Ortus Christi Part 16

Here was the Virgin with her Son, the prophecy was fulfilled--G.o.d with us. "His name shall be called _Emmanuel_."

Yet Mary and Joseph were not the only worshippers in the Temple that day--there was a Human Soul worshipping G.o.d as He had never been worshipped before. The Heart of Jesus now so near the end of the first stage of Its existence on earth was offering to G.o.d all Its homage and all Its love, offering to Him all the work that had been done during the nine months pa.s.sed in the holy "Ark of the Covenant," all the humiliation and self-abas.e.m.e.nt, the silence and dependence, the suffering and patience, the satisfaction and merit. He had been doing all the time the things that pleased His Father, the things that He had made Himself man to be able to do. Now He is waiting--and the very waiting is another Act of worship--waiting for the moment to come when He can take the next step in His earthly journey, waiting with His Mother whose intense desire is only second to His Own.

O Emmanuel! G.o.d with us! I feel that I must go too to Thy Sacred Courts to-day and make one more worshipper before that Holy Shrine. Advent is nearly over, my time of preparation is well-nigh at an end. What have I to offer as I kneel in adoration? Feeble desires, broken resolutions, failure again in the thing I did so want not to fail in this Advent, good intentions, but little else. Dare I come and kneel there where all is so holy and so perfect? Yes, for He is _Emmanuel_, G.o.d incarnate for me. Let me hand Him through His Mother all my poverty and wretchedness and weakness and failure, together with my contrition and repentance and love, and in exchange He will hand me His forgiveness and the promise to offer my inadequate worship, together with His own Divine perfections, to His Father, Who will be satisfied. This is what _Emmanuel_ means.

POINT II. OUR LAWGIVER.

"The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King He will save us." (Is. x.x.xIII. 22).

He is our King, therefore He has a right to make laws for us. And who could be a better Judge of how the laws are kept than He Who made them?

Am I afraid at the sterner aspect which things seem to have taken? There is no need, for He is still our _Emmanuel_, but He can only be thus our Friend and Companion by being also the One Who has an absolute right to make laws for us and to expect our obedience. "You are My _friends_, if you do the things I command you" (St. John XV. 14). The reason for _all_ His t.i.tles is that He wills to _save_ us. He is first of all the Saviour and then, in order that our salvation may be accomplished, He makes Himself our King, our Lawgiver and finally our Judge. "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Such is our Lawgiver's appeal. Surely His commandments are not grievous. He Who did always the things which pleased His Father, asks us to try to do the same.

O my little Lawgiver, accomplishing so silently and so perfectly the Will of Thy Father, command me and I will obey, give Thy orders through whom Thou wilt; be they hard or easy, be they in accordance with my will or contrary to my whole nature! I will think of Thy perfect submission to Thy Father's Will during those nine months for me and will say: I, too, will do always the things which please Him no matter what they cost.

POINT III. THE EXPECTATION OF THE NATIONS.

JESUS is waiting, Mary is waiting, the Angels are waiting, all nations, all the earth, and Heaven too is waiting--waiting for our Emmanuel to come and save us. The empty manger speaks of the Church's expectation to-day. We can count the hours now, all things are ready. Oh! come and save us! Come and begin Thy blessed work over again, come and save the many who as yet know Thee not and who are expecting everything this Christmas _except_ a Saviour. May the sight of the empty crib remind me to look well into my preparations to-day to see that nothing is wanting in the welcome I am going to give to the King!

_Colloquy_ with our Emmanuel. At the Incarnation, at Thy birth, all through Thy life, Thou didst dwell _with us_; on every altar Thou hast promised to be _with us_ all days; in Holy Communion Thou hast said I will dwell _with them_; in the hour of death I will fear no evil for Thou wilt be _with me_; and Thou hast secured Heaven for me by Thy prayer: "Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given Me be _with Me_ where I am." "Emmanuel, _G.o.d with us_."

_Resolution._ Grace to expect Him to-day in all that I do.

_Spiritual Bouquet._ O Emmanuel!

CHRISTMAS EVE.

"This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us: and in the morning you shall see His glory."

(Ex. XVI. "Introit" for Christmas Eve).

_1st. Prelude._ The stable and the manger waiting for JESUS.

_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to make my final preparations.

POINT I. MY PREPARATION--LAST TOUCHES.

