"Arise, be enlightened, … for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee… The Lord shall arise upon thee … the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising" (ortus).
(Is. lx. 1-3).
1st Prelude. A picture of the first streaks of dawn.
2nd Prelude. Grace to arise because the Light has come.
The Church begins her new liturgical year with the words: "Ad Te levavi animam meam" – To Thee have I lifted up my soul ("Introit" for to-day) – as though she were straining her eyes to try to see something on the horizon. She cannot see anything very definite yet, but she is full of hope. Deus meus, in Te confido, non erubescam– My God I trust in Thee, let me not be ashamed, do not let me lift up my eyes in vain, she cries; and she keeps on looking. This will be her attitude all through the season of Advent, an attitude of expectancy, of waiting, of hope, of trust, of prayer. We know for what she is waiting – the Ortus Christi– the Rising of Christ. "The Lord shall arise upon thee" is the promise. "To Thee have I lifted up my soul" is her response. What is in her mind when she sees those first streaks of light? They are to her an earnest of what is coming, an earnest of the Advent of her Lord. St. Bernard says that His Advent is threefold, that He comes in three different ways: (1) In the flesh and in weakness, (2) in the spirit and in power, (3) in glory and in majesty.
The Church knows how much these three Comings mean to her children, and so at the first sign of dawn she forgets the long weary night, and calls to each one: "Arise, be enlightened for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." "Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet Him."
Let us then begin our Advent in the spirit of the Church. Let us arise once more as she bids us, rouse ourselves that is, to look with her at the dawn, while we say to ourselves: "Behold He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills. Behold He standeth behind our wall, looking through the windows, looking through the lattices." As we look we hear the voice of our Beloved, He is speaking to His Church. What has He to say as soon as He comes in sight? "Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come" (Cant. ii. 8-10). It is the same injunction: "Arise."
If the Bridegroom is rising, it is evident that the Bride must do the same. He is rising to come to His Bride, she must rise to go to Him. How? By meditating on His Advents; by thanking Him once more for them; by asking herself what use she has made of them hitherto, what use she intends to make during this New Year that is beginning; by preparing herself for them; by remembering that as His Bride she has a very real share in each.
1. The past Coming, "in the flesh and in weakness." We shall think about this coming more especially at Christmas, for which the season of Advent is a preparation. "The bright and morning star" (Apoc. xxii. 16) will by then have risen in all its fulness. The Word will be made Flesh and once more we shall rise in the "quiet silence" of the night to worship our God "in the flesh and in weakness."
2. The present Coming, "in the spirit and in power" – His Coming in grace to the soul, to dwell with it by His Spirit. "In power" – because only He Who is omnipotent could work such a stupendous miracle as the miracle of grace. This miracle could never have been worked, had it not been for the first Coming. "The Word was made Flesh" that He might by His death redeem His people and restore to them the kingdom of grace which they had lost in Adam. This second Coming is to prepare us for the third.
3. The future Coming, in "glory and in majesty" when He shall "come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead," and when all will be forced to rise and go to meet Him whether they will or not. It is those, who have risen voluntarily to meet their God in His second Coming, who will have no fear of the third. The second Coming, then, the Coming in grace, is the most practical one for us as we begin our Advent, and upon it we will meditate in our third point.
This is what God's Coming in grace means – a soul in the state of grace is the host of the Blessed Trinity, neither more nor less. "We will come to Him and will make our abode with him," (St. John xiv. 23) and from the moment that grace enters, the soul becomes the abode of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
It was at the moment of Baptism that our souls were raised to the dignity of being hosts of God Himself. What happened then? God added to the natural gifts with which He had endowed man supernatural ones, summed up in the gift of grace. What is that? A participation in His own life, something which makes us "partakers of the Divine nature." (2 Pet. i. 4). He created man thus in the beginning, for He meant man always to possess supernatural as well as natural gifts. He meant always to live with man and talk and walk with him in the paradise of his soul; but Adam chased out the Divine Guest and lost this miraculous privilege for all his children. God, however, could not rest content to be outside the souls which He had created solely that He might live in them, and He devised a way (the first Coming of Christ) by which He might get back to the dwelling which He cherished so much. We need not follow the beautiful story of the Redemption through all its wondrous steps, we know it well enough; we will take it up at Baptism, when the divine gift of life which Adam lost was restored to the soul, when God came back to His chosen dwelling, and the soul regained its responsible position of host to the Blessed Trinity. When Satan had noticed that the soul was left exposed, that it was a human soul only, with nothing divine about it, he naturally had taken possession, as he does of all empty houses; (St. Matt. xii. 44) so at Baptism the Priest said: "Depart from him, thou unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost." Where the Holy Ghost is, there are also the Father and the Son. The Blessed Trinity, then, waits to take possession of each soul, waits to come back to Its own, waits to restore the privilege that man had at the beginning.
