III
It happens at times that the star disappears from our sight.
Whether the inspiration of grace bear with it an extraordinary
character, as was the case with the Magi, or whether it be linked
to the supernatural providence of each day, as is the most
frequent case with us, the star sometimes ceases to be manifest.
The soul then finds itself in spiritual darkness. What is to be
done then ?
Let us see what the Magi did under these circumstances. The star
was shown to them only in the East, then it disappeared: Vidimus
stellam ejus in Oriente. If it taught them concerning the Birth of
the King of the Jews, it did not show the precise place where they
might find Him. What were they to do ? The Magi directed their
course towards Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, the metropolis of
the Jewish religion. Where, better than in the holy city, could
they learn what they sought to know ?
In the same way, when our star disappears, when the divine
inspiration leaves us in some uncertainty, it is God's will that
we should have recourse to the Church, to those who represent Him
amongst us, in order to learn from them the path to be followed.
This is the dispensation of Divine Providence. God loves that in
our doubts and in the difficulties of our progress towards Christ,
we should ask light and direction from those whom He has
established as His representatives: Qui vos audit, me audit (Lk
10:16).
Hear how Jesus replies to Saul's question: "Lord, what wilt Thou
have me to do ?" Does He make His will directly known? He might
have done so since He revealed Himself as the Lord; but He instead
sends Saul to His representative: "Go into the city, and there it
shall be told thee"-by another-"what thou must do" (Acts 9:7).
In submitting the aspirations of our souls to the control of those
who have the grace and mission to direct us in our seeking after
divine union, we run no risk of going astray, whatever be the
personal merits of those who guide us. At the time when the Magi
arrived at Jerusalem, the assembly of those who had authority to
interpret the Holy Scriptures was composed in great part of
unworthy members; and yet God willed that it should be by their
ministry and teaching that the Magi learnt officially where Christ
was born. Indeed, God cannot permit a soul to be deceived when,
with humility and confidence, she has recourse to the legitimate
representatives of His sovereign authority.
On the contrary, the soul will again find light and peace. Like
the Magi going out from Jerusalem, she will again see the star,
radiant and splendid, and, also like them, full of gladness, she
will go forward on her way: Videntes autem stellam, gavisi sunt
gaudio magno valde (Mt 2:10).
IV
Let us now follow the Magi to Bethlehem: it is there that we shall
especially see the manifestation of the depth of their faith.
The marvellous star leads them to the place where they were at
last to find Him Whom they had so long sought. And what do they
find ? A palace, a royal cradle, a long train of attentive
servants ? No, but a poor dwelling. They seek a king, a God, and
they see only a Babe on His Mother's knee; not a Babe transfigured
by Divine rays as the Apostles were later to see the God-Man, but
a little Child, a poor weak little Child.
However, from this Little One so frail in appearance, invisibly
went forth a divine power : Virtus de illo exibat. He, Who had
made the star arise to lead the Magi to His cradle, now Himself
enlightened them. He inwardly filled their minds with light and
their hearts with love. And so it was that in this Child, they
recognised their God.
The Gospel tells us nothing of their words, but it makes known to
us the sublime act of their perfect faith: "And falling down they
adored Him": Et procidentes adoraverunt eum (Ibid. 2:2).
The Church would have us associate ourselves with this adoration
of the Magi. When, during the Mass, she gives us these words of
the Gospel narrative to read, she causes us to kneel down, to show
that we, too, believe in the Divinity of the Babe of Bethlehem.
Let us adore Him with deep faith. God requires of us that, as long
as we are here below, all the activity of our inner life should
lead to union with Him by faith. Faith is the light which enables
us to see God in the Virgin's Child, to hear God's voice in the
words of the Incarnate Word, to follow the example of a God in the
actions of Jesus, to appropriate to ourselves the infinite merits
of a God in the sorrows and satisfactions of a Man suffering like
ourselves.
Through the veil of a humble and passible Humanity, the soul
enlightened by a living faith ever discovers God; whereever she
encounters this Humanity-whether it be in the humiliations of
Bethlehem, upon the roads of Judea, on the gibbet of Calvary, or
under the Eucharistic species- the faithful soul falls in
adoration because it is the Humanity of a God. At the feet of
Jesus she listens to Him, in order to obey and follow Him until it
shall please Him to reveal Himself in the beauty of Xis Infinite
Majesty, in the holy splendours of the Beatific Vision: Usque ad
contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducam? (Collect for the
Feast of the Epiphany).
The attitude of adoration in the Magi translates in eloquent
language the depth of their faith; the presents that they offer
are likewise full of signification. The Fathers of the Church have
laid stress on the symbolism of the gifts brought to Christ by the
Magi. In ending this conference, let us stay to consider the depth
of this symbolism: it will be a joy for our souls and food for our
devotion.
As you know, the Gospel tells us that having found the Child with
Mary His Mother, "opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts:
gold, frankincense and myrrh " (Mt 2:2). It is evident that, in
the intentions of the Magi, these gifts were meant to express the
feelings of their hearts as well as to honour Him to Whom they
were brought.
In examining the nature of these gifts which they had prepared
before their departure, we see that divine illumination had
already manifested to the Magi something of the eminent dignity of
Him Whom they desired to contemplate and adore. The nature of
these gifts likewise indicates the nature of the duties that the
Magi would fulfil towards the King of the Jews. The symbolism of
the gifts therefore refers both to the One to Whom they are
offered and to those who present them.
Gold, the most precious of metals, is the symbol of royalty; it
denotes, on the other hand, the love and fidelity. That everyone
owes to his prince.
Incense is universally acknowledge to be the symbol of divine
worship; it is offered to God alone. In preparing this gift, the
Magi showed that they had in view to proclaim the Divinity of Him
Whose Birth was announced by the star, and to confess this
Divinity by the supreme adoration that can be rendered to God
alone.
Finally, they had been inspired to bring Him myrrh. What would
they show by this myrrh which is used to dress wounds, and to
embalm the dead ? This gift signified that Christ was Man, a Man
capable of suffering, Who would one day die. The myrrh also
symbolised the spirit of penance and immolation which ought to
characterise the life of the disciples of the Crucified.
Thus grace inspired the Magi to bring presents to Him Whom they
sought. It should be the same for us. "Let us who hear the story
of the offering of the Magi," says St. Ambrose (In Lk 2:44),
"learn how to open our treasures and present like offerings." Each
time that we draw near to Christ, let us, like the Magi, bring Him
presents, but presents that are magnificent, that are, like
theirs, worthy of Him to Whom we offer them.
You may perhaps say: we have neither gold, nor frankincense, nor
myrrh. That is true; but we have what is better, we have much more
precious treasures, the only ones, moreover, that Christ, our
Saviour and our King, expects from us. Do we not offer gold to
Christ when by a life full of love and fidelity to His commands,
we proclaim that He is the King of our hearts ? Do we not present
frankincense when we believe in His Divinity, and confess it by
our adoration and prayers?
In uniting our humiliations, our sufferings, our sorrow and tears
to His, do we not bring Him myrrh ?
And if, of ourselves, we are destitute of these things, let us ask
Our Lord to enrich us with the treasures that are pleasing to Him;
He possesses them in order to give them to us.
This is what Christ Jesus Himself made known to St. Mechtilde, one
feast of the Epiphany, after she had received Communion. " Behold,
" said He, " I give thee gold, that is to say My Divine love;
frankincense, that is all My holiness and devotion; finally myrrh,
which is the bitterness of My Passion. I give them to thee to such
an extent that thou mayest offer them as gifts to Me, as if they
were shine own property (The Book of Special Grace. Part I,
chapter 8).
Yes, this is an extremely consoling truth that we ought never to
forget. The grace of divine adoption, which makes us brethren of
Jesus and living members of His Mystical Body, gives us the right
of appropriating to ourselves His treasures so that they may be
accounted as our own by Himself and His Father. " You know the
grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, " says St. Paul, " that being rich
He became poor, for your sakes; that though His poverty you might
be rich" (2 Cor 8:9).
Our Lord Himself supplies for what we lack; He is our riches, our
thank-offering; He has in Himself, in an eminent degree, that
which the gifts of the Magi signify; He perfectly realises in His
Person their deep symbolism. Therefore let us offer Him to the
Heavenly Father in thanksgiving for the inestimable gift of the
Christian faith. God has given us His Son; according to Jesus' own
words, the Infinite Being could not manifest His love for us in a
more striking way: SIC Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum
Unigenitum DARET (Jn 3:16); for, in giving Him to us, adds St.
Paul, He has " given us all things": Quomodo non etiam cum illo
omnia nobis donavit (Rom 8:32).
But we owe, in return, signal acts of thanksgiving to God for this
ineffable Gift. What can we give to God that is worthy of Him? His
Son Jesus. In offering His Son to Him, we render to Him that which
He gives us: Offerimus praeclarae majestati tuae de tuis donis ac
datis (Canon of the Mass), and there is no gift that is more
pleasing to Him.
The Church, knowing God's secret better than anyone, knows this so
well ! On this day, when her mystical nuptials with Christ begin,
she offers to God no longer gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but the
One Who is Himself represented by these gifts, immolated upon the
altar and received into the hearts of His disciples: Ecclesiae
tuae, quaesumus, Domine, dona propitius intuere, quibus non jam
aurum, thus et myrrha profertur, sed quod eisdem muneribus
declaratur, immolatur et sumitur, Jesus Christus Filius tuus,
Dominus noster (Secret of the Mass for the Epiphany).
Let us, then, with the priest, offer the Holy Sacrifice. Let us
offer to the Eternal Father His Divine Son, after having received
Him at the Holy Table; but let us also lovingly offer ourselves
with Him, that in all things we may accomplish what His Divine
will manifests to us: this is the most perfect gift we can present
to God.
The Epiphany still continues; it is prolonged throughout the
centuries. "We, too," says St. Leo (Sermo 35, In Epiphanie
solemnitate 6), " are to taste the joys of the Magi, for the
mystery which is accomplished upon this day is not to remain
confined to it. Through the munificence of God and the power of
His goodness, we in our day enjoy the reality whereof the Magi had
the first fruits."
The Epiphany is renewed, indeed, when God makes the light of the
Gospel shine in the sight of the pagans; each time that the truth
is realized by those living in error it is a ray of the Magi's
star that appears to them.
The Epiphany continues too in the faithful soul when her love
becomes more fervent and steadfast. Fidelity to the inspirations
of grace-it is Our Lord Himself Who tells us so,--becomes the
source of a more ardent and brighter illumination : Qui diligit
me... manifestabo ei meipsum (Jn 14:21). Happy the soul that lives
by faith and love ! Christ Jesus manifests Himself ever more and
more within her; He makes her enter into an ever deeper and closer
comprehension of His mysteries.
Holy Scripture compares the life of the just man to a path which "
as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect
day (Prov 4:18), to that day whereon every veil will fall away,
all shadows flee, when the eternal splendours of the divinity will
appear in the light of glory. In the heavenly city, says St. John,
in his mysterious book of the Apocalypse where he describes the
magnificence of the Jerusalem which is on high, there is no need
of the sun, for the Lamb, that is to say Christ, is Himself the
I,ight which enlightens and gladdens the souls of all the elect
(Apoc 21:23; 22:5).
That will be the heavenly Epiphany.
" O God, Who upon this day by the leading of a star, didst reveal
Thine Only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; mercifully grant, that we
who already know Thee by faith, may be brought to the
contemplation of the beauty of Thy majesty ": Deus, qui hodierna
die Unigenitum tuum gentibus stella duce revelasti: concede
propitius, ut qui jam te ex fide cognovimus, usque ad
contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducamur.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The Mysteries Of The Childhood And Hidden Life Of Christ - Blessed Columba Marmion, OSB - Part II
II
Mary understands this prayer, for she is closely associated with Jesus in the work of our redemption. Eight days after the Birth of her Son, she has Him circumcised according to the Jewish Law; she then gives Him the name told her by the Angel, the name of Jesus, which denotes His mission of salvation and His work of redemption.
When Jesus is forty days old, the Blessed Virgin associates herself yet more directly and deeply with the work of our salvation by presenting Him in the Temple. She is the first to offer to the Eternal Father His Divine Son After the oblation that Jesus, the supreme High Priest, made of Himself from the moment of His Incarnation and that He consummated on Calvary, Mary's offering is the most perfect. It goes beyond all the sacerdotal acts of men, because Mary is the Mother of Christ, while men are but His ministers.
Let us contemplate Mary in this solemn act of the Presentation of her Son in the Temple of Jerusalem.
All the magnificent and circumstantial ceremonial of the Old Covenant converged towards Christ; in the New Covenant, the obscure symbols were to find their perfect reality.
You know that every Jewish mother has to present herself in the Temple a few weeks after the birth of her child, in order to be purified from the legal stain thereby contracted in consequence of original sin. Moreover, if it was her firstborn and a son, she must present him to the Lord to be consecrated to Him as to the sovereign Master of every creature:(Lk 2:23; cf. Ex 13:2). However, he could be "redeemed" by a more or less considerable offering—a lamb or a pair of turtledoves according as the parents could afford.
Certainly this prescription obliged neither Mary nor Jesus. Jesus was the supreme Law-giver of all the Jewish ritual; His Birth had been miraculous and virginal; there was nothing about it but what was pure:SANCTUM, (Lk 1:35). It was therefore unnecessary to consecrate Him to the Lord as He was the very Son of God. Neither was it requisite that she who had conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and remained a virgin should be purified.
But Mary, guided by the Holy Spirit, was in perfect conformity of soul with the soul of her Son. Jesus had said to His Father on coming into this world: "Behold I come... that I should do Thy will, O God ":(Heb 10:5-7). And the Blessed Virgin's words were "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word ":
Therefore she willed to accomplish this ceremony, showing thereby the depth of her submission. With Joseph, her husband, she brought her Firstborn,He who was to remain her only Son, was to become "the Firstborn amongst many brethren" who, by grace, were to be like unto Him: (Rom 8:29).
When we meditate upon this mystery, we are forced to say: "Verily Thou art a hidden God ", O Saviour of the world!(Isa 45:15). Upon this day, Christ enters for the first time into the Temple, and it is into temple that He enters. This wonderful temple, the admiration of the nations and the pride of Israel, wherein were performed all the religious rites and sacrifices of which God Himself had regulated the details, this temple belongs to Him; for this Child carried in the arms of a young Maiden is the King of kings and the Sovereign Lord: SUUM (Mal 3:1).
And how does He come? In the splendour of His majesty? As the One to Whom all these offerings alone are due? No, He comes thither absolutely hidden.
Listen to what the Gospel relates. There must have been a hustling crowd at the approach of the sacred building—merchants, levites, priests, doctors of the Law. A little group passes unnoticed through this crowd. They are poor people for they do not bring a lamb, the offering of the rich; they bring only two pigeons, the offering of the poor. No one heeds them, for they have no following of servants; the great, the haughty among the Jews have not so much as a glance for them, and it is needful that the Holy Spirit should enlighten the old man Simeon and Anna the prophetess in order that they should recognise the Messias. He Who is the Saviour promised to the world, the Light to be revealed to all nations,(Lk 2:30-31), comes into His temple as a hidden God:
Nothing, moreover, outwardly betrays the feelings of the holy soul of Jesus. The Light of His Divinity remains hidden, veiled; but He renews, here in the Temple, the self-oblation He had made at the moment of His Incarnation. He offers Himself to God to belong to Him by every right:It was like the offertory of the Sacrifice that was to be consummated on Calvary.
