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The Christmas Cycle
voice” ( Jn 18:37). Everyone who is “clean of heart,” whose heart is open to the truth, who has
good will and is prepared to accept this truth, comes to the kingdom of God. The fundamental
principles of this king are far reaching, simple, and universal. This fact is a great consolation
for distracted men, for good will is all that is necessary for obtaining membership in this holy
kingdom, in the Church of God. “Unless you be converted and become as little children, you
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3). Our membership in the kingdom of
heaven depends on our becoming little children like the child of Bethlehem. We must open our
eyes to “the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.”
God “will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tm 2:4).
God gives grace to all in due season, unless they harden their hearts and make themselves blind
to it. Perhaps because we are but dust and ashes, because of ourselves we are so worthless, He
gives His truth to us. Is it not marvelous that he makes us the object of His love, who are so
wicked and evil? He wishes to fill us with the Holy Spirit, that thus being sanctified we may
become partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. What a grace is the possession of the
love of God!
In addition to all that He has already done for us, He now confides to our faltering hands
the task of completing the work which He has begun. We are permitted to cooperate with Him
in this work. We should share the divine life, not only by the possession of sanctifying grace, but
we should also “put on Christ” and reproduce His holiness in our own lives.
In this work of our sanctification God will not fail, but we readily do so. “And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. He came unto His own and His own received
Him not” ( Jn 1:5, 11). Men fail in humility, for they are pleased with their own strength
and knowledge. They are foolish in their wisdom; they lack the simplicity and humility of
childhood which Christ requires.
We place our faith in the words of St. John: “Behold what manner of charity the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God” (1 Jn 3:1). Let us
pray today for the many who do not enjoy the sonship of God and do not understand its value.
Let us give them an example of childlike simplicity. This is true Catholic action; it is the duty
which the mystery of Christmas imposes upon us.
Prayer
Stretch forth from heaven, O Lord, Thy helping hand, that we may search for Thee and desire
Thee with our whole heart. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
At the Manger (2)
Today we kneel at the foot of the manger in holy admiration. The King whom the heavens cannot
contain is there confined to a tiny crib; from the lowliness of His crib His power stretches
to the uttermost heavens. He is laid in the straw of the manger, and does not shrink from His
lowly bed. He who feeds the birds of the air today depends on His mother’s milk for sustenance.
We have inherited from Adam a threefold disorder, which is at the root of all our difficulties:
the concupiscence of the eyes, that is, our attachment to earthly things; the concupiscence of
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