Thus the new creation takes place, and the soul is no longer a human soul only, but divine, for the Divine Life within has made it one with Itself. Does man realize this privilege and rise to it? No! For the greater part of Christians we are obliged to say: No. As soon as they come to years of discretion, they invite back the unclean spirit and chase out their Divine Guest. What base ingratitude! And what folly! But God, who is rich in mercy is not repelled by such conduct; His one thought is to go back to His Temple which has been so profaned, and the scheme of Redemption included a method, (the Sacrament of Penance,) whereby, if man would, he could drive out the devil and invite back the Divine Guest. Is God angry? Does He upbraid? Does He allude to the past and throw doubts on the future? No, He loves, and all He asks in return is love. Such is our Guest!
Now what is my side of this great question? I am, or if I am not, I can be, a Temple of God. God is living within me. How much do I think about it? I often talk about recalling the Presence of God, but it is His Presence within me that I have to recall. I make Acts of Contrition, of Love. To Whom? To the God within me. Do not let me forget that my heart is an altar where I can, whenever I will, adore God. He is there to walk with me and talk to me as He did to Adam of old. He wants me to live side by side with Him, and talk to Him as naturally as I do to my friend.
Let me try this Advent, as one of the best ways of preparing for the Coming of Christ at Christmas, and for His Coming in judgment, to realize what the supernatural life means, what God in me means, what it means to be the host always of God Himself. The realization will transform my life, will alter my point of view, will change me from a mediocre Christian into one who is filled with a great idea and who is occupied with it every moment of his time – an idea which is ever stimulating him to aim higher. God in me– then I am never alone, my life is intimately bound up with God's life. I am a partaker of His nature. O my God, forgive me for having thought of it so little; help me to rise to my great privileges. I thank Thee for letting a few streaks of Thy Divine Light reach my dark soul, and by the time that the Sun of Justice has risen in all His splendour this Advent, may my soul be flooded with the new light which the realization of the Divine Presence within it, will surely bring.
Colloquy with God within me.
Resolution. To realize this truth to-day, and every day more and more.
Spiritual Bouquet. "We will come to Him and make our abode with Him."
(Ecclus. xxiv. 11).
1st. Prelude. A statue of Our Lady.
2nd. Prelude. Grace to "abide in the inheritance of the Lord."
That the Church intends us to spend the season of Advent with our Blessed Mother is quite evident to anyone who takes the trouble to study the Liturgy. The Bridegroom is coming, but it is through the Virgin-Mother that He will come; and if we would be amongst the first to greet Him, if we desire a large share of His grace, if we would have no fear of His judgments, we must keep close to Mary.
The Church applies these words to Mary; let us try to see what they mean and how far we may copy her in her determination. "The inheritance of the Lord," what is it? The words bear many interpretations but we cannot be wrong, surely, in thinking that this inheritance was Mary's own soul; it was indeed "the inheritance of the Lord," an inheritance to which the Blessed Trinity had a special right, the Father because He had created her in grace, the Son because He had saved her from the stain of original sin, the Holy Ghost because He had ever sanctified her and kept her "full of grace." But what was it that made this inheritance more pleasing to God than any of the other souls which He had redeemed? Mary's correspondence with grace we naturally answer; but what do we mean by that? We mean, or we ought to mean, that Mary realized to the full that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost lived within her; and hence her resolution to abide in "the inheritance of the Lord," never to leave her Divine Guest, never to forget that she was the host and that it was her privilege to entertain. This is surely the secret of Mary's life and of her correspondence with grace. She dwelt in closest union with the God who dwelt within her.
Where did she seek this rest, this calm of which her whole life speaks? Within her own soul with her Divine Guest, in other words Mary lived an interior life. She preferred a life inside with God, to one outside in the world. Hers was a continual realization of God's Presence – of God's Presence within her; and it was this realization which enabled her to find rest in every circumstance of her chequered life. She did not allow outward events to mar her interior calm. Her Divine Guest was always there and to Him she could always turn. The consequence was that she was never agitated, disquieted, excited, anxious, troubled. She dwelt "in the inheritance of the Lord," and there she sought rest in all things whether it was in:
The joy of the Archangel's visit, or the difficulty of her visit to Elizabeth.
The anguish of the reception at Bethlehem, or the joy at the birth of her Son.
The Angels who sang: Glorias at His birth, or the neighbours who made unkind remarks.
The shepherds who came to worship in their poverty, or the Wise Men in all their pomp and splendour.
The ecstasy caused by her Babe's smile, or the distress caused by His tears.
The words of the Angel: "Of His Kingdom there shall be no end," or the words of Simeon: He shall be "a sign which shall be contradicted."
The peaceful home-life with Jesus and Joseph, or the hurried flight into Egypt.
The anguish of losing Him (Desolation), or the joy of finding Him (Consolation).
The active work for the little household, or the times of contemplation at Jesus' feet.
The long, happy days at Nazareth with her Son, or the sad day when He left His Mother's roof.
The account of His success: "All men go to Him," or the account of His failure: "They all forsook Him and fled."
The cry: "Hosannah, blessed is He!" or the cry: "Crucify Him, crucify Him! it is not fit that He should live."
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На этой странице вы можете прочитать онлайн книгу «Ortus Christi: Meditations for Advent», автора Mother St. Paul. Данная книга имеет возрастное ограничение 12+, относится к жанру «Зарубежная классика».. Книга «Ortus Christi: Meditations for Advent» была издана в 2017 году. Приятного чтения!
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