This act was extremely pleasing to the Father. To outward appearance, there was nothing particular in this simple action that all Jewish mothers performed. But on this day God receives infinitely more glory in the temple than he had ever received by all the sacrifices and holocausts of the Old Law, for on this day it is His Son Jesus Who is offered and Who Himself offers infinite homage of adoration, thanksgiving, expiation and supplication. The Heavenly Father receives with incommensurable joy this sacred offering, this Gift worthy of Himself, and all the heavenly court fix their ravished gaze upon this unique oblation. There is now no more need of holocausts and sacrifices of animals. The only Victim worthy of God had just been offered to Him.
And it is by the hands of Our Lady, Our Lady full of grace, that this offering is presented. Mary's faith was perfect. Filled with the light of the Holy Spirit, her soul understood the value of the offering that she was making to God at this moment; by His inspirations, the Holy Spirit put her soul in harmony with the inward dispositions of the Heart of her Divine Son.
In the same way as she had given her consent in the name of the whole human race when the Angel announced to her the mystery of the Incarnation, so upon this day, Mary offered her Son Jesus in the name of the human race. She knew that her Son is "the glorious King of the new Light... begotten before the day-star... the Lord of life and death." And so she presents Him to God in order to obtain for us all the graces of salvation that Jesus, according to the Angel's promise, is to bring to the world:(Antiphon at the Blessing of the Candles on the Feast of the Purification.).
Do not forget besides that the One she thus offers is her own Son, Whom she bore in her virginal and fruitful womb.
What priest, what saint ever presented the Eucharistic oblation to God in such close union with the Divine Victim as was the Virgin at this moment? Not only was she united to Jesus by faith and love, as we ourselves can be, although in an infinitely lesser degree, but the bond that united her to Christ Jesus was unique. This is why Mary, from the day on which she presents Jesus as the first fruits of the future sacrifice, has such a great part in the work of our redemption.
And see how, also from this instant, Christ Jesus associates His Blessed Mother with His state of Victim.
The old man, Simeon, guided by and filled with the Holy Spirit, is led thither:He recognizes the Saviour of the world in this Child, He takes Him in his arms and sings his joy in having at length seen with his eyes the promised Messias. After having exalted "the Light of the revelation of the Gentiles," he says, as he restores Him to His Mother: "Behold this Child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; and thy own soul a sword shall pierce. (Lk 2:25, 27, 32-35)" It was the foreshadowing of the Sacrifice of Calvary.
The Gospel tells us nothing of how Our Lady received this prediction which she could never forget. St. Luke reveals to us later that Mary "kept all these words in her heart":(Lk 5:1). Could not this be already said of Simeon's unexpected announcement? Yes, she kept the memory of these words, so terrible in their mystery; now and henceforward they pierced her soul. But Mary, whose pure heart was in full accord with the Heart of her Son, already accepted to be thus closely associated with His Sacrifice.
We shall one day see her consummate, like Jesus, her oblation upon the mount of Golgotha; we shall see her standing,(Cf. Jn 19:25), to offer again her Son, the fruit of her womb, for our salvation, as she had offered Him thirty-three years before in the Temple of Jerusalem.
Let us thank Our Lady for having presented her Divine Son for us; let us render fervent acts of thanksgiving to Jesus Himself for offering Himself to His Father for our salvation.
At Holy Mass, Christ offers Himself anew; let us present Him to His Father; let us unite ourselves to Him, like Him, in perfect submission to the will of His heavenly Father; let us unite our faith to the intense faith of our Lady. It is by this true faith and faithful love,(Collect for the Blessing of Candles), that our offerings will deserve to be pleasing to God.
(Cf. Secret of the Mass for the Feast of the Purification.)
Mary understands this prayer, for she is closely associated with Jesus in the work of our redemption. Eight days after the Birth of her Son, she has Him circumcised according to the Jewish Law; she then gives Him the name told her by the Angel, the name of Jesus, which denotes His mission of salvation and His work of redemption.
When Jesus is forty days old, the Blessed Virgin associates herself yet more directly and deeply with the work of our salvation by presenting Him in the Temple. She is the first to offer to the Eternal Father His Divine Son After the oblation that Jesus, the supreme High Priest, made of Himself from the moment of His Incarnation and that He consummated on Calvary, Mary's offering is the most perfect. It goes beyond all the sacerdotal acts of men, because Mary is the Mother of Christ, while men are but His ministers.
Let us contemplate Mary in this solemn act of the Presentation of her Son in the Temple of Jerusalem.
All the magnificent and circumstantial ceremonial of the Old Covenant converged towards Christ; in the New Covenant, the obscure symbols were to find their perfect reality.
You know that every Jewish mother has to present herself in the Temple a few weeks after the birth of her child, in order to be purified from the legal stain thereby contracted in consequence of original sin. Moreover, if it was her firstborn and a son, she must present him to the Lord to be consecrated to Him as to the sovereign Master of every creature:
Certainly this prescription obliged neither Mary nor Jesus. Jesus was the supreme Law-giver of all the Jewish ritual; His Birth had been miraculous and virginal; there was nothing about it but what was pure:
But Mary, guided by the Holy Spirit, was in perfect conformity of soul with the soul of her Son. Jesus had said to His Father on coming into this world: "Behold I come... that I should do Thy will, O God ":
Therefore she willed to accomplish this ceremony, showing thereby the depth of her submission. With Joseph, her husband, she brought her Firstborn,
When we meditate upon this mystery, we are forced to say: "Verily Thou art a hidden God ", O Saviour of the world!
And how does He come? In the splendour of His majesty? As the One to Whom all these offerings alone are due? No, He comes thither absolutely hidden.
Listen to what the Gospel relates. There must have been a hustling crowd at the approach of the sacred building—merchants, levites, priests, doctors of the Law. A little group passes unnoticed through this crowd. They are poor people for they do not bring a lamb, the offering of the rich; they bring only two pigeons, the offering of the poor. No one heeds them, for they have no following of servants; the great, the haughty among the Jews have not so much as a glance for them, and it is needful that the Holy Spirit should enlighten the old man Simeon and Anna the prophetess in order that they should recognise the Messias. He Who is the Saviour promised to the world, the Light to be revealed to all nations,
Nothing, moreover, outwardly betrays the feelings of the holy soul of Jesus. The Light of His Divinity remains hidden, veiled; but He renews, here in the Temple, the self-oblation He had made at the moment of His Incarnation. He offers Himself to God to belong to Him by every right:
This act was extremely pleasing to the Father. To outward appearance, there was nothing particular in this simple action that all Jewish mothers performed. But on this day God receives infinitely more glory in the temple than he had ever received by all the sacrifices and holocausts of the Old Law, for on this day it is His Son Jesus Who is offered and Who Himself offers infinite homage of adoration, thanksgiving, expiation and supplication. The Heavenly Father receives with incommensurable joy this sacred offering, this Gift worthy of Himself, and all the heavenly court fix their ravished gaze upon this unique oblation. There is now no more need of holocausts and sacrifices of animals. The only Victim worthy of God had just been offered to Him.
And it is by the hands of Our Lady, Our Lady full of grace, that this offering is presented. Mary's faith was perfect. Filled with the light of the Holy Spirit, her soul understood the value of the offering that she was making to God at this moment; by His inspirations, the Holy Spirit put her soul in harmony with the inward dispositions of the Heart of her Divine Son.
In the same way as she had given her consent in the name of the whole human race when the Angel announced to her the mystery of the Incarnation, so upon this day, Mary offered her Son Jesus in the name of the human race. She knew that her Son is "the glorious King of the new Light... begotten before the day-star... the Lord of life and death." And so she presents Him to God in order to obtain for us all the graces of salvation that Jesus, according to the Angel's promise, is to bring to the world:
Do not forget besides that the One she thus offers is her own Son, Whom she bore in her virginal and fruitful womb.
What priest, what saint ever presented the Eucharistic oblation to God in such close union with the Divine Victim as was the Virgin at this moment? Not only was she united to Jesus by faith and love, as we ourselves can be, although in an infinitely lesser degree, but the bond that united her to Christ Jesus was unique. This is why Mary, from the day on which she presents Jesus as the first fruits of the future sacrifice, has such a great part in the work of our redemption.
And see how, also from this instant, Christ Jesus associates His Blessed Mother with His state of Victim.
The old man, Simeon, guided by and filled with the Holy Spirit, is led thither:
The Gospel tells us nothing of how Our Lady received this prediction which she could never forget. St. Luke reveals to us later that Mary "kept all these words in her heart":
We shall one day see her consummate, like Jesus, her oblation upon the mount of Golgotha; we shall see her standing,
Let us thank Our Lady for having presented her Divine Son for us; let us render fervent acts of thanksgiving to Jesus Himself for offering Himself to His Father for our salvation.
At Holy Mass, Christ offers Himself anew; let us present Him to His Father; let us unite ourselves to Him, like Him, in perfect submission to the will of His heavenly Father; let us unite our faith to the intense faith of our Lady. It is by this true faith and faithful love,
(Cf. Secret of the Mass for the Feast of the Purification.)
Monday, January 16, 2012
The Mysteries Of The Childhood And Hidden Life Of Christ - Blessed Columba Marmion, OSB
The mystery of the Incarnation can be summed up as an exchange, in every point admirable, between the Divinity and our humanity. In return for the human nature that He takes, the Eternal Word makes us partakers of His Divine life.
It is indeed to be remembered that it is we who give a human nature to the Word. God could have created, so as to unite it to His Son, a humanity fully established in the perfection of its organism, as was Adam on the day of his creation. Christ would have been truly man because nothing that constitutes the essence of man would have been lacking to Him; but in not joining Himself directly to us by a human birth, He would not have been, properly speaking, of our race.
God did not will to act thus. What was the design of Infinite Wisdom? That the Word should take from us the humanity to which He was to be united. Christ would thereby be truly "the Son of man "; He would be a member of our race: (Gal 4:4) ... (Rom 1:3), When at Christmas we celebrate Christ's Nativity, we go back through the centuries in order to read the list of His ancestors, His human genealogy. The successive generations pass before us till we see Him born of David's race, of the Virgin Mary (Mt 1:16).
As you know, God is by His nature infinitely generous; it is of the essence of goodness to diffuse itself:. Infinite Goodness is urged in an infinite manner to give itself. God is this boundless Goodness; revelation teaches us that there are between the Divine Persons, from the Father to the Son, and from the Father and the Son to the Holy Spirit, infinite communications wherein God finds the full satisfaction of this natural tendency of His Being to give itself.
But beyond this natural communication of Infinite Goodness, there is another, arising from God's love towards the creature. The fulness of Being and of Good that is God has overflowed beyond, through love. And how has this come to pass? God has chosen in the first place to give Himself in an altogether special manner to a creature by uniting it in a personal manner with His Word. This gift of God to a creature is unique: it makes of this creature chosen by the Holy Trinity the very Son of God, (Ps 2:7). It is Christ, it is the Word united personally and in an indissoluble manner to a human nature, like to ours in all things, excepting sin.
From us He asks this human nature. It is as if the Eternal Father were saying to us: Give Me your nature for My Son, and I, in return, will give to this nature, and, through it, to every man of good will, a participation in My Divinity.
For God thus communicates Himself to Christ only in order to give Himself, through Christ, to us all; God's plan is that Christ should receive the Divinity in its fulness and that we should draw, in our turn, from this fulness: (Jn 1:16).
Such is this communication of God's goodness to the world: DILEXIT DARET (Jn 3:16). This is the wonderful order that rules the exchange between God and humanity.
But who is it, out of all others, that God will ask to be a mother to this humanity to which He wills to unite Himself so closely, in order to make of it the instrument of His graces to the world?
We have already named her whom all generations declare blessed: the human genealogy of Jesus ends with Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth. From her, and through her from us, the Word asked a human nature, and Mary gave it to Him; this is why we shall henceforward see her inseparable from Jesus and from His mysteries. Wherever Jesus is found, we shall see her: He is her Son as much as He is the Son of God.
However, if Jesus everywhere remains the Son of Mary, it is above all in the mysteries of His Childhood and Hidden Life that He is revealed under this aspect; if Mary everywhere occupies a unique place, it is in these mysteries that her position as His Mother is most actively manifested outwardly and her divine Maternity shines forth most brightly. This incomparable dignity is the source of all the other privileges of the Virgin.
Those who do not know the Blessed Virgin, those who do not truly love the Mother of Jesus, run the risk of not profitably understanding the mysteries of Christ's Humanity. Christ is the Son of man as well as the Son of God; these two characters are essential to Him. If He is the Son of God by an eternal ineffable generation, He became Son of man by being born of Mary in time.
Let us then contemplate this Virgin at the side of her Son; in return she will obtain for us the power of entering more deeply into the comprehension of these mysteries to which she is so closely united.
I
In order that the exchange which God willed to contract with humanity should be possible, it was necessary that humanity should consent to it.
Let us transport ourselves to Nazareth. The fulness of times has come. God decreed, says St. Paul, to send His Son into the world in causing Him to be born of a woman. The Angel Gabriel, God's messenger, brings to the young Maiden the heavenly proposals. A sublime dialogue takes place whereon hangs the deliverance of the human race. The Angel first salutes the Maiden declaring her, in the name of God, "full of grace": Indeed, not only is she sinless, no stain has tarnished her soul,—the Church has defined that she, alone among all creatures, has not been touched by original sin;—but moreover, because He predestined her to be the Mother of His Son, the Eternal Father has lavished His gifts upon her. She is full of grace, not, doubtless, as Christ is to be, , for He is so by right and with the Divine plenitude itself; Mary receives all in participation, but in a measure which cannot be estimated, and in correlation with her eminent dignity as Mother of God. "Behold," says the Angel, "thou start bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus... He shall be called the Son of the Most High, and He shall reign in the house of Israel for ever." "How shall this be done," asks Mary, "because I know not man"? For she wishes to keep her virginity. "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word": (Lk 1:28, 31-35, 38).
In this solemn moment, the exchange is concluded. When Mary pronounces her, all humanity says to God by her mouth: "Yes, O God, I consent, so be it." And immediately the Word is made Flesh: At this instant, the Word becomes incarnate by the operation of the Holy Spirit; the Blessed Virgin becomes the Ark of the New Covenant between God and man.
When the Church sings, in the, the words that recall this mystery: , she obliges her ministers to bend the knee in token of adoration. Let us too adore this Divine Word made man for us in the womb of a Virgin; let us adore Him with so much the more love the more He humbles Himself in taking, as St. Paul says, "the form of a servant ": (Phil 2:7). Let us adore Him, in union with Mary, who, enlightened with light from above, bows down before her Creator become her Son; let us adore Him with the Angels marvelling at this infinite condescension towards humanity.
Let us next salute Our Lady, and thank her for having given Jesus to us. It is to her consent that we owe Him: (Collect for the office of the Circumcision.). Let us add our congratulations. Consider how the Holy Spirit by the mouth of Elizabeth, , saluted her on the morrow of the Incarnation. "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb !... And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord" (Lk 1:41-42, 45): Blessed, for this faith in God's word made the Virgin the Mother of Christ. What simple creature has ever received like praises from the infinite Being?
Mary refers to the Lord the glory of the marvels wrought in her. She sings within her heart a canticle full of love and gratitude. With her cousin Elisabeth, she lets the innermost feelings of her heart overflow; she sings the which, throughout the centuries, her children will repeat after her in praise of God for having chosen her out of all women: "My soul cloth magnify the Lord, because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid... because He that is mighty, hath done great things to me," (Lk 1:46, 49).
Mary was at Bethlehem, for the enrolment ordered by Caesar, when, says St. Luke, "her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn (Lk 2:6-7). "Who is this Child? He is Mary's Son, since he has just been born of her:
But she saw in this Child, a child like other children, the Very Son of God. Mary's soul was full of immense faith, which went far beyond the faith of all the just of the Old Testament; and therefore in her Son she saw her God.
