ESTABLISHING OURSELVES IN HIS PRESENCE


THE 6TH DAY OF OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS    

1 Jn 2:12-17; Ps 96:7-10; Lk 2:36-40

Recognising the Incarnate Word for Self

The Church, in the opening prayer, prays for the new revelation of God in the flesh to commence its purpose of setting us free from the bondage of sin and servitude to evil. The fact of the Incarnation means that human nature is redeemed in principle, by God joining it to the Eternal Word in a hypostatic union. The Lamb, the Word in human flesh, is already sacrificed to God, waiting for the consummation of the sacrifice on Calvary. Thus, He already started the work of redemption in principle, each of us must now appropriate the result of the redemption. The purpose of his appearance in human flesh is that he may enter our minds as God, who created us in love. He comes to receive us back into his company; this requires he enters the temple within each of us. We must recognise what he has already done for the love of us and respond in a similar gesture by entrusting our lives into his hands and believing in his name. The words Saint John addressed to every family member are for this purpose: to help us receive him who came for our salvation. “I am writing to you, my own children, whose sins have already been forgiven through his name; I am writing to you, fathers, who have come to know the one who has existed since the beginning; I am writing to you, young men, who have already overcome the Evil One.”

We appropriate the freedom he brings to humanity through his Incarnation by believing that the Infant is God the Son, through whom the Father made all things. John’s Gospel already pointed us in this direction. We need to internalise his words and deeds of humility displayed for us to see. As John pointed out to the young ones, their strength to overcome the evil one comes from making their hearts a home for his words and not by physical strength, which avails nothing in this regard. Since what dwells in our hearts is what we love, John advises us to do away with the love of this world and our devotion to passing things, which cannot be together with the love of God. “You must not love this passing world or anything that is in the world. The love of the Father cannot be in any man who loves the world, because nothing the world has to offer—the sensual body, the lustful eye, pride in possessions—could ever come from the Father but only from the world.” The love of God gained through constant meditation on the word of God is what the young must learn from the family, nourished by the mothers who keep the company of the word of God. If the mother of a family is given to external things and keeps the company of the world, she would not introduce the children to the love of God, which is the secure way of salvation. The battle for the salvation of souls consists mainly in the love of our hearts, whether we love God or the world. To love God is to long to do his will in all things.

We see an illustration of this in the life of Anna, the prophetess. Her love for God and desire to do the will of God kept her in prayer, frequenting the Temple for years. “There was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well on in years. Her days of girlhood over, she had been married for seven years before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer.” Anna discovered the word of God early after her marriage of seven years, she devoted herself to seeking the Lord. She recognised the Incarnate Word when his parents brought him into the Temple because she was already familiar with the word of God. We must keep the company of the Word daily to grow into his mystery and reap the fruit of his redemptive presence. Our Christmas celebration is to help us grow accustomed to the presence of Jesus Christ. We should put our memory and imagination to good use at this moment. Through these powers we can relive every moment of the Infant Jesus: put ourselves at the nativity scene, or the presentation in the temple, or gaze on him as he sleeps in the arms of Mary, and offer him our hearts to sleep in, carry him in our hands while offering loving prayers to him. These are meditative exercises to grow our love for Jesus Christ. Every moment of his sacred humanity is for us to meditate and contemplate on. His sacred humanity is our way to God. “Bring an offering and enter his courts, worship the Lord in his temple. O earth, tremble before him.”

Let us pray: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that the newness of the Nativity in the flesh of your Only Begotten Son may set us free, for ancient servitude holds us bound beneath the yoke of sin. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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