"The only ultimate reason for Bethlehem is Jerusalem; the only reason in God's mind for becoming a Child was so that He might, as man, die on the Cross."
Sort of a bizarre remark, at least to my Orthodox ears. But then again, as my Metropolitan once observed, The Church in the West is the Church of the Passion and Crucifixion, that of the East, of the Resurrection.
But is it a true dichotomy at least on this point? One cannot get to the Resurrection except through the Crucifixion.