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The Christmas Cycle
Tuesday
“To Thee I have lifted up my soul” (Introit). In the desolation of our present state and in our
great need of redemption we cry out to heaven for help. We know well that no created power
can redeem us and free us. Christ, the incarnate Son of God, alone is able to redeem us. Now
He stands at the threshold. In the mystery of Christmas He comes to be our Savior. With faith
and confidence we call out to Him: “To Thee I have lifted up my soul.” We shall consider now
the offering we must make during Advent and the fruit that we may expect from it.
Our task during Advent. At the Offertory of the Mass, while the priest raises the paten and the
chalice, we say: “To Thee I have lifted up my soul.” In spirit we place on the paten our soul with
all its powers, our heart with all its affections, and our whole being. We wish to become, like
the bread and wine, a complete offering to God. As the bread and wine are to be changed into
the body and blood of Christ at the moment of consecration, so we desire to be changed at the
beginning of the new Church year. We wish to die to self, to earthly desires and thoughts, to
worldly designs and ambitions. We desire to be changed into Christ and to imitate His actions
and His methods. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Epistle). Overwhelmed by the spirit of
Christ, we will know nothing but God and His holy will. God alone can satisfy us. “To Thee I
have lifted up my soul.”
The fruit of Advent. “The Lord will give goodness, and our earth shall yield her fruit”
(Communion). This is God’s answer to our cry, “To Thee I have lifted up my soul.” The fruit
that our earth is to bring forth at Christmas is of immeasurable value. It is the fruit which the
most pure Virgin already bears in her womb. It is the fruit of the bread and wine that we have
already offered. It is the blessing that God returns for the gift we gave Him. It is Jesus Christ,
the Son of God.
“Hath He [the Father] not also, with Him, given us all things?” (Rom 8:32.) What are all
worldly goods and possessions, what are the choicest of Christmas gifts that men exchange,
when compared with the gift of the Father, His Son Jesus Christ?
“He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly, and he who soweth in blessings, shall also
reap blessings” (2 Cor 9:6). In making our offering to God we have withheld nothing. At the
Offertory we placed on the paten our time, our understanding, our health, our thoughts, our
whole future. But this offering was merely a beginning. “To Thee I have lifted up my soul” every
moment of the day. In spirit and in fact we are to see Christ in all things. We feel His continual
presence, we submit to His holy will, we are ever aware of His guidance and His providence.
In the spirit of living faith we submit with confidence and without reservation to His guidance
and protection. Our love and trust in Him are such that we confidently embrace whatever
sacrifices, whatever humiliations, and whatever sufferings may be required of us. We embrace
Him with a love that avoids all that is opposed to Him, that includes all that leads to Him, that
subjects self to Him in all things.
“To Thee I have lifted up my soul.” We see in His first coming the beginning of His second
advent, when He is to come with power and glory to judge both the living and the dead, to
reward the good and punish the wicked. That day will be the day of perfect redemption. Heaven
awaits us. “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’s
sake; rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven” (Mt 5:3–12).
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