Jesus was born for resurrection, not for death. This observation by Saint Augustine prompts us to ask: what is the purpose of our birth?
The sanctifying grace of our Baptism confirms us in the way leading to divine life, and if we remain faithful to that way, we will certainly reach communion in the resurrection of Jesus. Our resurrection comes from the resurrection of our Lord Jesus; it is communion in His very same resurrection, because we feed on His Body (John 6.50–51) as our daily bread (Matthew 6.11), the fountain of all life.
This Bread is the Word of the Heavenly Father, and thus it is a creative power that our Heavenly Father sows within our human nature through the sanctifying power of Baptism, in the three-pronged virtue of faith, hope, and love. This, indeed, is the renewed image of God in us, His very Word, the true likeness of His Only Begotten Son, and the divine flame of His own Spirit. God comes to inhabit us, making us His holy Temple.
We are born into our renewed identity from the holy nuptial chamber of the heavenly font, and our Heavenly Father raises us as rays of His pure light, so that we distribute His abundant gift of salvation as His messengers of eternal life.
By virtue of this holy birth, the Christian has the power not to be led astray into darkness from the ways of Light and is able to remain in Jesus, the Way, filled with truth and life. The Christian receives abundant nourishment from the sacrificial table of the eternal bread and the justification in righteousness freely given to us through the sacrifice of the Cross. As children of the New Zion, we must be ready to feed ourselves every day on good deeds and works from our Heavenly Father’s table.
We pray during the procession bringing the Bread and Wine to the Altar to run jubilantly from our abode, to shine the light we bear as a divine gift received in our Baptism, and to keep it alight, following the example of the wise virgins, constantly feeding at our daily divine table.
The best way to be faithful witnesses to the love of God is to shine the divine light sown in our human nature through good deeds. It is the purest way to proclaim the Good News of our Lord Jesus, the Word of God, as Saint Ephrem the Syrian notes in his commentary on the parable of the talents.