Posted on December 21, 2014 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus!
Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!
Praised be Jesus Christ!
This coming Thursday we will celebrate the birth of the Lord in time and history. On that cold day in Bethlehem, the God who created all things joined himself in a very real way to His creation. He forever changed history, and sought to restore all things in Christ – all of the things that we have distorted, twisted, and destroyed because of sin. Each Christmas, Christ again knocks at the doors of our hearts and souls, and asks to be invited back in. Christmas is about the historical event of the Nativity in time, but it is also about the present and our commitment to Christ. The Saints of Advent – the Blessed Virgin, St. John the Baptist, the Shepherds, the Magi – all show us that if we do invite Christ in, He can do great things through us. We can help Him restore all things in Himself. To aid these final few days before Christmas, I offer this reflection by Pope St. Leo the Great on Christmas. May we take to heart his words, and seek to live up to the great dignity and calling we have all been called to.
“Let us then, dearly beloved, give thanks to God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit, Who for His great mercy, in which He has loved us, has had pity on us: and when we were dead in sin, has quickened us together in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5), that we might be in Him a new creation and a new production. Let us put off then the old man with his deeds: and having obtained a share in the birth of Christ let us renounce the works of the flesh. Christian, acknowledge your dignity, and becoming a partner in the Divine nature, refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct. Remember the Head and the Body of which you are a member. Recollect that you were rescued from the power of darkness and brought out into God’s light and kingdom. By the mystery of Baptism you were made the temple of the Holy Ghost: do not put such a denizen to flight from you by base acts, and subject yourself once more to the devil’s thralldom: because your purchase money is the blood of Christ, because He shall judge you in truth Who ransomed you in mercy, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns for ever and ever. Amen.”
Have a blessed week! Felix dies Nativitatis! Frohe Weihnachten! Merry Christmas!