This faith translated itself outwardly in an act of adoration. As soon as she looked upon Jesus, the Maiden-Mother adored Him with an intensity we cannot conceive.
To this intense faith, this deep adoration, were added the transports of an incommensurable love, a love both human and supernatural.
God is love, and so that we may have some idea of this love, He gives a share of it to mothers. The heart of a mother with her unwearying tenderness, the constancy of her solicitude, the inexhaustible delicacy of her affection is a truly divine creation, although God has placed in her only a spark of His love for us. Yet, however imperfectly a mother's heart reflects the divine love towards us, God gives us our mothers to take His place in some manner with us. He places them at our side, from our cradles, to guide us, guard us, especially in our earliest years when we have so much need of tenderness.
Hence imagine with what predilection the Holy Trinity fashioned the heart of the Blessed Virgin chosen to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word. God delighted in pouring forth love in her heart, in forming it expressly to love a God-Man.
In Mary's heart were perfectly harmonised the adoration of a creature towards her God, and the love of a mother for her only Son.
The supernatural love of Our Lady is not less wonderful. As you know, a soul's love for God is measured by its degree of grace. What is it that, in us, hinders the development of grace and love? Our sins, our deliberate faults, our voluntary infidelities, our attachment to creatures. Each deliberate fault narrows the heart, and strengthens egotism. But Our Lady's soul is of perfect purity; unstained by sin, untouched by any shadow of a fault, she is full of grace: Far from encountering in her any obstacle to the unfolding of grace, the Holy Spirit ever found her heart wonderfully docile to His inspirations, and therefore full of love.
What must have been the joy of the soul of Jesus to feel Himself loved to such an extent by His Mother! After the incomprehensible joy arising for Him from the Beatific Vision and from the look of infinite complacency wherewith the Heavenly Father contemplated Him, nothing can have rejoiced Him so much as the love of His Mother. He found in it a more abundant compensation for the indifference of those who would not receive Him. He found in the heart of this young Virgin a fire of undying love that He Himself further enkindled by His divine glances and the inward grace of His Spirit.
Jesus gave Himself to Mary in such an ineffable manner, and Mary corresponded so fully that after the union of the Divine Persons in the Trinity, and the hypostatic union of the Incarnation, we cannot conceive one greater nor deeper.
Let us draw near to Mary with a humble but entire confidence. If her Son is the Saviour of the world, she enters too deeply into His mission not to share the love that He bears to sinners. "O Mother of our Redeemer," let us sing to her with the Church, "thou didst bear thy Creator whilst remaining a Virgin, succour this fallen race which thy Son came to save in taking from us a human nature": "Have pity upon the sinners whom thy Son came to redeem" For, O Mary, it was to redeem us that He vouchsafed to descend from the eternal splendours into thy virginal bosom.
It is indeed to be remembered that it is we who give a human nature to the Word. God could have created, so as to unite it to His Son, a humanity fully established in the perfection of its organism, as was Adam on the day of his creation. Christ would have been truly man because nothing that constitutes the essence of man would have been lacking to Him; but in not joining Himself directly to us by a human birth, He would not have been, properly speaking, of our race.
God did not will to act thus. What was the design of Infinite Wisdom? That the Word should take from us the humanity to which He was to be united. Christ would thereby be truly "the Son of man "; He would be a member of our race:
As you know, God is by His nature infinitely generous; it is of the essence of goodness to diffuse itself:
But beyond this natural communication of Infinite Goodness, there is another, arising from God's
From us He asks this human nature. It is as if the Eternal Father were saying to us: Give Me your nature for My Son, and I, in return, will give to this nature, and, through it, to every man of good will, a participation in My Divinity.
For God thus communicates Himself to Christ only in order to give Himself, through Christ, to us all; God's plan is that Christ should receive the Divinity in its fulness and that we should draw, in our turn, from this fulness:
Such is this communication of God's goodness to the world:
But who is it, out of all others, that God will ask to be a mother to this humanity to which He wills to unite Himself so closely, in order to make of it the instrument of His graces to the world?
We have already named her whom all generations declare blessed: the human genealogy of Jesus ends with Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth. From her, and through her from us, the Word asked a human nature, and Mary gave it to Him; this is why we shall henceforward see her inseparable from Jesus and from His mysteries. Wherever Jesus is found, we shall see her: He is her Son as much as He is the Son of God.
However, if Jesus everywhere remains the Son of Mary, it is above all in the mysteries of His Childhood and Hidden Life that He is revealed under this aspect; if Mary everywhere occupies a unique place, it is in these mysteries that her position as His Mother is most actively manifested outwardly and her divine Maternity shines forth most brightly. This incomparable dignity is the source of all the other privileges of the Virgin.
Those who do not know the Blessed Virgin, those who do not truly love the Mother of Jesus, run the risk of not profitably understanding the mysteries of Christ's Humanity. Christ is the Son of man as well as the Son of God; these two characters are essential to Him. If He is the Son of God by an eternal ineffable generation, He became Son of man by being born of Mary in time.
Let us then contemplate this Virgin at the side of her Son; in return she will obtain for us the power of entering more deeply into the comprehension of these mysteries to which she is so closely united.
I
In order that the exchange which God willed to contract with humanity should be possible, it was necessary that humanity should consent to it.
Let us transport ourselves to Nazareth. The fulness of times has come. God decreed, says St. Paul, to send His Son into the world in causing Him to be born of a woman. The Angel Gabriel, God's messenger, brings to the young Maiden the heavenly proposals. A sublime dialogue takes place whereon hangs the deliverance of the human race. The Angel first salutes the Maiden declaring her, in the name of God, "full of grace":
In this solemn moment, the exchange is concluded. When Mary pronounces her
When the Church sings, in the
Let us next salute Our Lady, and thank her for having given Jesus to us. It is to her consent that we owe Him:
Mary refers to the Lord the glory of the marvels wrought in her. She sings within her heart a canticle full of love and gratitude. With her cousin Elisabeth, she lets the innermost feelings of her heart overflow; she sings the
Mary was at Bethlehem, for the enrolment ordered by Caesar, when, says St. Luke, "her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn (Lk 2:6-7). "Who is this Child? He is Mary's Son, since he has just been born of her:
But she saw in this Child, a child like other children, the Very Son of God. Mary's soul was full of immense faith, which went far beyond the faith of all the just of the Old Testament; and therefore in her Son she saw her God.
This faith translated itself outwardly in an act of adoration. As soon as she looked upon Jesus, the Maiden-Mother adored Him with an intensity we cannot conceive.
To this intense faith, this deep adoration, were added the transports of an incommensurable love, a love both human and supernatural.
God is love, and so that we may have some idea of this love, He gives a share of it to mothers. The heart of a mother with her unwearying tenderness, the constancy of her solicitude, the inexhaustible delicacy of her affection is a truly divine creation, although God has placed in her only a spark of His love for us. Yet, however imperfectly a mother's heart reflects the divine love towards us, God gives us our mothers to take His place in some manner with us. He places them at our side, from our cradles, to guide us, guard us, especially in our earliest years when we have so much need of tenderness.
Hence imagine with what predilection the Holy Trinity fashioned the heart of the Blessed Virgin chosen to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word. God delighted in pouring forth love in her heart, in forming it expressly to love a God-Man.
In Mary's heart were perfectly harmonised the adoration of a creature towards her God, and the love of a mother for her only Son.
The supernatural love of Our Lady is not less wonderful. As you know, a soul's love for God is measured by its degree of grace. What is it that, in us, hinders the development of grace and love? Our sins, our deliberate faults, our voluntary infidelities, our attachment to creatures. Each deliberate fault narrows the heart, and strengthens egotism. But Our Lady's soul is of perfect purity; unstained by sin, untouched by any shadow of a fault, she is full of grace:
What must have been the joy of the soul of Jesus to feel Himself loved to such an extent by His Mother! After the incomprehensible joy arising for Him from the Beatific Vision and from the look of infinite complacency wherewith the Heavenly Father contemplated Him, nothing can have rejoiced Him so much as the love of His Mother. He found in it a more abundant compensation for the indifference of those who would not receive Him. He found in the heart of this young Virgin a fire of undying love that He Himself further enkindled by His divine glances and the inward grace of His Spirit.
Jesus gave Himself to Mary in such an ineffable manner, and Mary corresponded so fully that after the union of the Divine Persons in the Trinity, and the hypostatic union of the Incarnation, we cannot conceive one greater nor deeper.
Let us draw near to Mary with a humble but entire confidence. If her Son is the Saviour of the world, she enters too deeply into His mission not to share the love that He bears to sinners. "O Mother of our Redeemer," let us sing to her with the Church, "thou didst bear thy Creator whilst remaining a Virgin, succour this fallen race which thy Son came to save in taking from us a human nature":
Friday, January 13, 2012
EPIPHANY BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION, OSB - Part IV
IV
Let us now follow the Magi to Bethlehem: it is there that we shall
especially see the manifestation of the depth of their faith.
The marvellous star leads them to the place where they were at
last to find Him Whom they had so long sought. And what do they
find ? A palace, a royal cradle, a long train of attentive
servants ? No, but a poor dwelling. They seek a king, a God, and
they see only a Babe on His Mother's knee; not a Babe transfigured
by Divine rays as the Apostles were later to see the God-Man, but
a little Child, a poor weak little Child.
However, from this Little One so frail in appearance, invisibly
went forth a divine power : Virtus de illo exibat. He, Who had
made the star arise to lead the Magi to His cradle, now Himself
enlightened them. He inwardly filled their minds with light and
their hearts with love. And so it was that in this Child, they
recognised their God.
The Gospel tells us nothing of their words, but it makes known to
us the sublime act of their perfect faith: "And falling down they
adored Him": Et procidentes adoraverunt eum (Ibid. 2:2).
The Church would have us associate ourselves with this adoration
of the Magi. When, during the Mass, she gives us these words of
the Gospel narrative to read, she causes us to kneel down, to show
that we, too, believe in the Divinity of the Babe of Bethlehem.
Let us adore Him with deep faith. God requires of us that, as long
as we are here below, all the activity of our inner life should
lead to union with Him by faith. Faith is the light which enables
us to see God in the Virgin's Child, to hear God's voice in the
words of the Incarnate Word, to follow the example of a God in the
actions of Jesus, to appropriate to ourselves the infinite merits
of a God in the sorrows and satisfactions of a Man suffering like
ourselves.
Through the veil of a humble and passible Humanity, the soul
enlightened by a living faith ever discovers God; whereever she
encounters this Humanity-whether it be in the humiliations of
Bethlehem, upon the roads of Judea, on the gibbet of Calvary, or
under the Eucharistic species- the faithful soul falls in
adoration because it is the Humanity of a God. At the feet of
Jesus she listens to Him, in order to obey and follow Him until it
shall please Him to reveal Himself in the beauty of Xis Infinite
Majesty, in the holy splendours of the Beatific Vision: Usque ad
contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducam? (Collect for the
Feast of the Epiphany).
The attitude of adoration in the Magi translates in eloquent
language the depth of their faith; the presents that they offer
are likewise full of signification. The Fathers of the Church have
laid stress on the symbolism of the gifts brought to Christ by the
Magi. In ending this conference, let us stay to consider the depth
of this symbolism: it will be a joy for our souls and food for our
devotion.
As you know, the Gospel tells us that having found the Child with
Mary His Mother, "opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts:
gold, frankincense and myrrh " (Mt 2:2). It is evident that, in
the intentions of the Magi, these gifts were meant to express the
feelings of their hearts as well as to honour Him to Whom they
were brought.
In examining the nature of these gifts which they had prepared
before their departure, we see that divine illumination had
already manifested to the Magi something of the eminent dignity of
Him Whom they desired to contemplate and adore. The nature of
these gifts likewise indicates the nature of the duties that the
Magi would fulfil towards the King of the Jews. The symbolism of
the gifts therefore refers both to the One to Whom they are
offered and to those who present them.
Gold, the most precious of metals, is the symbol of royalty; it
denotes, on the other hand, the love and fidelity. That everyone
owes to his prince.
Incense is universally acknowledge to be the symbol of divine
worship; it is offered to God alone. In preparing this gift, the
Magi showed that they had in view to proclaim the Divinity of Him
Whose Birth was announced by the star, and to confess this
Divinity by the supreme adoration that can be rendered to God
alone.
Finally, they had been inspired to bring Him myrrh. What would
they show by this myrrh which is used to dress wounds, and to
embalm the dead ? This gift signified that Christ was Man, a Man
capable of suffering, Who would one day die. The myrrh also
symbolised the spirit of penance and immolation which ought to
characterise the life of the disciples of the Crucified.
Thus grace inspired the Magi to bring presents to Him Whom they
sought. It should be the same for us. "Let us who hear the story
of the offering of the Magi," says St. Ambrose (In Lk 2:44),
"learn how to open our treasures and present like offerings." Each
time that we draw near to Christ, let us, like the Magi, bring Him
presents, but presents that are magnificent, that are, like
theirs, worthy of Him to Whom we offer them.
You may perhaps say: we have neither gold, nor frankincense, nor
myrrh. That is true; but we have what is better, we have much more
precious treasures, the only ones, moreover, that Christ, our
Saviour and our King, expects from us. Do we not offer gold to
Christ when by a life full of love and fidelity to His commands,
we proclaim that He is the King of our hearts ? Do we not present
frankincense when we believe in His Divinity, and confess it by
our adoration and prayers?
In uniting our humiliations, our sufferings, our sorrow and tears
to His, do we not bring Him myrrh ?
And if, of ourselves, we are destitute of these things, let us ask
Our Lord to enrich us with the treasures that are pleasing to Him;
He possesses them in order to give them to us.
This is what Christ Jesus Himself made known to St. Mechtilde, one
feast of the Epiphany, after she had received Communion. " Behold,
" said He, " I give thee gold, that is to say My Divine love;
frankincense, that is all My holiness and devotion; finally myrrh,
which is the bitterness of My Passion. I give them to thee to such
an extent that thou mayest offer them as gifts to Me, as if they
were shine own property (The Book of Special Grace. Part I,
chapter 8).
Yes, this is an extremely consoling truth that we ought never to
forget. The grace of divine adoption, which makes us brethren of
Jesus and living members of His Mystical Body, gives us the right
of appropriating to ourselves His treasures so that they may be
accounted as our own by Himself and His Father. " You know the
grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, " says St. Paul, " that being rich
He became poor, for your sakes; that though His poverty you might
be rich" (2 Cor 8:9).
Our Lord Himself supplies for what we lack; He is our riches, our
thank-offering; He has in Himself, in an eminent degree, that
which the gifts of the Magi signify; He perfectly realises in His
Person their deep symbolism. Therefore let us offer Him to the
Heavenly Father in thanksgiving for the inestimable gift of the
Christian faith. God has given us His Son; according to Jesus' own
words, the Infinite Being could not manifest His love for us in a
more striking way: SIC Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum
Unigenitum DARET (Jn 3:16); for, in giving Him to us, adds St.
Paul, He has " given us all things": Quomodo non etiam cum illo
omnia nobis donavit (Rom 8:32).
But we owe, in return, signal acts of thanksgiving to God for this
ineffable Gift. What can we give to God that is worthy of Him? His
Son Jesus. In offering His Son to Him, we render to Him that which
He gives us: Offerimus praeclarae majestati tuae de tuis donis ac
datis (Canon of the Mass), and there is no gift that is more
pleasing to Him.
The Church, knowing God's secret better than anyone, knows this so
well ! On this day, when her mystical nuptials with Christ begin,
she offers to God no longer gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but the
One Who is Himself represented by these gifts, immolated upon the
altar and received into the hearts of His disciples: Ecclesiae
tuae, quaesumus, Domine, dona propitius intuere, quibus non jam
aurum, thus et myrrha profertur, sed quod eisdem muneribus
declaratur, immolatur et sumitur, Jesus Christus Filius tuus,
Dominus noster (Secret of the Mass for the Epiphany).
