9781644135945

The Light of the World
Prayer
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just. Come, O Lord, and
tarry not; forgive the sins of Thy people Israel. (Introit; Alleluia verse.)
Stir up Thy might and come, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and succor us with great power; that
by the help of Thy grace the forgiveness of Thy mercy may hasten what our sins impede. Amen.
December 21, St. Thomas the Apostle
“Fear not, for the fifth day our Lord will come to you” (Benedictus antiphon at Lauds). This
is the message which the liturgy brings us today, and with the apostle Thomas we fall on our
knees and exclaim, “My Lord and my God.” The answer of Christ to the apostle applies also to
us: “Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed.” O Lord, increase our faith.
“And you, when you were dead in your offenses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air [that is,
Satan], of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief; in which also we all conversed
in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh in our thoughts, and were
by nature children of wrath even as the rest” (Eph 2:1–3) — in such a state we should have
remained had Christ not come to free us from the slavery of sin and to lead us back to God.
“You are no more strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens [by reason of your
membership in the Church] with the saints and the domestics of God, built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. . . . In whom
you also are built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit” (Epistle). All these things
were accomplished by the first Christmas: Christ redeemed us and through baptism makes us
members of His body, therefore children who have the right to address God as “our Father.”
We are now members of the family of God; that is, we are members of His holy Church and
have a right to all the goods and possessions which He has bestowed upon His Church. As
children of the Church we are the living stones from which the Church is constructed. Christ
is the cornerstone of this building, and the apostles are the foundation; all of these are formed
into one magnificent structure by the master builder, the Holy Ghost. He hews and shapes us
by means of His graces and by temptations and trials of all kinds, that we may daily become
more suitable for the place we are to fill in the building of the Church.
“For God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him
may not perish, but may have life everlasting” ( Jn 3:16). “God is love.” How unworthy we are
of that love! What have we done to merit it? For it is only through the “mercies of the Lord that
we are not consumed” (Lam 3:22). O God, I trust in Thy love.
Today we are another Thomas. The Lord appears and tells us, “Be not faithless, but believing”
(Gospel). Let us go forward to meet the Lord when He comes at Christmas and in Holy
Communion, that the words of the Epistle may be more perfectly realized in us. He will come
with great power and majesty to accomplish the work which He began at His first coming and
which He has begun in us.
“My Lord and my God.” Yes, Christ, the tiny baby of the crib, is our Lord and our God. He is
the offering which we make upon our altars, and the food which we receive in Holy Communion.
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