From The Liturgical Year.
~~~
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?
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.
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 world 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.
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].
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.
‘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].
No comments:
Post a Comment