Let us, then, with the priest, offer the Holy Sacrifice. Let us
offer to the Eternal Father His Divine Son, after having received
Him at the Holy Table; but let us also lovingly offer ourselves
with Him, that in all things we may accomplish what His Divine
will manifests to us: this is the most perfect gift we can present
to God.
The Epiphany still continues; it is prolonged throughout the
centuries. "We, too," says St. Leo (Sermo 35, In Epiphanie
solemnitate 6), " are to taste the joys of the Magi, for the
mystery which is accomplished upon this day is not to remain
confined to it. Through the munificence of God and the power of
His goodness, we in our day enjoy the reality whereof the Magi had
the first fruits."
The Epiphany is renewed, indeed, when God makes the light of the
Gospel shine in the sight of the pagans; each time that the truth
is realized by those living in error it is a ray of the Magi's
star that appears to them.
The Epiphany continues too in the faithful soul when her love
becomes more fervent and steadfast. Fidelity to the inspirations
of grace-it is Our Lord Himself Who tells us so,--becomes the
source of a more ardent and brighter illumination : Qui diligit
me... manifestabo ei meipsum (Jn 14:21). Happy the soul that lives
by faith and love ! Christ Jesus manifests Himself ever more and
more within her; He makes her enter into an ever deeper and closer
comprehension of His mysteries.
Holy Scripture compares the life of the just man to a path which "
as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect
day (Prov 4:18), to that day whereon every veil will fall away,
all shadows flee, when the eternal splendours of the divinity will
appear in the light of glory. In the heavenly city, says St. John,
in his mysterious book of the Apocalypse where he describes the
magnificence of the Jerusalem which is on high, there is no need
of the sun, for the Lamb, that is to say Christ, is Himself the
I,ight which enlightens and gladdens the souls of all the elect
(Apoc 21:23; 22:5).
That will be the heavenly Epiphany.
" O God, Who upon this day by the leading of a star, didst reveal
Thine Only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; mercifully grant, that we
who already know Thee by faith, may be brought to the
contemplation of the beauty of Thy majesty ": Deus, qui hodierna
die Unigenitum tuum gentibus stella duce revelasti: concede
propitius, ut qui jam te ex fide cognovimus, usque ad
contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducamur.
Let us now follow the Magi to Bethlehem: it is there that we shall
especially see the manifestation of the depth of their faith.
The marvellous star leads them to the place where they were at
last to find Him Whom they had so long sought. And what do they
find ? A palace, a royal cradle, a long train of attentive
servants ? No, but a poor dwelling. They seek a king, a God, and
they see only a Babe on His Mother's knee; not a Babe transfigured
by Divine rays as the Apostles were later to see the God-Man, but
a little Child, a poor weak little Child.
However, from this Little One so frail in appearance, invisibly
went forth a divine power : Virtus de illo exibat. He, Who had
made the star arise to lead the Magi to His cradle, now Himself
enlightened them. He inwardly filled their minds with light and
their hearts with love. And so it was that in this Child, they
recognised their God.
The Gospel tells us nothing of their words, but it makes known to
us the sublime act of their perfect faith: "And falling down they
adored Him": Et procidentes adoraverunt eum (Ibid. 2:2).
The Church would have us associate ourselves with this adoration
of the Magi. When, during the Mass, she gives us these words of
the Gospel narrative to read, she causes us to kneel down, to show
that we, too, believe in the Divinity of the Babe of Bethlehem.
Let us adore Him with deep faith. God requires of us that, as long
as we are here below, all the activity of our inner life should
lead to union with Him by faith. Faith is the light which enables
us to see God in the Virgin's Child, to hear God's voice in the
words of the Incarnate Word, to follow the example of a God in the
actions of Jesus, to appropriate to ourselves the infinite merits
of a God in the sorrows and satisfactions of a Man suffering like
ourselves.
Through the veil of a humble and passible Humanity, the soul
enlightened by a living faith ever discovers God; whereever she
encounters this Humanity-whether it be in the humiliations of
Bethlehem, upon the roads of Judea, on the gibbet of Calvary, or
under the Eucharistic species- the faithful soul falls in
adoration because it is the Humanity of a God. At the feet of
Jesus she listens to Him, in order to obey and follow Him until it
shall please Him to reveal Himself in the beauty of Xis Infinite
Majesty, in the holy splendours of the Beatific Vision: Usque ad
contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducam? (Collect for the
Feast of the Epiphany).
The attitude of adoration in the Magi translates in eloquent
language the depth of their faith; the presents that they offer
are likewise full of signification. The Fathers of the Church have
laid stress on the symbolism of the gifts brought to Christ by the
Magi. In ending this conference, let us stay to consider the depth
of this symbolism: it will be a joy for our souls and food for our
devotion.
As you know, the Gospel tells us that having found the Child with
Mary His Mother, "opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts:
gold, frankincense and myrrh " (Mt 2:2). It is evident that, in
the intentions of the Magi, these gifts were meant to express the
feelings of their hearts as well as to honour Him to Whom they
were brought.
In examining the nature of these gifts which they had prepared
before their departure, we see that divine illumination had
already manifested to the Magi something of the eminent dignity of
Him Whom they desired to contemplate and adore. The nature of
these gifts likewise indicates the nature of the duties that the
Magi would fulfil towards the King of the Jews. The symbolism of
the gifts therefore refers both to the One to Whom they are
offered and to those who present them.
Gold, the most precious of metals, is the symbol of royalty; it
denotes, on the other hand, the love and fidelity. That everyone
owes to his prince.
Incense is universally acknowledge to be the symbol of divine
worship; it is offered to God alone. In preparing this gift, the
Magi showed that they had in view to proclaim the Divinity of Him
Whose Birth was announced by the star, and to confess this
Divinity by the supreme adoration that can be rendered to God
alone.
Finally, they had been inspired to bring Him myrrh. What would
they show by this myrrh which is used to dress wounds, and to
embalm the dead ? This gift signified that Christ was Man, a Man
capable of suffering, Who would one day die. The myrrh also
symbolised the spirit of penance and immolation which ought to
characterise the life of the disciples of the Crucified.
Thus grace inspired the Magi to bring presents to Him Whom they
sought. It should be the same for us. "Let us who hear the story
of the offering of the Magi," says St. Ambrose (In Lk 2:44),
"learn how to open our treasures and present like offerings." Each
time that we draw near to Christ, let us, like the Magi, bring Him
presents, but presents that are magnificent, that are, like
theirs, worthy of Him to Whom we offer them.
You may perhaps say: we have neither gold, nor frankincense, nor
myrrh. That is true; but we have what is better, we have much more
precious treasures, the only ones, moreover, that Christ, our
Saviour and our King, expects from us. Do we not offer gold to
Christ when by a life full of love and fidelity to His commands,
we proclaim that He is the King of our hearts ? Do we not present
frankincense when we believe in His Divinity, and confess it by
our adoration and prayers?
In uniting our humiliations, our sufferings, our sorrow and tears
to His, do we not bring Him myrrh ?
And if, of ourselves, we are destitute of these things, let us ask
Our Lord to enrich us with the treasures that are pleasing to Him;
He possesses them in order to give them to us.
This is what Christ Jesus Himself made known to St. Mechtilde, one
feast of the Epiphany, after she had received Communion. " Behold,
" said He, " I give thee gold, that is to say My Divine love;
frankincense, that is all My holiness and devotion; finally myrrh,
which is the bitterness of My Passion. I give them to thee to such
an extent that thou mayest offer them as gifts to Me, as if they
were shine own property (The Book of Special Grace. Part I,
chapter 8).
Yes, this is an extremely consoling truth that we ought never to
forget. The grace of divine adoption, which makes us brethren of
Jesus and living members of His Mystical Body, gives us the right
of appropriating to ourselves His treasures so that they may be
accounted as our own by Himself and His Father. " You know the
grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, " says St. Paul, " that being rich
He became poor, for your sakes; that though His poverty you might
be rich" (2 Cor 8:9).
Our Lord Himself supplies for what we lack; He is our riches, our
thank-offering; He has in Himself, in an eminent degree, that
which the gifts of the Magi signify; He perfectly realises in His
Person their deep symbolism. Therefore let us offer Him to the
Heavenly Father in thanksgiving for the inestimable gift of the
Christian faith. God has given us His Son; according to Jesus' own
words, the Infinite Being could not manifest His love for us in a
more striking way: SIC Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum
Unigenitum DARET (Jn 3:16); for, in giving Him to us, adds St.
Paul, He has " given us all things": Quomodo non etiam cum illo
omnia nobis donavit (Rom 8:32).
But we owe, in return, signal acts of thanksgiving to God for this
ineffable Gift. What can we give to God that is worthy of Him? His
Son Jesus. In offering His Son to Him, we render to Him that which
He gives us: Offerimus praeclarae majestati tuae de tuis donis ac
datis (Canon of the Mass), and there is no gift that is more
pleasing to Him.
The Church, knowing God's secret better than anyone, knows this so
well ! On this day, when her mystical nuptials with Christ begin,
she offers to God no longer gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but the
One Who is Himself represented by these gifts, immolated upon the
altar and received into the hearts of His disciples: Ecclesiae
tuae, quaesumus, Domine, dona propitius intuere, quibus non jam
aurum, thus et myrrha profertur, sed quod eisdem muneribus
declaratur, immolatur et sumitur, Jesus Christus Filius tuus,
Dominus noster (Secret of the Mass for the Epiphany).
Let us, then, with the priest, offer the Holy Sacrifice. Let us
offer to the Eternal Father His Divine Son, after having received
Him at the Holy Table; but let us also lovingly offer ourselves
with Him, that in all things we may accomplish what His Divine
will manifests to us: this is the most perfect gift we can present
to God.
The Epiphany still continues; it is prolonged throughout the
centuries. "We, too," says St. Leo (Sermo 35, In Epiphanie
solemnitate 6), " are to taste the joys of the Magi, for the
mystery which is accomplished upon this day is not to remain
confined to it. Through the munificence of God and the power of
His goodness, we in our day enjoy the reality whereof the Magi had
the first fruits."
The Epiphany is renewed, indeed, when God makes the light of the
Gospel shine in the sight of the pagans; each time that the truth
is realized by those living in error it is a ray of the Magi's
star that appears to them.
The Epiphany continues too in the faithful soul when her love
becomes more fervent and steadfast. Fidelity to the inspirations
of grace-it is Our Lord Himself Who tells us so,--becomes the
source of a more ardent and brighter illumination : Qui diligit
me... manifestabo ei meipsum (Jn 14:21). Happy the soul that lives
by faith and love ! Christ Jesus manifests Himself ever more and
more within her; He makes her enter into an ever deeper and closer
comprehension of His mysteries.
Holy Scripture compares the life of the just man to a path which "
as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect
day (Prov 4:18), to that day whereon every veil will fall away,
all shadows flee, when the eternal splendours of the divinity will
appear in the light of glory. In the heavenly city, says St. John,
in his mysterious book of the Apocalypse where he describes the
magnificence of the Jerusalem which is on high, there is no need
of the sun, for the Lamb, that is to say Christ, is Himself the
I,ight which enlightens and gladdens the souls of all the elect
(Apoc 21:23; 22:5).
That will be the heavenly Epiphany.
" O God, Who upon this day by the leading of a star, didst reveal
Thine Only-begotten Son to the Gentiles; mercifully grant, that we
who already know Thee by faith, may be brought to the
contemplation of the beauty of Thy majesty ": Deus, qui hodierna
die Unigenitum tuum gentibus stella duce revelasti: concede
propitius, ut qui jam te ex fide cognovimus, usque ad
contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducamur.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
EPIPHANY BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION, OSB - Part III
III
It happens at times that the star disappears from our sight.
Whether the inspiration of grace bear with it an extraordinary
character, as was the case with the Magi, or whether it be linked
to the supernatural providence of each day, as is the most
frequent case with us, the star sometimes ceases to be manifest.
The soul then finds itself in spiritual darkness. What is to be
done then ?
Let us see what the Magi did under these circumstances. The star
was shown to them only in the East, then it disappeared: Vidimus
stellam ejus in Oriente. If it taught them concerning the Birth of
the King of the Jews, it did not show the precise place where they
might find Him. What were they to do ? The Magi directed their
course towards Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, the metropolis of
the Jewish religion. Where, better than in the holy city, could
they learn what they sought to know ?
In the same way, when our star disappears, when the divine
inspiration leaves us in some uncertainty, it is God's will that
we should have recourse to the Church, to those who represent Him
amongst us, in order to learn from them the path to be followed.
This is the dispensation of Divine Providence. God loves that in
our doubts and in the difficulties of our progress towards Christ,
we should ask light and direction from those whom He has
established as His representatives: Qui vos audit, me audit (Lk
10:16).
Hear how Jesus replies to Saul's question: "Lord, what wilt Thou
have me to do ?" Does He make His will directly known? He might
have done so since He revealed Himself as the Lord; but He instead
sends Saul to His representative: "Go into the city, and there it
shall be told thee"-by another-"what thou must do" (Acts 9:7).
In submitting the aspirations of our souls to the control of those
who have the grace and mission to direct us in our seeking after
divine union, we run no risk of going astray, whatever be the
personal merits of those who guide us. At the time when the Magi
arrived at Jerusalem, the assembly of those who had authority to
interpret the Holy Scriptures was composed in great part of
unworthy members; and yet God willed that it should be by their
ministry and teaching that the Magi learnt officially where Christ
was born. Indeed, God cannot permit a soul to be deceived when,
with humility and confidence, she has recourse to the legitimate
representatives of His sovereign authority.
On the contrary, the soul will again find light and peace. Like
the Magi going out from Jerusalem, she will again see the star,
radiant and splendid, and, also like them, full of gladness, she
will go forward on her way: Videntes autem stellam, gavisi sunt
gaudio magno valde (Mt 2:10).
It happens at times that the star disappears from our sight.
Whether the inspiration of grace bear with it an extraordinary
character, as was the case with the Magi, or whether it be linked
to the supernatural providence of each day, as is the most
frequent case with us, the star sometimes ceases to be manifest.
The soul then finds itself in spiritual darkness. What is to be
done then ?
Let us see what the Magi did under these circumstances. The star
was shown to them only in the East, then it disappeared: Vidimus
stellam ejus in Oriente. If it taught them concerning the Birth of
the King of the Jews, it did not show the precise place where they
might find Him. What were they to do ? The Magi directed their
course towards Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, the metropolis of
the Jewish religion. Where, better than in the holy city, could
they learn what they sought to know ?
In the same way, when our star disappears, when the divine
inspiration leaves us in some uncertainty, it is God's will that
we should have recourse to the Church, to those who represent Him
amongst us, in order to learn from them the path to be followed.
This is the dispensation of Divine Providence. God loves that in
our doubts and in the difficulties of our progress towards Christ,
we should ask light and direction from those whom He has
established as His representatives: Qui vos audit, me audit (Lk
10:16).
Hear how Jesus replies to Saul's question: "Lord, what wilt Thou
have me to do ?" Does He make His will directly known? He might
have done so since He revealed Himself as the Lord; but He instead
sends Saul to His representative: "Go into the city, and there it
shall be told thee"-by another-"what thou must do" (Acts 9:7).
In submitting the aspirations of our souls to the control of those
who have the grace and mission to direct us in our seeking after
divine union, we run no risk of going astray, whatever be the
personal merits of those who guide us. At the time when the Magi
arrived at Jerusalem, the assembly of those who had authority to
interpret the Holy Scriptures was composed in great part of
unworthy members; and yet God willed that it should be by their
ministry and teaching that the Magi learnt officially where Christ
was born. Indeed, God cannot permit a soul to be deceived when,
with humility and confidence, she has recourse to the legitimate
representatives of His sovereign authority.
