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JMJ
The Nativity of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
This day is born to you a Savior,
Who Is Christ the Lord
(The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, 2.11).
The people that walked in darkness have seen [this day] a Great Light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, Light is risen (Isaias 9.2). Send forth, O Lord, Your Light, that our hearts like Yours burn bright! The Orient from on high hath visited us (St. Luke 1.78) this most blessed day: I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled (St. Luke 12.49) so that our hearts, purified of everything that is not God, may, in union with the pure Heart of the Divine Infant daily offered to God for a most clean oblation on our traditional High Christian altars (Hebrews 13.10), delight and console Him Who desires of us: My son, give Me thy heart... (Proverbs 23.26).
Gloria in excelsis Deo
et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis!
(St. Luke 2.12)
A most blessed Christmas Season to all!
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Feast of St. John the Evangelist
"The Beloved of the Lord" and "The Apostle to whom the secrets of heaven were revealed"
"For God so loved the world AS TO GIVE His only begotten Son..." (The Holy Gospel According to St. John, 3.15) Only the traditional Catholic Douay-Rheims Version translates thus the passage, others read "... God... GAVE..."
God continues to give us Himself for "in Him was life - the Bread of God... Which cometh down from heaven [on our traditional Christian high altar, cf., Hebrew 13.10] and giveth life to the world, 6.33 - and the Life was the Light of men" (St. John 1.4) but many did not find Him, many did not appreciate Him coming to liberate His people from their errors - from their own 'lights' - which blind them and keep them in their sins or in their spiritual 'imbecility'; they were busy with other things before God: "Amen, Amen I say to you, you seek Me... but..." (Our Lord in St. John, 6.26). And so "the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (St. John 1.5).
"He that committeth sin of the devil: for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, THE SON OF GOD APPEARED, THAT HE MIGHT DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL" (First Epistle of St. John, v.8) and efface from us every resemblance to that filthy and proud spirit - to remake us in His image and likeness and conform us most PERFECTLY to His mind and heart: something way beyond our capability and strength therefore "... God so loved [us] AS TO GIVE [still] His only begotten Son..."
A blessed Feast to all!
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Sunday Within the Octave of Christmas
(Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple)
Today's Mass is an echo of Christmas, but while it speaks of peace and joy, it also has a note of deep sadness. The Gospel (Lk. 2.23-40) suddenly transports us to the presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, forty days after His birth, and repeats Simeons prophecy: "Behold this Child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted."
The Son of God became man for all men; He brings and offers salvation to them, but many will not receive it. This is the great mystery of human freedom. God has made man intelligent and free; He offers him all the treasures of salvation and sanctity which would be poured forth on the Cross and applied through the Sacraments (administered according to the traditional Rite of His Church); man is free to accept or to refuse. This is our tremendous responsibility. Jesus came to save us, to sanctify us, to give Himself entirely to our souls. He is ready to do it, He wants to do it, and yet He will not do it until we FREELY accept His infinite gift, until we correspond to His loving solicitation with the free gift of our WHOLE heart, of our will. "God never forces anyone; He takes what we give Him, but does not give Himself wholly until He sees that we are giving ourselves wholly to Him," says St. Teresa of Jesus.
The prophecy of Simeon was addressed directly to Our Blessed Mother. "And thy own soul a sword shall pierce." The bloody vision of the Cross is thus mingled unexpectedly with the charming scene of the Nativity, reminding us that the tender Babe of Bethlehem is the divine Lamb Who will one day be immolated for the salvation of the world.
Related post: "A Sign of Contradiction and Division" (4th February 2012)