had experienced the same conversion in churches: we went astray from the Lord Jesus, the Suffering Servant, the Redeemer, the ultimate demonstration of love; instead we invented a Jesus who is nothing more than a convenient vending machine, always ready to meet our desires.

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