On the contrary, the soul will again find light and peace. Like
the Magi going out from Jerusalem, she will again see the star,
radiant and splendid, and, also like them, full of gladness, she
will go forward on her way: Videntes autem stellam, gavisi sunt
gaudio magno valde (Mt 2:10).
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
EPIPHANY BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION, OSB - Part II
II
If we now return to some of the details of the Gospel narrative,
we shall see how rich in teaching is this mystery.
I have said that the Magi at Bethlehem represented the Gentiles in
their vocation to the light of the Gospel. The way in which the
Magi acted show us the qualities that our faith ought to have.
What is at first apparent is the generous fidelity of this faith.
Let us consider it. The star appeared to the Magi. Whatever be the
country whence they originated-Persia, Chaldea, Arabia or India,-
the Magi, according to tradition, belonged to a priestly caste and
devoted themselves to the study of the stars. It is more than
probable that they were not ignorant of the revelation made to the
Jews of a King Who would be their Deliverer and the Master of the
world. The prophet Daniel, who had prophesied the time of His
coming, had been in relation with some of the Magi; perhaps even,
Balaam's prophecy that a star should "rise out of Jacob" (Num
24:17) was not unknown to them. However that may be, behold now a
wondrous star appears to them. Its extraordinary brightness
attracting their gaze, awakens their attention at the same time
that an inward grace of illumination enlightens their souls. This
grace prepared them to recognize the prerogatives of the One Whose
Birth the star announced; it inspired them to set out to seek Him
in order to offer Him their homage.
The Magi's fidelity to the inspiration of grace is wonderful.
Doubt takes no hold upon their minds; without staying to reason,
they immediately begin to carry out their design. Neither the
indifference nor the scepticism of those who surround them, nor
the disappearance of the star, nor the difficulties inherent to an
expedition of this kind, nor the length and dangers of the way
stop them. They obey the divine call without delay or hesitation.
"We have seen His star in the East and are come" (Mt 2:2).
In this the Magi are our models, whether it concerns the vocation
to the faith, or whether it be a question of the call to
perfection. There is indeed for every faithful soul a vocation to
holiness: Sancti estote quia ego sanctus (Lev 11:44). "Be holy
because I am holy." The apostle St. Paul assures us that from all
eternity there exists for us a divine decree full of love
containing this call: Elegit nos ante mundi constitutionem, ut
essemus sancti et immaculati in conspectu ejus (Eph 1:4).
And for those whom He calls to holiness God makes "all things work
together unto good": Iis qui secundim propositum vocati sunt
sancti (Rom 8:28). The manifestation of this vocation is for each
of us his or her star. It takes different forms, according to
God's designs, our character, the circumstances wherein we live,
the events that befall us; but it shines in the soul of each one.
And what is the end and object of this call ? For us as for the
Magi, it is to lead us to Jesus. The Heavenly Father causes the
star to shine in us; for, says Christ Himself, " no man can come
to Me, except the Father, Who hath sent Me, draw him ": Nemo
potest venire ad me, nisi Pater, qui misit me, traxerit eum (Jn
6:44).
If with fidelity we listen to the divine call, if we generously
press onward with our gaze fixed upon the star, we shall come to
Christ Who is the life of our souls. And whatever be our sins, our
failings, our miseries, Jesus will welcome us with kindness. He
has promised to do so: " All that the Father giveth Me shall come
to Me, and him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out ": Omne,
quod dat mihi Pater, ad me veniet: et eum qui venit ad me non
eficiam foras (Ibid. 6:37).
The Father drew Magdalen the sinner to the feet of Jesus. And see
how Magdalen, at once following with a generous faith the divine
ray of the star that shone in her soul, suddenly enters into tbe
festal hall to manifest publicly to Christ her repentance and her
love. Magdalen followed the star, and the star led Magdalen to the
Saviour: " Thy sins are forgiven thee... thy faith hath made thee
safe. Go in peace" (Lk 7:48, 50). Et eum qui venit ad me non
eficiam foras.
The lives of the saints and the experience of souls show that
there are often, in our supernatural life, decisive moments upon
which depend all the value of our inner life, and sometimes our
eternity itself.
Look at Saul upon the road to Damascus. He is the enemy and bitter
persecutor of the Christians: Spirans minarum, "breathing out
threatenings and slaughter, "against those who bore that name. And
then the voice of Jesus makes itself heard. It is for Saul the
star, the divine call. He hears the call, and follows the star:
"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" What promptitude and what
generosity ! And from that moment, become a " vessel of election"
(Acts 9:1, 6, 15), he will live for Christ alone.
Look, on the other hand, at the young man full of good will, with
upright and sincere heart, who approaches Jesus and asks what he
must do to possess life everlasting. "Keep the commandments,"
answers our Divine Saviour. "Master, all these have I kept from my
youth, what is yet wanting to me?" Then, says the Gospel," Jesus,
looking on him, loved him": Jesus autem intuitus eum dilexit eum.
This look full of love was the ray of the star. And see how it is
immediately manifested: "One thing is wanting unto thee: if thou
wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have a treasure in heaven; and come follow me." But the
youth does not follow the star. Sorrowful at this saying, "he went
away sad; for he had great possessions." Some commentators see the
prediction of the loss of this soul in the words that our Lord
pronounced immediately afterwards: "How hardly shall they that
have riches enter into the kingdom of God" (Mk 10:17-23; cf. Mt
19:16-23; Lk 18:18-24).
Thus, whether it concerns the call to faith or holiness, we shall
only find Christ and the life whereof He is the source on
condition that we are attentive to grace and perseveringly
faithful in seeking after divine union.
The Heavenly Father calls us to His Son by the inspiration of His
grace. Like the Magi, as soon as the star shines in our hearts, we
should instantly leave all: our sins, the occasions of sin, evil
habits, infidelities, imperfections, attachment to creatures.
Taking no account of criticism nor the opinion of men, nor the
difficulties of the work to be done, we should set out at once to
seek Jesus. He wills this whether we have lost Him by mortal sin,
or whether, already possessing Him by sanctifying grace, He calls
us to a closer and more intimate union with Himself.
Vidimus stellam: Lord, I have seen Thy star, and I come to Thee:
what wilt Thou have me to do ?
If we now return to some of the details of the Gospel narrative,
we shall see how rich in teaching is this mystery.
I have said that the Magi at Bethlehem represented the Gentiles in
their vocation to the light of the Gospel. The way in which the
Magi acted show us the qualities that our faith ought to have.
What is at first apparent is the generous fidelity of this faith.
Let us consider it. The star appeared to the Magi. Whatever be the
country whence they originated-Persia, Chaldea, Arabia or India,-
the Magi, according to tradition, belonged to a priestly caste and
devoted themselves to the study of the stars. It is more than
probable that they were not ignorant of the revelation made to the
Jews of a King Who would be their Deliverer and the Master of the
world. The prophet Daniel, who had prophesied the time of His
coming, had been in relation with some of the Magi; perhaps even,
Balaam's prophecy that a star should "rise out of Jacob" (Num
24:17) was not unknown to them. However that may be, behold now a
wondrous star appears to them. Its extraordinary brightness
attracting their gaze, awakens their attention at the same time
that an inward grace of illumination enlightens their souls. This
grace prepared them to recognize the prerogatives of the One Whose
Birth the star announced; it inspired them to set out to seek Him
in order to offer Him their homage.
The Magi's fidelity to the inspiration of grace is wonderful.
Doubt takes no hold upon their minds; without staying to reason,
they immediately begin to carry out their design. Neither the
indifference nor the scepticism of those who surround them, nor
the disappearance of the star, nor the difficulties inherent to an
expedition of this kind, nor the length and dangers of the way
stop them. They obey the divine call without delay or hesitation.
"We have seen His star in the East and are come" (Mt 2:2).
In this the Magi are our models, whether it concerns the vocation
to the faith, or whether it be a question of the call to
perfection. There is indeed for every faithful soul a vocation to
holiness: Sancti estote quia ego sanctus (Lev 11:44). "Be holy
because I am holy." The apostle St. Paul assures us that from all
eternity there exists for us a divine decree full of love
containing this call: Elegit nos ante mundi constitutionem, ut
essemus sancti et immaculati in conspectu ejus (Eph 1:4).
And for those whom He calls to holiness God makes "all things work
together unto good": Iis qui secundim propositum vocati sunt
sancti (Rom 8:28). The manifestation of this vocation is for each
of us his or her star. It takes different forms, according to
God's designs, our character, the circumstances wherein we live,
the events that befall us; but it shines in the soul of each one.
And what is the end and object of this call ? For us as for the
Magi, it is to lead us to Jesus. The Heavenly Father causes the
star to shine in us; for, says Christ Himself, " no man can come
to Me, except the Father, Who hath sent Me, draw him ": Nemo
potest venire ad me, nisi Pater, qui misit me, traxerit eum (Jn
6:44).
If with fidelity we listen to the divine call, if we generously
press onward with our gaze fixed upon the star, we shall come to
Christ Who is the life of our souls. And whatever be our sins, our
failings, our miseries, Jesus will welcome us with kindness. He
has promised to do so: " All that the Father giveth Me shall come
to Me, and him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out ": Omne,
quod dat mihi Pater, ad me veniet: et eum qui venit ad me non
eficiam foras (Ibid. 6:37).
The Father drew Magdalen the sinner to the feet of Jesus. And see
how Magdalen, at once following with a generous faith the divine
ray of the star that shone in her soul, suddenly enters into tbe
festal hall to manifest publicly to Christ her repentance and her
love. Magdalen followed the star, and the star led Magdalen to the
Saviour: " Thy sins are forgiven thee... thy faith hath made thee
safe. Go in peace" (Lk 7:48, 50). Et eum qui venit ad me non
eficiam foras.
The lives of the saints and the experience of souls show that
there are often, in our supernatural life, decisive moments upon
which depend all the value of our inner life, and sometimes our
eternity itself.
Look at Saul upon the road to Damascus. He is the enemy and bitter
persecutor of the Christians: Spirans minarum, "breathing out
threatenings and slaughter, "against those who bore that name. And
then the voice of Jesus makes itself heard. It is for Saul the
star, the divine call. He hears the call, and follows the star:
"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" What promptitude and what
generosity ! And from that moment, become a " vessel of election"
(Acts 9:1, 6, 15), he will live for Christ alone.
Look, on the other hand, at the young man full of good will, with
upright and sincere heart, who approaches Jesus and asks what he
must do to possess life everlasting. "Keep the commandments,"
answers our Divine Saviour. "Master, all these have I kept from my
youth, what is yet wanting to me?" Then, says the Gospel," Jesus,
looking on him, loved him": Jesus autem intuitus eum dilexit eum.
This look full of love was the ray of the star. And see how it is
immediately manifested: "One thing is wanting unto thee: if thou
wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have a treasure in heaven; and come follow me." But the
youth does not follow the star. Sorrowful at this saying, "he went
away sad; for he had great possessions." Some commentators see the
prediction of the loss of this soul in the words that our Lord
pronounced immediately afterwards: "How hardly shall they that
have riches enter into the kingdom of God" (Mk 10:17-23; cf. Mt
19:16-23; Lk 18:18-24).
Thus, whether it concerns the call to faith or holiness, we shall
only find Christ and the life whereof He is the source on
condition that we are attentive to grace and perseveringly
faithful in seeking after divine union.
The Heavenly Father calls us to His Son by the inspiration of His
grace. Like the Magi, as soon as the star shines in our hearts, we
should instantly leave all: our sins, the occasions of sin, evil
habits, infidelities, imperfections, attachment to creatures.
Taking no account of criticism nor the opinion of men, nor the
difficulties of the work to be done, we should set out at once to
seek Jesus. He wills this whether we have lost Him by mortal sin,
or whether, already possessing Him by sanctifying grace, He calls
us to a closer and more intimate union with Himself.
Vidimus stellam: Lord, I have seen Thy star, and I come to Thee:
what wilt Thou have me to do ?
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
EPIPHANY BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION, OSB - Part I
I
The Fathers of the Church have seen in the call of the Magi to
Christ's cradle the vocation of pagan nations to the Faith. This
is the very foundation of the mystery, explicitly indicated by the
Church in the collect wherein she sums up the desires of her
children on this solemnity: Deus qui hodierna die Unigenitum tnum
GENTIBUS stella duce revelasti.
The Incarnate Word is first of all manifested to the Jews in the
person of the shepherds. Why was this? Because the Jewish people
were the Chosen People. From this people was to come forth the
Messias, the Son of David. The magnificent promises to be realised
in the establishing of the Messianic Kingdom had been made to this
people; it was to them that God had entrusted the Scriptures and
given the Law whereof each element prefigured the grace that was
to be brought by Christ. It was then befitting that the Incarnate
Word should first be manifested to the Jews.
The shepherds, simple and upright men, represented the Chosen
People at the Crib: Evangelizo vobis gaudium magnum.., quia natus
est vobis hodie Salvator (Lk 2:10-11).
Later on, in His public life, Our Lord would again manifest
Himself to the Jews, by the wisdom of His doctrine and the
splendour of His miracles.
We shall even find that He restricts His teaching to the Jews
alone. See, for example, when the woman of Canaan, from the pagan
regions of Tyre and Sidon, asks Him to have mercy upon her. What
does Christ answer to the disciples when they interpose in her
favour? "I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the
house of Israel" (Mt 15:24). It needed the ardent faith and
profound humility of the poor pagan woman to wrest from Jesus, so
to speak, the grace that she implored.
When, during His public life, Our Lord sent His Apostles to
preach, like Himself, the good news, He likewise said to them: "Go
ye not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the city of
Samaritans enter you ye not. But go ye rather to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:5-6). Why this strange
recommendation? Were the pagans excluded from the grace of
redemption and salvation brought by Christ? No; but it entered
into the divine economy to reserve the evangelization of the pagan
nations to the Apostles, after the Jews should have definitely
rejected the Son of God, by crucifying the Messias. When Our Lord
dies upon the cross, the veil of the temple is rent in twain to
show that the Ancient Covenant with the Hebrew people had ceased.
Many Jews indeed did not want to receive Christ. The pride of
some, the sensuality of others, blinded their souls, and they
would not receive Him as Son of God. It is of them that St. John
speaks when he says: "The light shineth in darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it" (Jn 1:5, 11). Therefore Our Lord
says to these incredulous Jews: "The Kingdom of God shall be taken
from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruit
thereof" (Mt 21:43).
The pagan nations are called to become the inheritance promised by
the Father to His Son Jesus: Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes
haereditatem tuam (Ps 11:8). Our Lord Himself says: "The good
shepherd giveth His life for His sheep," adding immediately:
"Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold": Alias oves habeo,
quae non sunt ex hoc ovili. "Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd"
(Jn 10: 11, 16).
This is why, before ascending into heaven, He sends His Apostles
to continue His work and mission of salvation, no longer among the
lost sheep of Israel, but among all people. "Going therefore," He
says to them, "teach ye all nations... preach the gospel to every
creature... I am with you all days, even to the consummation of
the world" (Mt 28:19-20).
The Word Incarnate did not, however, await His Ascension to shed
abroad the grace of the Gospel upon the Gentile world. As soon as
He appeared here below, He invited it to His cradle in the person
of the Magi. He, Eternal Wisdom, would thus show us that He
brought peace, Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis (Lk 2:14), not only
to those who were nigh to Him- the faithful Jews represented by
the shepherds, -but also to those who " were afar off "-the Pagans
represented by the Magi. Thus, as St. Paul says, of the two people
He made but one: Qui fecit utraque unum, because He alone, by the
union of His Humanity with His Divinity, is the perfect Mediator,
and "by Him we have access both in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph
2:14, 17-18).
