9781644135945

The Christmas Cycle
the Parousia at the end of the world, when the coming of Christ will find its completion and
perfection. In that day the redeemed will experience the joy of victory and the glory which is
to have no end.
The liturgy of Christmas first of all sets before us Christ, the divine King, as the object of our
contemplation; in second place the Virgin Mother is to occupy our thoughts. It was she who
gave birth to the divine King, nourished Him as a child, and watched over Him during the flight
into Egypt. She offered Him to God in the temple, and after watching Him grow to manhood,
elicited from Him His first miracle at Cana in Galilee. Mary is a type of the Church, which in
its turn relives all these mysteries and passes on to her children the graces she receives. Mary
is also a type of the individual Christian soul, which should enter with the Church into the
feelings and sentiments of the Blessed Mother as presented by the liturgy during the Christmas
season. The Christian should become another Mary, doing all things for Christ and in Christ.
Christmas should accomplish in us a new birth. As Mary gave birth to the human nature of
Christ and presented Him to the Church, so the Church also, in the power of the Holy Spirit,
gives her children a new life in Christ. It is for this reason that the liturgical texts of the Christmas
cycle dwell continually on the birth of Christ. He is actually born in us for the first time at the
moment of our baptism. He is reborn daily and more perfectly in our souls each time we receive
Him in Holy Communion, in the fruit of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and in the unending
stream of grace that is poured out upon us.
The birth of Christ through the Virgin Mary is a pledge and a guarantee of the reality of
His birth in us, a pledge of our incorporation in His divine life. It assures us of the reality of our
function as a branch on the vine of divine life, and is a pledge of our eventual resurrection to
eternal life and the possession of eternal happiness.
Vigil of Christmas (1)
Today the liturgy takes us into the sanctuary of the Blessed Mother in the church of St. Mary
Major in Rome. She directs our attention to Mary, who is on the point of bringing salvation to
us. “In the morning you shall see His glory” (Introit).
Mary conceived of the Holy Ghost. “That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost”
(Gospel). This conception is exalted above all others; it is completely beyond the grasp of human
intelligence and human experience. Faith alone can grasp the marvel that is transpiring here, and
faith exclaims: “Blessed art thou among women.” Mary had freely renounced all merely human
relationships; this renunciation raised her to a plane on which she was worthy to conceive and
bring forth the Son of God. From her substance alone the Holy Spirit would draw material for
the body and blood, the heart and the hands and the eyes of the incarnate Son of God. “He hath
regarded the humility of His handmaid. . . . He that is mighty hath done great things to me” (Lk
1:48 f.). Blessed art thou, O handmaid of the Lord. Blessed is he who for the love of God can
renounce all things, for “he that shall lose his life for Me shall find it” (Mt 10:39).
Mary conceived the Son of God and gave Him to us. She has already withdrawn from
Nazareth to Bethlehem. Here she awaits the hour in which she is to give us that which is to her
most precious and most dear. For me and for my salvation she conceived Him and bore Him
in her holy bosom for nine months. How she longs to bring Him to me, and what sacrifices
67