Our Holy Triune God is the only Creative Cause for the creation out of nothing… and the functional perfection of the spiritual (heavenly) World of the incorporeal Forces…! Also, for the uninterrupted creation and providential maintenance of the living (terrestrial) World of rational and intelligent animals… and the living Nanocosm of cells, bacteria and micro-organisms, as well as for the continuous creative genesis-movement-harmony of the universal Gigacosm of billions of galaxies…!
We humans have the 'luck' (a unique privilege from our Creator!) among all other, major and minor creations, to share two natures: the material (as earthly and mortal bodies) and the spiritual (as immaterial and immortal souls)! At the same time, however, we also have the 'misfortune' of growing existentially on the 'border' of two Worlds: the Microcosm and the Macrocosm, with all the psychic 'peculiarity' that this intermediation between minimum and maximum entails!
Observing the nanocosm microscopically, we feel advantageous… as giants in front of dwarfs! However, looking telescopically at the monstrous sizes of the supercosms… we feel disadvantaged… realizing our horrible insignificance! We are like tiny 'bugs'… in front of gigantic 'beasts', which 'crush' our 'adolescent' arrogance… and pulverize our 'senile' arrogance! And we suffer all this… because we either ignore or forget or question our ontological… 'true value': as 'god-born' creatures… created "in the image and likeness of God..."!
Bearing indelibly in my memory the image of Comet Hale-Bopp [ 1 ] visibly passing through our macrocosmic 'neighborhood', with phantasmagorical majesty, silently moving through the abysmal night sky of the Spring of 1997, I recall its memory every time I find myself in the calendar in view of the Birthday of Christ: like a huge 'star finger'... illuminating our path towards Christmas...!
The memory of the Hale-Bopp comet, repaints in our imagination the Christmas star... which, 'pointing' in a similar way to the Eastern sky two millennia ago, marked the greatest and most incomprehensible Event in world history (the Incarnation of God)! And thus guided the three wise rulers of the Persians - and through them all of humanity - in search, finding and worshipping the Greatest 'Visitor' who ever crossed the threshold of space-time...
Like a huge finger pointing at God… I remember the passing comet at that time, awestruck by what defines its movement within the incomprehensible space-time of the universe. A movement between magnitudes that unimaginably exceed earthly space-time conventions: chaotic paths calculated in light years… covered at speeds inconceivable to our minds (in this case, the speed of the comet: 44 km per second, i.e. approximately 158.400 km per hour…)!
Philosophically observing this fantastic 'simulation' of the Christmas star, in the midnight sky of our world... we understand the reason that plunges us into deep fascination and fearful shock...! We observe the starry sky awkwardly... because we make associations of horrible comparisons of it, to the conventional sizes of this world! The scales of the enormous sizes of the universal immensity, make it seem immeasurable... while it is finite (since it fits within the plastic palms of our God!) and this, only one thought tames it... so that it does not frighten us: that every soul is, ontologically, far superior... to all of Creation!
It is not, therefore, the fear we feel in the face of the transcendent and monstrous… the primary cause that makes us shockingly paralyzed, every time our finite mind is elevated to macrocosmic views and supracosmic contemplations…! But it is, I believe, the ‘unbearable’ awareness of the Greatness of the “in the image of God…” of our soul, which is invited to participate in the evolutionary transformation of the “in the likeness of God…” and, despite this, refuses to respond to the call of His Infinite Fatherly Love… out of selfishness and self-love! [ 6 ]
The story of the "Three Wise Men" is undoubtedly a story that has never, for two thousand years now, ceased to move and inspire children young and old! The Three Wise Men, distinguished naturalists and astronomers of their time, with royal titles and offices, in a country immersed in the idolatry of "Zoroastrianism" [ 2 ] are recognized by God, Who "wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth", to be enlightened - unknown how - through the observation and study of the starry Heaven, about the great event of the Divine Incarnation, and they hasten to the ends of the earth to find the Incarnate God-Man...!
However, what makes those three historical figures (Melchior-Gaspar-Balthasar) so likable to humanity of all centuries is the... 'madness' and audacity of the decision to leave behind them without hesitation, the safe and well-groomed life of royal scholarship, which they enjoyed in the palaces of the Persian empire, and to expose themselves to the unknown... of a dangerous adventure! Guided by a thirsty desire... they ran, riding Bactrian camels, to seek a "God Incarnate", happily willing to suffer all the physical hardships... and to expose themselves to all the potential dangers of a difficult journey...!
A short 'road' our earthly life, at the end of which we will learn (from the result... but without another 'opportunity' to correct the possible mistake!) IF... it was worth it or not, to have lived HOW -theistically or atheistically- we chose to live in this world! A quick 'crossing' in the archipelago of space-time our temporary life, at the end of which will await us... either a sheltered 'harbor' confirming our faith... or a dark ocean of eternal suffering, subversive of our unbelief...! And, to remember the great Tarkovsky, if this temporary life has any value, it lies exclusively in its use: as... a 'Road' to God...! Because, then only a 'road' has a serious 'reason for existence'...! [ 3 ]
Really, what do we need of 'Christmas' (as a supposedly 'family' and social celebration...) with a lot of folklore and "lights... a thousand lights..." which, however, "are not The LIGHT...", if they do not lead our souls thirsty for Truth and Life, with a worshipful mood, before the Manger and the incarnate God...?! Furthermore, what was the need for our coming from non-existence to existence... and our boarding the 'boat of life'... if, ultimately, this transatlantic 'journey' of our earthly life does NOT have as its destination the Port of the Kingdom of Christ, but simply seeks the joy of the 'crossing' and the enjoyment of the short 'journey'... FOOLISHLY indifferent to what awaits there, on the 'other side'...!
REFERENCES-FOOTNOTES
[ 1 ] Hale-Bopp: A miraculous comet, which from 1995 to 1997, 4.200 years after its previous appearance in our 'neighborhood', passed again visibly by us (just... a few tens of millions of km outside our earthly neighborhood!), to return 'near' us again after 2.400 years of wandering - as its periodicity of recursion has changed, due to the magnetic influence of the planets on it - in the vast expanse of our galactic space... ( https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Κομήτης_Χέιλ-Μποπ )
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[ 2 ] Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions still in existence. It originated about 2.600 years ago as a radical reformation of the polytheistic Iranian religion, which had become prevalent in the Persian Empire with state support. Zoroastrianism retains some of the practices of the prehistoric, common Indo-Iranian religion and thus shares similarities with Vedic Hinduism, such as fire worship and respect for the forces of nature. (See digital link: https://el.icro.ir/Islamology-And-The-Islamic-Revolution-/Ζωροαστρισμός )
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[ 3 ] A 'postscript' inspired by the great Tarkovsky! An old Russian film, titled "Repentance", included the following dramatic verse between a grandmother and a daughter.
…At the end of a road, on piles of ruins that testify to an earlier (now non-existent) building, a construction crew is preparing to lay the foundation for an atheist museum. A Russian grandmother (matouska) arrives panting, searching for something… that she can’t seem to find anywhere, so she asks a passing girl in surprise: “My daughter, wasn’t there a holy Temple of God here?! This road didn’t lead to a Church…?!” “Once upon a time… yes, matouska, but not anymore! This road doesn’t lead to any church anymore!” the girl replied. And the matouska, with a childlike innocence - that praiseworthy innocence of "infantile wickedness" [ 18 ] that judges the 'maturity' of those who have grown old in it! - asks again with obvious wonder and obvious confusion: "Really?! And what is the need, my daughter, of a road... if it does not lead to a church...?"!