The calling of the Magi and their sanctification signifies the
vocation of the Gentiles to the faith and to salvation. God sends
an angel to the shepherds, for the Chosen People were accustomed
to the apparition of the celestial spirits; to the Magi, who
studied the stars, He causes a marvellous star to appear. This
star is the symbol of the inward illumination that enlightens
souls in order to call them to God.
The soul of every grown-up person is in fact enlightened, once at
least, like the Magi, by the star of the vocation to eternal
salvation. To all the light is given. It is a dogma of our faith
that God "will have all men to be saved": Qui OMNES homines vult
salvos fieri, et ad agnitionem veritatis venire (1 Tim 2:4).
On the day of judgment, all without exception will proclaim, with
the conviction produced by evidence, the infinite justice of God
and the perfect rectitude of His judgments: Justus es, Domine, et
rectum judicium tuum (Ps 118:137). Those whom God shall have told
to depart from Him for ever will acknowledge that they are the
workers of their own ruin.
Now this would not be true if the reprobate had not had the
possibility of knowing and accepting the divine light of faith. It
would be contrary not only to God's infinite goodness, but even to
His justice, to condemn a soul on account of its invincible
ignorance.
Doubtless, the star that calls men to the Christian faith is not
the same for all; it shines in different ways, but its brightness
is visible enough for hearts of good will to be able to recognise
it and see in it the sign of the Divine call. In His providence
full of wisdom, God incessantly varies His action,
incomprehensible like Himself. He varies it according to the ever
active promptings of His love and the ever holy exigencies of His
justice. We ought herein to adore the unfathomable depths of God's
ways and proclaim that they infinitely surpass our created views.
Indeed "who hath known the mind Or the Lord ? Or who hath been His
counsellor ? " O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei!
Quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus et investigabiles viae
ejus! (Rom 11:33).
We have "seen the star" and have recognised as our God the Babe of
Bethlehem; we have the happiness of belonging to the Church
whereof the Magi were the first fruits.
In the office of the feast, the Liturgy celebrates this vocation
of all humanity to faith and salvation in the person of the Magi
as the nuptials of the Church with the Bridegroom. Hear with what
gladness, in what magnificent symbolical terms, borrowed from the
prophet Isaias, the liturgy proclaims (Epistle of the Mass) the
splendour of this spiritual Jerusalem which is to receive into her
maternal bosom the nations become the inheritance of her divine
Bridegroom. "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold,
darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people; but the
Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the
brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see;
all these gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall
come from afar, and daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then
shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be
enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to
thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee" (Is 60:15).
Let us offer continual thanksgiving to God "Who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the
kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col 1:13), " that is to say into
His Church.
The call to the faith is a signal benefit because it contains in
germ the vocation to the eternal beatitude of the Divine vision.
Never let us forget that this call was the dawn of all God's
mercies towards us, and that for man all is summed up in fidelity
to this vocation; faith is to bring us to the Beatific Vision
(Collect for the Feast).
Not only ought we to thank God for this grace of the Christian
faith, but we ought each day to render ourselves more worthy of it
by safeguarding our faith against all the dangers that it
encounters in our age of naturalism, scepticism, indifference,
human respect, and by living a life of faith with constant
fidelity.
Moreover, let us beseech God to grant this precious gift of the
Christian faith to all the souls who yet "sit in darkness, and in
the shadow of death"; let us beseech Our Lord that the star may
shine upon them; that, through His tender mercy, He Himself will
be the Sun to visit them from on high: Per viscera misericordiae
Dei nostri in quibus visitavit nos, Oriens ex alto (Lk 1:78-79)
This prayer is very pleasing to Our Lord; it is, in fact, to
beseech Him that He may be known and exalted as the Saviour of all
mankind and the King of kings.
It is likewise pleasing to the Father, for He desires nothing so
much as the glorification of His Son. Let us then often repeat,
during these holy days, the prayer that the Incarnate Word Himself
has put upon our lips: O Heavenly Father, "Father of Lights," Thy
Kingdom come, that kingdom whereof Thy Son Jesus is the head.
Adveniat regnum tuum! May Thy Son be more and more known, loved,
served, glorified, so that in His turn He may, by manifesting Thee
the more to men, glorify Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost:
Pater, clarifica Filium taum ut Filius tuus clarificet te !
The Fathers of the Church have seen in the call of the Magi to
Christ's cradle the vocation of pagan nations to the Faith. This
is the very foundation of the mystery, explicitly indicated by the
Church in the collect wherein she sums up the desires of her
children on this solemnity: Deus qui hodierna die Unigenitum tnum
GENTIBUS stella duce revelasti.
The Incarnate Word is first of all manifested to the Jews in the
person of the shepherds. Why was this? Because the Jewish people
were the Chosen People. From this people was to come forth the
Messias, the Son of David. The magnificent promises to be realised
in the establishing of the Messianic Kingdom had been made to this
people; it was to them that God had entrusted the Scriptures and
given the Law whereof each element prefigured the grace that was
to be brought by Christ. It was then befitting that the Incarnate
Word should first be manifested to the Jews.
The shepherds, simple and upright men, represented the Chosen
People at the Crib: Evangelizo vobis gaudium magnum.., quia natus
est vobis hodie Salvator (Lk 2:10-11).
Later on, in His public life, Our Lord would again manifest
Himself to the Jews, by the wisdom of His doctrine and the
splendour of His miracles.
We shall even find that He restricts His teaching to the Jews
alone. See, for example, when the woman of Canaan, from the pagan
regions of Tyre and Sidon, asks Him to have mercy upon her. What
does Christ answer to the disciples when they interpose in her
favour? "I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the
house of Israel" (Mt 15:24). It needed the ardent faith and
profound humility of the poor pagan woman to wrest from Jesus, so
to speak, the grace that she implored.
When, during His public life, Our Lord sent His Apostles to
preach, like Himself, the good news, He likewise said to them: "Go
ye not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the city of
Samaritans enter you ye not. But go ye rather to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:5-6). Why this strange
recommendation? Were the pagans excluded from the grace of
redemption and salvation brought by Christ? No; but it entered
into the divine economy to reserve the evangelization of the pagan
nations to the Apostles, after the Jews should have definitely
rejected the Son of God, by crucifying the Messias. When Our Lord
dies upon the cross, the veil of the temple is rent in twain to
show that the Ancient Covenant with the Hebrew people had ceased.
Many Jews indeed did not want to receive Christ. The pride of
some, the sensuality of others, blinded their souls, and they
would not receive Him as Son of God. It is of them that St. John
speaks when he says: "The light shineth in darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it" (Jn 1:5, 11). Therefore Our Lord
says to these incredulous Jews: "The Kingdom of God shall be taken
from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruit
thereof" (Mt 21:43).
The pagan nations are called to become the inheritance promised by
the Father to His Son Jesus: Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes
haereditatem tuam (Ps 11:8). Our Lord Himself says: "The good
shepherd giveth His life for His sheep," adding immediately:
"Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold": Alias oves habeo,
quae non sunt ex hoc ovili. "Them also I must bring, and they
shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd"
(Jn 10: 11, 16).
This is why, before ascending into heaven, He sends His Apostles
to continue His work and mission of salvation, no longer among the
lost sheep of Israel, but among all people. "Going therefore," He
says to them, "teach ye all nations... preach the gospel to every
creature... I am with you all days, even to the consummation of
the world" (Mt 28:19-20).
The Word Incarnate did not, however, await His Ascension to shed
abroad the grace of the Gospel upon the Gentile world. As soon as
He appeared here below, He invited it to His cradle in the person
of the Magi. He, Eternal Wisdom, would thus show us that He
brought peace, Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis (Lk 2:14), not only
to those who were nigh to Him- the faithful Jews represented by
the shepherds, -but also to those who " were afar off "-the Pagans
represented by the Magi. Thus, as St. Paul says, of the two people
He made but one: Qui fecit utraque unum, because He alone, by the
union of His Humanity with His Divinity, is the perfect Mediator,
and "by Him we have access both in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph
2:14, 17-18).
The calling of the Magi and their sanctification signifies the
vocation of the Gentiles to the faith and to salvation. God sends
an angel to the shepherds, for the Chosen People were accustomed
to the apparition of the celestial spirits; to the Magi, who
studied the stars, He causes a marvellous star to appear. This
star is the symbol of the inward illumination that enlightens
souls in order to call them to God.
The soul of every grown-up person is in fact enlightened, once at
least, like the Magi, by the star of the vocation to eternal
salvation. To all the light is given. It is a dogma of our faith
that God "will have all men to be saved": Qui OMNES homines vult
salvos fieri, et ad agnitionem veritatis venire (1 Tim 2:4).
On the day of judgment, all without exception will proclaim, with
the conviction produced by evidence, the infinite justice of God
and the perfect rectitude of His judgments: Justus es, Domine, et
rectum judicium tuum (Ps 118:137). Those whom God shall have told
to depart from Him for ever will acknowledge that they are the
workers of their own ruin.
Now this would not be true if the reprobate had not had the
possibility of knowing and accepting the divine light of faith. It
would be contrary not only to God's infinite goodness, but even to
His justice, to condemn a soul on account of its invincible
ignorance.
Doubtless, the star that calls men to the Christian faith is not
the same for all; it shines in different ways, but its brightness
is visible enough for hearts of good will to be able to recognise
it and see in it the sign of the Divine call. In His providence
full of wisdom, God incessantly varies His action,
incomprehensible like Himself. He varies it according to the ever
active promptings of His love and the ever holy exigencies of His
justice. We ought herein to adore the unfathomable depths of God's
ways and proclaim that they infinitely surpass our created views.
Indeed "who hath known the mind Or the Lord ? Or who hath been His
counsellor ? " O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei!
Quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus et investigabiles viae
ejus! (Rom 11:33).
We have "seen the star" and have recognised as our God the Babe of
Bethlehem; we have the happiness of belonging to the Church
whereof the Magi were the first fruits.
In the office of the feast, the Liturgy celebrates this vocation
of all humanity to faith and salvation in the person of the Magi
as the nuptials of the Church with the Bridegroom. Hear with what
gladness, in what magnificent symbolical terms, borrowed from the
prophet Isaias, the liturgy proclaims (Epistle of the Mass) the
splendour of this spiritual Jerusalem which is to receive into her
maternal bosom the nations become the inheritance of her divine
Bridegroom. "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold,
darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people; but the
Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the
brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see;
all these gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall
come from afar, and daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then
shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be
enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to
thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee" (Is 60:15).
Let us offer continual thanksgiving to God "Who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the
kingdom of the Son of His love" (Col 1:13), " that is to say into
His Church.
The call to the faith is a signal benefit because it contains in
germ the vocation to the eternal beatitude of the Divine vision.
Never let us forget that this call was the dawn of all God's
mercies towards us, and that for man all is summed up in fidelity
to this vocation; faith is to bring us to the Beatific Vision
(Collect for the Feast).
Not only ought we to thank God for this grace of the Christian
faith, but we ought each day to render ourselves more worthy of it
by safeguarding our faith against all the dangers that it
encounters in our age of naturalism, scepticism, indifference,
human respect, and by living a life of faith with constant
fidelity.
Moreover, let us beseech God to grant this precious gift of the
Christian faith to all the souls who yet "sit in darkness, and in
the shadow of death"; let us beseech Our Lord that the star may
shine upon them; that, through His tender mercy, He Himself will
be the Sun to visit them from on high: Per viscera misericordiae
Dei nostri in quibus visitavit nos, Oriens ex alto (Lk 1:78-79)
This prayer is very pleasing to Our Lord; it is, in fact, to
beseech Him that He may be known and exalted as the Saviour of all
mankind and the King of kings.
It is likewise pleasing to the Father, for He desires nothing so
much as the glorification of His Son. Let us then often repeat,
during these holy days, the prayer that the Incarnate Word Himself
has put upon our lips: O Heavenly Father, "Father of Lights," Thy
Kingdom come, that kingdom whereof Thy Son Jesus is the head.
Adveniat regnum tuum! May Thy Son be more and more known, loved,
served, glorified, so that in His turn He may, by manifesting Thee
the more to men, glorify Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost:
Pater, clarifica Filium taum ut Filius tuus clarificet te !
Monday, January 9, 2012
EPIPHANY BY BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION, OSB - INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY
VIII. --THE EPIPHANY
Abbot Marmion, O.S.B.
SUMMARY. - - God Eternal light, is chiefly manifested by the
Incarnation. - I. The manifestation to the Magi signifies the
calling of the pagan nations to the light of the Gospel. II. The
Magi's faith, prompt and generous, is the model of what ours
should be. - III. What the Magi did when the star disappeared. - -
IV. The greatness of their faith at Bethlehem; symbolism of the
gifts offered by them to the Child God; how we may imitate them
Whenever a soul comes into a more intimate contact with God, she
feels herself wrapt around with mystery: Nubes et caligo in
circuitu ejus (Ps 46:2). This mystery is the inevitable
consequence of the infinite distance that separates the creature
from the Creator. On all sides, the finite being is surpassed by
Him Who, everlastingly, is the plenitude of Being.
This is why one of the most profound characters of the Divine
Being is His incomprehensibility. The invisibility here below of
the Divine Light is a truly wonderful thing.
"God is Light," says St. John; He is the Infinite Light, "and in
Him there is no darkness": Deus lux est, et tenebrae in eo non
sunt ullae. St. John is careful to note that this truth
constitutes one of the foundations of his Gospel: Et haec est
annuntiatio quam audivimus ab eo, et annuntiamus vobis (1 Jn 1:5).
But this light, which bathes us all in its brightness, instead of
manifesting God to the eyes of our souls, hides Him. It is with
this light as with the sun: its very brilliancy prevents us from
contemplating it: Lucem inhabitat inaccessibilem (1 Tim 6:16).
And yet this light is the life of the soul. You will have noticed
that, in Holy Scripture, the ideas of life and light are
frequently associated. When the psalmist wants to describe the
eternal beatitude whereof God is the source, he says that in God
is the principle of life: Torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos.
Quoniam apud te est fons VITAE; and he immediately adds: "And in
Thy light we shall see light": Et in lumine tuo VIDEBIMUS LUMEN
(Ps 35:9-10). It is in the same way that Our Lord declares Himself
to be "the Light of the world". Again He says (and here is
something more than a mere juxtaposition of words), "He that
followeth Me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of
life ":: Habebit LUMEN VITAE (Jn 8:12). And this light of life
proceeds from the Life by essence which is Light: In ipso vita
erat, et vita erat lux hominum (Ibid 1:4). Our life in heaven will
be to know the Eternal Light unveiled, and to rejoice in the
splendour of this Light.
Already, here below, God gives a participation of this light by
endowing the human soul with reason. Signatum est super nos lumen
vultus tui, Domine (Ps 4:7). Reason is a true light for man. All
the natural activity of man, if he is to be worthy of himself,
ought to be directed first of all by that light which shows him
the good to be pursued; a light so powerful that it is even
capable of revealing to man the existence of God and some of His
perfections. St. Paul, writing to the faithful in Rome (Rom 1:20),
declares the pagans to be inexcusable for not having known God
through contemplating the world, His handiwork. God's works
contain a vestige, a reflection of His perfections, and thus, up
to a certain point, declare the infinite light.
There is another deeper, more merciful manifestation that God has
made of Himself: it is the Incarnation.
The divine light, too dazzling to be manifested in all its
splendour to our feeble sight, is veiled beneath the sacred
Humanity: quod est velamen, is the expression of St. Paul" (Cf.
