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The Christmas Cycle
banished God from their thoughts and from their lives. God is a disturbing element which
they would be glad to be rid of. Any other molestation they will gladly suffer, no matter how
foolish and disturbing it is.
“Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof be very desolate, saith the Lord.
For My people have done two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have
digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:12 f.). Both men and
nations have lost all peace and tranquility. All virtues, innocence, fidelity, honor, honesty, and even a
man’s word may be bought for gold. Scarcely one man can be found who trusts another. Nation has
risen against nation, and man against man. Few are they who are faithful to their duty. The spirit of
self-sacrifice is rarely to be found. Whether men read, study, or work, their actions are characterized
by a spirit of restlessness and disquietude. All their striving produces few results, except to make
them more tired, empty, and soulless. And yet they persist in their efforts to do without God and
without Christ. Thus they live in spite of the fact that “there is no other name under heaven given
to men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Only He, the almighty God, can save us.
Thou art He “who didst appear to Moses in the burning bush.” “I have seen the affliction of My
people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the rigor of them that are over the works.
And knowing their sorrow, I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and
to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, into a land that floweth with milk
and honey” (Ex 3:7 f.). Thus spoke the Lord to Moses from the bush which burned but was not
consumed, which is a figure of God’s condescension to assume the weakness of human nature.
The human nature of Christ is united to the burning divine nature, and yet it is not consumed.
As Moses approached the burning bush, so we approach the divine Savior in the form of
a child in the crib, or in the form of the consecrated host, and falling down we adore Him. “Put
off the shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. . . . I am who
am” (Ex 3:5, 14).
O Adonai, almighty God! Mighty in the weakness of a child, and in the helplessness of
the Crucified! Thou, almighty God, mighty in the wonders that Thou hast worked! Mighty in
guiding, sustaining, and developing Thy Church! “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it”
(Mt 16:18). Thou art mighty in the healing and redemption of souls, mighty in Thy love for us,
who are so unworthy of Thy love. Instant are Thou in mercy, and all-sufficient in every need.
Come and save us.
“Come with an outstretched arm to redeem us.” This is the cry of the Church for the second
coming of Christ on the last day. The return of the Savior brings us plentiful redemption.
“Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you” (Mt 25:34).
Prayer
O Adonai, O almighty God, who didst appear to Moses in the burning bush and didst give him
the law on Mount Sinai, come with an outstretched arm to redeem us. Amen.
December 19, O Radix Jesse
“O Root of Jesse, who standest as an ensign of the people, before whom kings shall keep silence
and the Gentiles shall make supplication, come to deliver us and tarry not.”
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