To-day Mary and Joseph arrive at their journey's end. We think of them footsore, weary, homeless; we think of the discouragement and rebuffs that they meet with as they hear on all sides that there is no room for them; but do we think enough of the intense joy that reigned in Mary's heart, a joy communicated to her by her Son? He is rejoicing that His hour is come; the very refusals of His people to receive Him and His Mother are to Him a sign that His work has begun and is already being opposed. Mary shares His joy; she is absorbed by one thought--soon she will look upon His Face--and that thought is so great that there is scarcely room for any other in her heart. And Joseph? Can we imagine him anxious and disturbed and worried? No, it is impossible--he is with JESUS and Mary, he has lived his life close to them for nine months, he has imbibed their spirit. If his joy is not as intense as theirs, his _peace_ is unruffled; he has brought the Mother with her Child to Bethlehem as he was told to do, and he knows that G.o.d will take care of His own.

My first lessons, then, for to-day are apparent. In the morning I shall see His glory; the point of Advent is reached, my preparation is nearly over. I was told to get ready for Him, I was told to come to Bethlehem, I have been trying to do so, trying to keep up with Mary and Joseph on their journey; often, I am obliged to admit it, it has been a following afar off, but still by G.o.d's grace, I _am_ following and I know that to-day He is coming to save us and that to-morrow I shall see His glory for He will come to me in Holy Communion. He will be born again in my heart and make me understand once more that He is incarnate for me. Are my joy and my peace so great that nothing has the power to touch them?

There are many occupations that must of necessity claim my time and my attention to-day, as there were many coming and going on the roads that led to Bethlehem; there are many things to be thought about in my last preparations for Christmas--it was so with Mary and Joseph too. Almost certainly I shall have to-day, as they had, things that try and weary me, perhaps suffering, temptation, slights and even insults. Shall I receive them as last and most precious opportunities for adding the finishing touches to my preparation, for gaining a victory where I have perhaps so recently lost one, for making reparation to my King and for uniting myself more closely to Him and His Mother? Will the thought that He is coming be so absorbing that the difficulties of the way are hardly noticed or are welcome as a reminder that I too am journeying to Bethlehem? If I cannot aspire to the joy of JESUS and Mary, I can at least aim at the peace of St. Joseph.

POINT II. HIS PREPARATION.

_His_ preparation is coming to an end too. Let me go over in my mind once again all that He had to plan and to do by way of preparation before He could come to me in Holy Communion. It was for this that the Incarnation was a preparation. In order to feed me with His Flesh and Blood, He had to become incarnate. This is the point of Christmas, and it is the point of contact between JESUS and my soul. To-morrow Mary in an ecstasy of joy will look upon His Face and press Him to her heart; to-morrow Joseph, full of awe and wonder, will take Him in his arms; to-morrow the Angels will sing their _Glorias_ as they gaze upon their G.o.d incarnate; to-morrow the shepherds will adore and offer Him their gifts; and to-morrow I too shall touch Him very closely for I shall receive into my body and into my heart His Body and Blood, His Soul and His Divinity. He will be with me and I with Him. It is for this that I have been making my preparations and it is for this that He has been making His. How long has He been preparing? Not only during Advent, not only during the nine months, not only since the great promise was given in Eden, not only since the time when there was war among the Angels because of the Incarnation--I am getting beyond time already and farther back than that I cannot go for my mind is finite; but His is infinite and just because it is infinite there never was a time when the Incarnation was not in His mind, and there never was a time when I, His child, was not in His mind, and also there never was a time when He did not see the blest moments when He should bring the two into contact and make me understand personally what the point of the Incarnation is.

These blest moments are my Communions and surely one of the most blest must be my Christmas Communion when He Who comes to me and Who feeds me with Himself is the Child Who was born at Bethlehem, He Who had been so long expected, the Seed of the Woman, the Orient from on high, the Star of the East, the Desired One of the nations, the Root of Jesse, the King of the Gentiles with His Key and His Sceptre, Emmanuel, G.o.d with us.

_Colloquy._ I kneel at the door of the empty stable and offer Thee my heart, O my little JESUS! I have tried to make room for Thee; I have made my poor little preparations with Thy blessed Mother; I have taken long journeys to get to Thee; but my body is not fit to be Thy temple and my heart is treacherous and faithless. I am ashamed to have so poor a shelter to offer Thee. If it were not that Thou didst ask for it, I dare not offer it. Oh! Thou Who didst not refuse the manger-bed, come to my heart, look at the contrition and the humiliation and the reparation and the aching longing to be what Thou dost want, and forget the faithlessness and the failures and the weakness. Come, my little King, incarnate for me, come and save me, if I were not a sinner I should not need a Saviour.

_Resolution._ To keep very near to Mary and Joseph to-day.

_Spiritual Bouquet._ "In the morning you shall see His glory."

BOKSTEL--HOLLAND ELECTRISCHE DRUKKERIJ WILHELM VAN EUPEN