Heb 10:20). "The brightness of eternal light" (Sap 7:26), light
shining forth from light, lumen de lumine, the Word had clad
Himself in our flesh that through it we may contemplate the
Divinity: Nova mentis nostrae oculis lux tuae claritatis infulsit
(Preface for the Nativity), Christ is God brought within our
reach, showing Himself to us in a life authentically human; the
veil of the Humanity prevents the infinite and dazzling splendour
of the Divinity from blinding us.
But for every soul of good will, rays come forth from this Man
revealing that He is likewise God. The soul enlightened by faith
knows the splendour hidden behind the veil of this Holy of Holies.
In the mortal Man that Jesus is, faith finds God Himself, and in
finding God, she drinks at the source of light, salvation and
immortal life: Quia cum Unigenitus tuus in substantia nostrae
mortalitatis apparuit, nova nos immortalitatis suae luce reparavit
(Preface for the Epiphany).
This manifestation of God to men is so extraordinary a mystery, a
work so full of mercy; it constitutes one of the characters so
essential to the Incarnation that, in the first centuries, the
Church had no special feast in honour of the Saviour's Birth at
Bethlehem. She celebrated the feast of the "Theophania," the feast
of the "Divine manifestations" in the Person of the Incarnate
Word:-the manifestation to the Magi,-the manifestation upon the
banks of the Jordan at the Baptism of Jesus,-and the manifestation
at the marriage feast of Cana where Christ wrought His first
miracle. In passing from the Church of the East to that of the
West, the feast has retained its name in Greek: Epiphany, the
"manifestation"; but it has almost exclusively for its object the
manifestation of the Saviour to the Gentile world, to the pagan
nations, in the person of the Magi.
You well know the Gospel narrative of the coming of the Magi to
Bethlehem, a narrative illustrated and popularised by tradition
(Most authors place the coming of the Magi after the presentation
of Jesus in the Temple we here follow the order indicated by the
Church which, in the liturgy, celebrates the Epiphany on January
6th and the Presentation on February 2nd.) . I will simply say a
few words upon the general signification of the mystery;
afterwards, whilst dwelling on certain details, I will point out
some of the numerous lessons that it contains for our devotion.
Abbot Marmion, O.S.B.
SUMMARY. - - God Eternal light, is chiefly manifested by the
Incarnation. - I. The manifestation to the Magi signifies the
calling of the pagan nations to the light of the Gospel. II. The
Magi's faith, prompt and generous, is the model of what ours
should be. - III. What the Magi did when the star disappeared. - -
IV. The greatness of their faith at Bethlehem; symbolism of the
gifts offered by them to the Child God; how we may imitate them
Whenever a soul comes into a more intimate contact with God, she
feels herself wrapt around with mystery: Nubes et caligo in
circuitu ejus (Ps 46:2). This mystery is the inevitable
consequence of the infinite distance that separates the creature
from the Creator. On all sides, the finite being is surpassed by
Him Who, everlastingly, is the plenitude of Being.
This is why one of the most profound characters of the Divine
Being is His incomprehensibility. The invisibility here below of
the Divine Light is a truly wonderful thing.
"God is Light," says St. John; He is the Infinite Light, "and in
Him there is no darkness": Deus lux est, et tenebrae in eo non
sunt ullae. St. John is careful to note that this truth
constitutes one of the foundations of his Gospel: Et haec est
annuntiatio quam audivimus ab eo, et annuntiamus vobis (1 Jn 1:5).
But this light, which bathes us all in its brightness, instead of
manifesting God to the eyes of our souls, hides Him. It is with
this light as with the sun: its very brilliancy prevents us from
contemplating it: Lucem inhabitat inaccessibilem (1 Tim 6:16).
And yet this light is the life of the soul. You will have noticed
that, in Holy Scripture, the ideas of life and light are
frequently associated. When the psalmist wants to describe the
eternal beatitude whereof God is the source, he says that in God
is the principle of life: Torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos.
Quoniam apud te est fons VITAE; and he immediately adds: "And in
Thy light we shall see light": Et in lumine tuo VIDEBIMUS LUMEN
(Ps 35:9-10). It is in the same way that Our Lord declares Himself
to be "the Light of the world". Again He says (and here is
something more than a mere juxtaposition of words), "He that
followeth Me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of
life ":: Habebit LUMEN VITAE (Jn 8:12). And this light of life
proceeds from the Life by essence which is Light: In ipso vita
erat, et vita erat lux hominum (Ibid 1:4). Our life in heaven will
be to know the Eternal Light unveiled, and to rejoice in the
splendour of this Light.
Already, here below, God gives a participation of this light by
endowing the human soul with reason. Signatum est super nos lumen
vultus tui, Domine (Ps 4:7). Reason is a true light for man. All
the natural activity of man, if he is to be worthy of himself,
ought to be directed first of all by that light which shows him
the good to be pursued; a light so powerful that it is even
capable of revealing to man the existence of God and some of His
perfections. St. Paul, writing to the faithful in Rome (Rom 1:20),
declares the pagans to be inexcusable for not having known God
through contemplating the world, His handiwork. God's works
contain a vestige, a reflection of His perfections, and thus, up
to a certain point, declare the infinite light.
There is another deeper, more merciful manifestation that God has
made of Himself: it is the Incarnation.
The divine light, too dazzling to be manifested in all its
splendour to our feeble sight, is veiled beneath the sacred
Humanity: quod est velamen, is the expression of St. Paul" (Cf.
Heb 10:20). "The brightness of eternal light" (Sap 7:26), light
shining forth from light, lumen de lumine, the Word had clad
Himself in our flesh that through it we may contemplate the
Divinity: Nova mentis nostrae oculis lux tuae claritatis infulsit
(Preface for the Nativity), Christ is God brought within our
reach, showing Himself to us in a life authentically human; the
veil of the Humanity prevents the infinite and dazzling splendour
of the Divinity from blinding us.
But for every soul of good will, rays come forth from this Man
revealing that He is likewise God. The soul enlightened by faith
knows the splendour hidden behind the veil of this Holy of Holies.
In the mortal Man that Jesus is, faith finds God Himself, and in
finding God, she drinks at the source of light, salvation and
immortal life: Quia cum Unigenitus tuus in substantia nostrae
mortalitatis apparuit, nova nos immortalitatis suae luce reparavit
(Preface for the Epiphany).
This manifestation of God to men is so extraordinary a mystery, a
work so full of mercy; it constitutes one of the characters so
essential to the Incarnation that, in the first centuries, the
Church had no special feast in honour of the Saviour's Birth at
Bethlehem. She celebrated the feast of the "Theophania," the feast
of the "Divine manifestations" in the Person of the Incarnate
Word:-the manifestation to the Magi,-the manifestation upon the
banks of the Jordan at the Baptism of Jesus,-and the manifestation
at the marriage feast of Cana where Christ wrought His first
miracle. In passing from the Church of the East to that of the
West, the feast has retained its name in Greek: Epiphany, the
"manifestation"; but it has almost exclusively for its object the
manifestation of the Saviour to the Gentile world, to the pagan
nations, in the person of the Magi.
You well know the Gospel narrative of the coming of the Magi to
Bethlehem, a narrative illustrated and popularised by tradition
(Most authors place the coming of the Magi after the presentation
of Jesus in the Temple we here follow the order indicated by the
Church which, in the liturgy, celebrates the Epiphany on January
6th and the Presentation on February 2nd.) . I will simply say a
few words upon the general signification of the mystery;
afterwards, whilst dwelling on certain details, I will point out
some of the numerous lessons that it contains for our devotion.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
THE LITURGICAL YEAR (CHRISTMAS) BY THE VERY REV. DOM PROSPER GUÉRANGER, ABBOT OF SOLESMES
CHAPTER THE THIRD
PRACTICE DURING CHRISTMAS
The time has now come for the faithful soul to reap the fruit of the efforts she made during the penitential weeks of Advent to prepare a dwelling-place for the Son of God, who desires to be born within her. The Nuptials of the Lamb are come, and his Spouse hath prepared herself [Apoc. xix 7]. Now the Spouse is the Church; the Spouse is also every faithful soul. Our Lord gives his whole self to the whole flock, and to each sheep of the flock with as much love as though he loved but that one. What garments shall we put on, to go and meet the Bridegroom? Where shall we find the pearls and jewels wherewith to deck our soul for this happy meeting? Our holy Mother the Church will tell us all this in her Liturgy. Our best plan for spending Christmas is, undoubtedly, to keep close to her, and do what she does; for she is most dear to God, and being our Mother, we ought to obey all her injunctions.But, before we speak of the mystic Coming of the Incarnate Word into our souls; before we tell the secrets of that sublime familiarity between the Creator and the Creature; let us, first, learn from the Church the duties which human nature and each of our souls owes to the Divine Infant, whom the Heavens have at length given to us as the refreshing Dew we asked them to rain down upon our earth. During Advent, we united with the Saints of the Old Law, in praying for the coming of the Messias, our Redeemer; now that he is come, let us consider what is the homage we must pay him.
The Church offers to the Infant-God, during this holy season, the tribute of her profound adoration, the enthusiasm of her exceeding joy, the return of her unbounded gratitude, and the fondness of her intense love. These four offerings, adoration, joy, gratitude, and love, must be also those of every Christian to his Jesus, his Emmanuel, the Babe of Bethlehem. The prayers of the Liturgy will express all four sentiments in a way that no other Devotions could do. But, the better to appropriate to ourselves these admirable formulas of the Church, let us understand thoroughly the nature of each of these four sentiments.
The first of our duties at our Saviour’s Crib is Adoration. Adoration is Religion’s first act; but there is something in the Mystery of our Lord’s Birth which seems to make this duty doubly necessary. In heaven the Angels veil their faces, and prostrate themselves before the throne of Jehovah; the Four-and-Twenty Elders are for ever casting their crowns before the throne [Apoc. iv 10] of the Lamb; what, then, shall we do - we who are sinners, and unworthy members of the Tribe of the Redeemer - now that this same great God shows himself to us, humbled for our sakes, and stript of all his glory? now that the duties of the creature to his Creator are fulfilled by the Creator himself? now that the eternal God bows down not only before the Sovereign Majesty of the Godhead, but even before sinful man, his creature?
Let us endeavour to make, by our profound adorations, some return to the God who thus humbles himself for us; let us thus give him back some little of that whereof he has deprived himself out of love for us, and in obedience to the will of his Father. It is incumbent on us to emulate, as far as possible, the sentiments of the Angels in heaven, and never to approach the Divine Infant without bringing with us the incense of our soul's adoration, the protestation of our own extreme unworthiness, and lastly, the homage of our whole being. All this is due to the infinite Majesty of the Babe of Bethlehem, who is the more worthy of every tribute we can pay him, because he has made himself thus little for our sakes. Unhappy we, if the apparent weakness of the Divine Child, or the familiarity wherewith he is ready to caress us, should make us negligent in this our first duty, or forget what he is, and what we are!
The example of his Blessed Mother will teach us to be thus humble. Mary was humble in the presence of her God, even before she became his Mother; but, once his Mother, she comported herself before him who was her God and her Child with greater humility than ever. We too, poor sinners, sinners so long and so often, we must adore with all the power of our soul him who has come down so low: we must study to find out how by our self-humiliation to make him amends for this Crib, these swathing-bands, this eclipse of his glory. And yet all our humiliations will never bring us so low as that we shall be on a level with his lowliness. No; only God could reach the humiliations of God.
But our Mother, the Church, does not only offer to the Infant God the tribute of her profound adoration. The mystery of Emmanuel, that is, of God with us, is to her a source of singular joy. Look at her sublime Canticles for this holy Season, and you will find the two sentiments admirably blended - her deep reverence for her God, and her glad joy at his Birth. Joy! did not the very Angels come down and urge her to it? She therefore studies to imitate the blithe Shepherds, who ran for joy to Bethlehem [St Luke ii 16], and the glad Magi, who were well-nigh out of themselves with delight when, on quitting Jerusalem, the star again appeared and led them to the Cave where the Child was [St Matt. ii 10]. Joy at Christmas is a Christian instinct, which originated those many Carols, which, like so many other beautiful traditions of the ages of Faith, are unfortunately dying out amongst us; but which Rome still encourages, gladly welcoming each year those rude musicians, the Pifferari, who come down from the Apennines, and make the streets of the Eternal City re-echo with their shrill melodies.
Come, then, faithful Children of the Church, let us take our share in her joy! This is not the season for sighing or for weeping. For unto us a Child is born! [Isa. ix 6]. He for whom we have been so long waiting is come; and he is come to dwell among us [St John i 14]. Great, indeed, and long was our suspense; so much the more let us love our possessing him. The day will too soon come when this Child, now born to us, will be the Man of Sorrows [Isa. liii 3], and then we will compassionate him; but at present we must rejoice and be glad at his coming and sing round his Crib with the Angels. Heaven sends us a present of its own joy: we need joy, and forty days are not too many for us to get it well into our hearts. The Scripture tells us that a secure mind is like a continual feast [Prov. xv 15], and a secure mind can only be where there is peace; now it is Peace which these blessed days bring to the earth; Peace, say the Angels, to men of good will!
Intimately and inseparably united with this exquisite mystic joy is the sentiment of gratitude. Gratitude is indeed due to him who, neither deterred by our unworthiness nor restrained by the infinite respect which becomes his sovereign Majesty, deigned to be born of his own creature, and have a stable for his birth-place. Oh! how vehemently must he not have desired to advance the work of our salvation, to remove everything which could make us afraid of approaching him, and to encourage us, by his own example, to return, by the path of humility, to the heaven we had strayed from by pride!
Gratefully, therefore, let us receive the precious gift - this Divine Babe, our Deliverer. He is the Only- Begotten Son of the Father, that Father who hath so loved the world as to give his only Son [St John iii 16]. He, the Son, unreservedly ratifies his Father’s will, and comes to offer himself because it is his own will [Isa. liii 7]. How, as the Apostle expresses it, hath not the Father with him given us all things? [Rom. viii 32]. O gift inestimable! How shall we be able to repay it by suitable gratitude, we who are so poor as not to know how to appreciate it? God alone, and the Divine Infant in his Crib, know the value of the mystery of Bethlehem, which is given to us.
Shall our debt, then, never be paid? Not so: we can pay it by love, which, though finite, gives itself without measure, and may grow for ever in intensity. For this reason, the Church, after she has offered her adorations and hymns and gratitude, to her Infant Saviour, gives him also her tenderest Love. She says to him: ‘How beautiful art thou, my Beloved One, and how comely! [Cant. i 15]. How sweet to me is thy rising, O Divine Sun of Justice! How my heart glows in the warmth of thy beams! Nay, dearest Jesus, the means thou usest for gaining me over to thyself are irresistible - the feebleness and humility of a Child!’ Thus do all her words end in love; and her adoration, praise, and thanksgiving, when she expresses them in her Canticles, are transformed into love.
Christians! let us imitate our Mother, and give our hearts to our Emmanuel. The Shepherds offer him their simple gifts, the Magi bring him their rich presents, and no one must appear before the Divine Infant without something worthy his acceptance. Know, then, that nothing will please him, but that which he came to seek - our love. It was for this that he came down from heaven. Hard indeed is that heart which can say, He shall not have my love!
These, then, are the duties we owe to our Divine Master in this his first Coming, which, as St Bernard says, is in the flesh and in weakness, and is for the salvation, not for the judgement, of the world.
As regards that other Coming, which is to be in majesty and power on the Last Day, we have meditated upon it during Advent. The fear of the Wrath to come should have roused our souls from their lethargy, and have prepared them, by humility of heart, to receive the visit of Jesus in that secret Coming which he makes to the soul of man. It is the ineffable mystery of this intermediate Coming that we are now going to explain.
