On Thursday, December 25th, 2025, His Eminence Mor Dionysius John Kawak celebrated the Holy Liturgy at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Paramus, New Jersey, assisted by V. Rev. Fr. Joseph Chamoun and Rev. Fr. Joseph Shammas, in the presence of V. Rev. Fr. Joseph Shabo. In his sermon, His Eminence spoke about “The Reason for the Season”reminding the faithful, with the simplicity of a child and the strength of the Gospel, that Christmas is not ultimately about decorations, gifts, or sentimental nostalgia, but about a Person: our Lord Jesus Christ. Drawing from a recent Nativity celebration at God’s Children Academy, he noted how the children, in their innocent clarity, proclaimed that the foundation of this feast is Christ Himself, fulfilling the Lord’s word: “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise” (Matthew 21:16).
His Eminence then reflected on the holy mystery of the Incarnation confessing with the Church that Christ “for us men and for our salvation… was incarnate… and became man” (Nicene Creed) and emphasized the humility of Bethlehem, where God did not come “with soldiers and banners,” but as a helpless Infant, laid in a manger and first visited by the poor and the overlooked. With patristic resonance, he cited St. John Chrysostom’s sense of wonder before the Nativity and St. Gregory the Theologian’s teaching that the Lord embraced poverty to enrich us with His divine life. Calling the congregation to a living response, His Eminence urged everyone to follow the footsteps of the first witnesses of Christmas: the angels who glorified God (Luke 2:14), the shepherds who came with haste (Luke 2:15–16), the wise men who worshiped and offered gifts (Matthew 2:11), and the Holy Theotokos who “pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). He encouraged the faithful to return to Bethlehem through repentance, prayer, the Holy Gospel, and the Divine Liturgy, offering not gold and incense, but hearts, forgiveness, time, and love, and to embrace the Lord’s call to childlike conversion: “Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
