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The Christmas Cycle
Today as we approach the Holy Sacrifice, we cry out with the leper of the Gospel, “Lord,
if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” We kneel with the leper at the roadside, and the Lord
comes to us in the Mass. At Holy Communion He presses us to His breast and stirs our soul
with His grace as though we were not loathsome, vile creatures, the outcasts of men. He whispers
into our ear, “I will. Be thou made clean.” We rest satisfied, for the holy liturgy assures us:
“The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength; the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me;
I shall not die, but live, and shall declare the works of the Lord” (Offertory).
Prayer
Almighty and eternal God, graciously look upon our infirmity and stretch forth the right hand
of Thy majesty. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Friday
Today the liturgy continues to consider the healing of the leper. The faithful are invited to assist
at the Holy Sacrifice with the object of preparing themselves for the worthy reception of Holy
Communion. In order to approach worthily, we must be clean of heart. “I will. Be thou made
clean” (Gospel).
“Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord; or who shall stand in His holy place.
The innocent in hands and clean of heart, who hath not taken his soul in vain nor sworn
deceitfully to his neighbor. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and mercy from God
his Savior” (Ps 23:3–5). If such dispositions were required for the worthy approach to
the temple at Jerusalem, how much more worthy they should be who approach the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion. Perhaps our disposition when approaching
Mass and Communion will ever fall short of the ideal, for evil habits and inclinations cling
to us persistently. We shall always have to struggle with our self-love, which tends to separate
us from God and our neighbor; our thoughts ever tend toward that which is worldly and
human; the spirit of pride tends to dominate all our thoughts and actions. We are still much
attached to the pleasures and joys and lusts of the world, and persistently seek that which
is to our own advantage. Self, and not God, is still the center of all our actions. Though
we may have avoided grievous sins, we are still the victims of habitual venial sins. Do we
wonder, then, why we have not profited in greater measure from our frequent reception of
the sacraments? Let us ask Him fervently: “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”
Today when He appears on our altar, let us ask Him, “Create a clean heart in me, O God,
and renew a right spirit within my bowels” (Ps 50:12).
Only “the innocent of hands and the clean of heart” may approach the Lord. A high
degree of purity is required of those who receive Him daily. The reception of any sacrament
is always a matter of great moment. No action of human life is more sublime than
the reception of the body and blood of the Lord. The reception of the Eucharist is the
most fruitful and most powerful means of obtaining an increase of grace and holiness. “A
soul that is well prepared for the reception of the Sacrament, obtains by this one reception
an incomparably greater grace than is given to all the saints together in their visions and
revelations” (Lallenmant).
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