We have shown elsewhere how the time of Advent belongs to that period of the spiritual life which is called, in Mystic Theology, the Purgative Life, during which the soul cleanses herself from sin and the occasions of sin, by the fear of God’s judgements, and by combating against evil concupiscence. We are taking it for granted that every faithful soul has journeyed through these rugged paths, which must be gone through before she could be admitted to the Feast to which the Church invites all mankind, saying to them, on the Saturday of the Second Week of Advent, these words of the Prophet Isaias: Lo! this is our God: we hare waited for him, and he will save us. We have patiently waited for him, and we shall rejoice and be joyful in his Salvation! [Isa. xxv 9]. As in the house of our heavenly Father there are many mansions [St John xiv 2], so likewise, on the grand Solemnity of Christmas, when those words of Isaias are realized, the Church sees, amongst the countless throng who receive the Bread of Life, a great variety of sentiments and dispositions. Some were dead, and the graces given during the holy Season of Advent have restored them to life: others, whose spiritual life had long been healthy, have so spent their Advent that its holy exercises have redoubled their love of their Lord, and their entrance into Bethlehem has been to them a renewal of their soul’s life.
Now every soul that has been admitted to Bethlehem, that is to say, into the House of Bread, and has been united with him who is the Light of the World - that soul no longer walks in darkness. The mystery of Christmas is one of Illumination; and the grace it produces in the soul that corresponds with it, places her in the second stage of the mystic Life, which is called the Illuminative Life. Henceforward, then, we need no longer weary ourselves watching for our Saviour’s arrival; he has come, he has shone upon us, and we are resolved to keep up the light, nay, to cherish its growth within us, in proportion as the Liturgical Year unfolds its successive seasons of mysteries and graces. God grant that we may reflect in our souls the Church’s progressive development of this divine Light; and he led by its brightness to that Union which crowns both the year of the Church, and the faithful soul which has spent the year under the Church’s guidance!
But, in the mystery of Christmastide, this Light is given to us, so to speak, softened down; our weakness required that it should be so. It is indeed the Divine Word, the Wisdom of the Father, that we are invited to know and imitate; but this Word, this Wisdom, are shown us under the appearance of a Child. Let nothing keep us from approaching him. We might fear were he seated on a throne in his palace; but he is lying on a crib in a stable! Were it the time of his Fatigues, his Bloody Sweat, his Cross, his Burial, or even of his Glory and his Victory, we might say we had not courage enough: but what courage is needed to go near him in Bethlehem, where all is sweetness and silence, and a simple Little Babe! Come to Him, says the Psalmist, and be enlightened! [Ps. xxxiii 6].
Where shall we find an interpreter of the twofold mystery which is wrought at this holy season - the mystery of the Infancy of Jesus in the soul of man, and the mystery of the infancy of man’s soul in his Jesus? None of the Holy Fathers has so admirably spoken upon it as St Leo: let us listen to his grand words.
‘Although that Childhood, which the majesty of the Son of God did not disdain to assume, has developed, by growth of age, into the fulness of the perfect man, and, the triumph of his Passion and Resurrection having been achieved, all the humiliations he submitted to for our sakes are passed; nevertheless, the Feast we are now keeping brings back to us the sacred Birth of the Virgin Mary’s Child, Jesus our Lord. So that whilst adoring his Birth, we are, in truth, celebrating our own commencement of life; for the Generation of Christ is the origin of the Christian people, and the Birth Day of him that is our Head is the Birth Day of us that are his Body. It is true, that each Christian has his own rank, and the children of the Church are born each in their respective times; yet the whole mass of the Faithful, once having been regenerated in the font of Baptism, are born, on this Day of Christmas, together with Christ; just as they are crucified together with him in his Passion, and have risen together with his Resurrection, and in his Ascension are placed at the right hand of the Father. For every believer, no matter in what part of the work he may be living, is born again in Christ; his birth according to nature is not taken into account; he becomes a new man by his second birth; neither is he any longer called of the family of his father in the flesh, but of the family of our Redeemer, who unto this was made a Son of Man, that we might become the Sons of God.’ [Sixth Sermon On the Nativity of our Lord, Ch. 2].
Yes, this is the Mystery achieved in us by the holy Season of Christmas! It is expressed in those words of the passage from St John’s Gospel which the Church has chosen for the third Mass of the great Feast: As many as received him, he gave them power to be made the Sons of God, to them that believe in his name; who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God [St John i 22]. So that all they who, having purified their souls, freed themselves from the slavery of flesh and blood, and renounced everything which is of man, inasmuch as man means sinner, wish now to open their hearts to the Divine Word, that is, to the LIGHT which shineth in darkness, which darkness did not comprehend [Ibid. i 5], these, I say, are born with Jesus; they are born of God; they begin a new life, as did the Son of God himself in this mystery of his Birth in Bethlehem.
How beautiful are these first beginnings of the Christian Life! How great is the glory of Bethlehem, that is, of our holy Mother the Church, the true House of Bread! for in her midst there is produced, during these days of Christmas, and everywhere throughout the world, a countless number of sons of God. Oh! the unceasing vitality of our mysteries! As the Lamb, who was slain from the beginning of the world [Apoc. xiii 8], sacrifices himself without ceasing, ever since his real sacrifice; so also, once born of the Holy Virgin his Mother, he makes it a part of his glory to be ceaselessly born in the souls of men. We are not, therefore, to think for a moment that the dignity of Mary’s divine Maternity is lessened, or that our souls enjoy the same grand honour which was granted to her: far from that, ‘let us,’ as Venerable Bede says, ‘raise our voice from amid the crowd, as did the woman in the Gospel, and say to our Saviour, with the Catholic Church, of which that woman was the type: Blessed is the Womb that bore thee, and the Breasts that gave thee suck!’ [Commentary on St Luke, Bk. 4, Ch. 49]. Mary’s prerogative is indeed incommunicable, and it makes her the Mother of God, and the Mother of men. But we must also remember the answer made by our Saviour to the woman, who spoke those words: Yea rather, said Jesus, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it [St Matt. xii 50], ‘hereby declaring,’ continues Venerable Bede, ‘that not only is she blessed, who merited to conceive in the flesh the Word of God, but they also who endeavour to conceive this same Word spiritually, by the hearing of faith, and to give him birth and nourish him by keeping and doing what is good, either in their own or their neighbour’s heart. For the Mother of God herself was Blessed in that she was made, for a time, the minister to the wants of the Incarnate Word; but much more Blessed was she, in that she was and ever will be the keeper and doer of the love due to that same her Son.’
Is it not this same truth which our Lord teaches us on that other occasion, where he says: Whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother? [St Matt xii 50]. And why was the Angel sent to Mary in preference to all the rest of the daughters of Israel, but because she had already conceived the Divine Word in her heart by the vehemence of her Undivided love, the greatness of her profound humility and the incomparable merit of her virginity? Why again, is this Blessed among women holy above all creatures, but because, having once conceived and brought forth a Son of God, she continues for ever his Mother, by her fidelity in doing the will of the heavenly Father, by her love for the uncreated light of the Divine Word, and by her union as Spouse with the Spirit of sanctification?
But no member of the human race is excluded from the honour of imitating Mary, though at a humble distance, in this her spiritual Maternity: for, by that real birth which she gave him in Bethlehem, which we are now celebrating, and which initiated the world into the mysteries of God, this ever Blessed Mother of Jesus has shown us how we may bear the resemblance of her own grand prerogative. We ought to have prepared the way of the Lord [St Matt. iii 3; Isa. xl 3] during the weeks of Advent; and if so, our hearts have conceived him: therefore now our good works must bring him forth, that thus our heavenly Father, seeing not us ourselves, but his own Son Jesus now living within us, may say of each of us, in his mercy, what he heretofore said in very truth of the Incarnate Word: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased [St Matt. iii 17].
Let us give ear to the words of the Seraphic St Bonaventure, who in one of his sermons for Christmas Day thus explains the mystery of the birth of Jesus in the soul of man: ‘This happy birth happens when the soul, prepared by long thought and reflection, passes at length to action; when the flesh being made subject to the spirit, good works are produced in due time: then do interior peace and joy return to the soul. In this birth there is neither travail nor pain nor fear; everything is admiration and delight and glory. If then, O devout soul! thou art desirous for this birth, imagine thyself to be like Mary. Mary signifies bitterness; bitterly bewail thy sins: it signifies illuminatrix, be thou illumined by thy virtues: and lastly, it signifies
Mistress; learn how to be mistress and controller of thy evil passions. Then will Christ be born of thee, and oh! with what happiness to thyself ! For it is then that the soul tastes and sees how sweet is her Lord Jesus. She experiences this sweetness when, in holy meditation, she nourishes this Divine Infant; when she covers him with her tears; when she clothes him with her holy longings; when she presses him to her heart in the embrace of holy tenderness; when, in a word, she cherishes him in the warmth of her glowing love. O happy Crib of Bethlehem in thee I find the King of glory: but happier still than thou, the pious soul which holds within itself him whom thou couldst hold but corporally!’
Now that we may pass on from this spiritual conception to the birth of our Lord Jesus; in other words, that we may pass from Advent to Christmas, we must unceasingly keep the eyes of our soul on him who wishes to be born within us, and in whom the world is born to a new life. Our study and ambition should be, how best to become like Jesus, by imitating him; for, though the imitation must needs be imperfect, yet we know from the Apostle that our heavenly Father himself gives this as the sign of the elect - that they are made like to the image of his Son [Rom. viii 29].
Let us, therefore, hearken to the invitation of the Angels, and go over to Bethlehem [St Luke ii 15].We know what sign will be given to us of our Jesus - a Child wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a crib [Ibid. ii 22]. So that you, O Christians must become children; you must not disdain to be tied in the bonds of a spiritual childhood; you must come down from your proud spirit, and meet your Saviour who has come down from heaven, and with him hide yourselves in the humility of the crib. Thus will you begin, with him, a new life. Thus will the Light that goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day [Prov. iv 18] illumine your path the whole remaining length of your Journey. Thus the sight of God which leaves room for faith, which you receive at Bethlehem, will merit for you the face-to-face vision on Thabor, and prepare you for the blissful UNION, which is not merely Light, but the plenitude and repose of Love.
So far we have been speaking only of the living members of the Church, whether they began the life of grace during the holy Season of Advent, or were already living in the grace of the Holy Ghost when the ecclesiastical year commenced, and spent their Advent in preparing to be born with Jesus to a new year of higher perfection. But how shall we overlook those of our Brethren who are dead in sin; and so dead, that neither the coming of their Emmanuel, nor the example of the Christians throughout the universal Church earnestly preparing for that coming, could rouse them? No, we cannot forget them: we love them, and come to tell them (for even now they may yield to grace, and live), that there hath appeared the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour [Tit. iii 4]. If this volume of ours should perchance fall into the hands of any of those who have not yielded to the solicitations of grace, which press them to be converted to the sweet Babe of Bethlehem, their Lord and their God; who, instead of spending the weeks of Advent in preparing to receive him at Christmas, lived them out, as they began them, in indifference and in sin: we shall, perhaps, be helping them to a knowledge of the grievousness of their state, by reminding them of the ancient discipline of the Church, which obliged all the Faithful, under pain of being considered as no longer Catholics, to receive Holy Communion on Christmas Day, as well as on Easter and Whit Sundays. We find a formal decree of this obligation given in the fifteenth Canon of the Council of Agatha (Agde) held in 506. We would also ask these poor sinners to reflect on the joy the Church feels at seeing, throughout the whole world, the immense number of her children, who still, in spite of the general decay of piety, keep the Feast of the birth of the Divine Lamb, by the sacramental participation of his Body and Blood.
Sinners! take courage; this Feast of Christmas is one of grace and mercy, on which all, both just and sinners, meet in the fellowship of the same glad Mystery. The heavenly Father has resolved to honour the Birthday of his Son, by granting pardon to all save those who obstinately refuse it. Oh! how worthy is the Coming of our dear Emmanuel to be honoured by this divine amnesty!
Nor is it we that give this invitation; it is the Church herself. Yes, it is she that with divine authority invites you to begin the work of your new life on this day whereon the Son of God begins the career of his human life. That we may the more worthily convey to you this her invitation, we will borrow the words of a great and saintly Bishop of the Middle Ages, the pious Rabanus Maurus, who, in a homily on the Nativity of our Lord, encourages sinners to come and take their place, side by side with the just, in the stable of Bethlehem, where even the ox and the ass recognize their Master in the Babe who lies there.
‘I beseech you, dearly beloved Brethren, that you receive with fervent hearts the words our Lord speaks to you through me on this most sweet Feast, on which even infidels and sinners are touched with compunction; on which the wicked man is moved to mercy, the contrite heart hopes for pardon, the exile despairs not of returning to his country, and the sick man longs for his cure; on which is born the Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world, that is, Christ our Saviour. On such a Birthday, he that has a good conscience rejoices more than usual; and he whose conscience is guilty fears with a more useful fear ... Yes, it is a sweet Feast, bringing true sweetness and forgiveness to all true penitents. My little children, I promise you without hesitation that every one who, on this day, shall repent from his heart, and return not to the vomit of his sins, shall obtain all whatsoever he shall ask; let him only ask with a firm faith, and not return to sinful pleasures.
‘On this day are taken away the sins of the entire world: why needs the sinner despair? ... On this day of our Lord’s Birth let us, dearest Brethren, offer our promises to this Jesus, and keep them, as it is written: Vow ye, and pay to the Lord your God [Ps. lxxv 12]. Let us make our promises with confidence and love; he will enable us to keep them. ... And when I speak of promises, I would not have anyone think that I mean the promise of fleeting and earthly goods. No - I mean, that each of us should offer what our Saviour redeemed, namely, our soul. “But how,” someone will say, “how shall we offer our souls to him, to whom they already belong?” I answer: by leading holy lives, by chaste thoughts, by fruitful works, by turning away from evil, by following that which is good, by loving God, by loving our neighbour, by showing mercy (for we ourselves were in need of it, before we were redeemed), by forgiving them that sin against us (for we ourselves were once in sin), by trampling on pride, since it was by pride that our first parent was deceived and fell.’ [Fourth Homily On the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.]
It is thus our affectionate Mother the Church invites sinners to the Feast of the Divine Lamb; nor is she satisfied until her House be filled [St Luke x 2]. The grace of a New Birth, given her by the Sun of Justice, fills this Spouse of Jesus with joy. A new year has begun for her, and, like all that have preceded it, it is to be rich in flower and fruit. She renews her youth as that of an eagle. She is about to unfold another Cycle, or Year, of her mysteries, and to pour forth upon her faithful children the graces of which God has made the Cycle to be the instrument. In this season of Christmas, we have the first-fruits of these graces offered to us; they are the knowledge and the love of our Infant God: let us accept them with attentive hearts, that so we may merit to advance, with our Jesus, in wisdom and age and grace before God and men [Ibid. ii 52]. The Christmas Mystery is the gate of all the others of the rest of the year; but it is a gate which we may all enter, for, though most heavenly, yet it touches earth; since, as St Augustine beautifully remarks in one of his sermons for Christmas [Eleventh Sermon On the Nativity of our Lord]: ‘We cannot as yet contemplate the splendour of him who was begotten of the Father before the Day Star [Ps. cix 3]; let us, then, visit him who was born of the Virgin in the night- hour. We cannot understand how his Name continued before the sun [Ibid. lxxi 17]; let us, then, confess that he hath set his tabernacle in her that is purer than the sun [Ibid. xviii 6]. We cannot as yet see the Only-Begotten Son dwelling in the Father’s Bosom; let us, then, think on the Bridegroom that come/h out of his bridechamber [Ibid].We are not yet ready for the banquet of our heavenly Father; let us, then, keep to the Crib of Jesus, our Master [Isa. i 3].
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