NOTES for Мк 9:10-16
Once again we read that the Son of Man must suffer and be humiliated, and rise on the third day. It is hardly by “chance” that the cycle of Church readings offers us precisely these passages now. The Lord Himself says of His Passion, “For this hour I have come.” The meaning and purpose of the Savior's birth in Bethlehem is not to make our life a little easier and more pleasant. He comes in order to share and destroy our death. This is precisely why, since ancient times, the celebration of the Nativity in the Eastern Church has had a number of features that bring it close to Pascha. In a certain sense, Christ's entire life from its very beginning was the way of the Cross and Resurrection. We must not forget this as our hearts are touched by and rejoice in the Christ Child.