GAUDETE!! Were half way to the Nativity of Our Lord, when the unthinkable happened: the Son of God, having taken on flesh, comes to His people as a little baby. Weve all held babies before; imagine holding Marys baby. Imagine the same hands that would later be pierced by nails for you now so tiny, wrapping themselves weakly around your own finger. Imagine the deep mystery present in those eyes, so recently opened for the first time, the precious, soft crown of hair that in just a few decades would be pierced by thorn. It is almost too much for a heart to bear! Men, imagine being Joseph, holding the very Messiah prefigured by your ancestor, David, the Savior for whom your people have longed their entire history. Imagine the deep and humbling privilege of having the Blessed Virgin and the Son of God under your roof, and what a joy it must have been for him to come home from work every day, and what purpose he must have had in life knowing that he was to be the protector of and provider for the spouse of God and His only Son. Women, imagine what Marys pregnancy must have been like, knowing who it was you were carrying within your own body. What a deep mystery to think that the very One whose Body and Blood would save mankind obtained His own flesh from your own; as He would one day give His Blood for the life of the world, so you now give Him yours. Imagine first feeling Him move within you, how God--who had first moved within your heart--now moved in the physical world. Imagine that the first voice God would hear in His humanity is your voice, the first song your song; yours is the first love He knows in this world. Imagine holding Him for the first time, the helpless God; imagine nursing the very God who created you and the rest of the universe from nothing! We often, in the face of the trials of this world and life, feel utterly helpless before God; in the infant Jesus, God is now helpless before us. What tenderness, dear mother, you must show Him! Ponder these things in your heart, these very real things, for Christ has entered into the very depths of our humanity; He has lived everything, save sin. There is no human experience that is not in some way blessed by the fact that God became a human being and lived it, everything from eating and sleeping to laughing and weeping. Gaudete! Rejoice! God has shown us an incomprehensible love! Heres an arrangement of a medieval classic that just needs a roaring fire, a mug of wassail and a roasted boar to be perfect. The lyrics in English: Rejoice, Rejoice! Christ is born Of the virgin Mary, Rejoice! It is now the time of grace That we have desired; Let us sing songs of joy, Let us give devotion. God was made man, And nature marvels; The world was renewed By Christ who is King. The closed gate of Ezechiel Has been passed through; From where the light rises Salvation is found. Therefore let our assembly now sing, Sing the Psalms to purify us; Let it praise the Lord: Greetings to our King. https://youtube/watch?v=l1NgHonWNE0
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 16:30:07 +0000
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