THE

WAY
O C T O B E R i962

~D SO LOVED THE WORLD

T h e Mystery of A d v e n t
CLIFFORD

HOWELL

I ne Fulfilment o f the Promise

DENNIS J. MCCARTHY
' T h e First-Born of all Creation'
B. R. BRINKMAN

'Sharers o the Divine Nature'

WILLIAM

YEOMANS

'A Virgin shall Conceive'

JAMES

WALSH

'You Will Find a Child'

GABRIEL

VOL.
MONTH
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SYMBOLS

Christ is Alpha a n d O m e g a (Apoc 1,8), 'the beginning and the end'. T h e

whole of creation finds in I-Iim its coherence, for H e is the keystone of the
whole structure (Eph 2,2 i-22) ; as He is also the holder o f ' t h e K e y of David'
(Apoc 3,7).
God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush (Exod 3,2), a foreshadowing of the supreme revelation in Christ the light of the world (Jn 8,12)
and the lamp of the New Jerusalem (Apoc 21,23).
Christ is the star that rose out of J a c o b (Num 24,I 7), 'the root and stock
of David, the bright and morning star' (Apoc 22,16), a symbol expressing
power and command. Christ reigns in virtue of His glorious resurrection in
which we see the cross transfigured. (cf Exultet).
The raising of Christ on the cross was prefigured when Moses raised the
brazen serpent in the desert (Num 21,8-9; J n 3,14)The brazen serpent saved those who gazed on it. Christ is our salvation, in
His name we are saved (Acts 4,12). Jesus Christ God's Son Saviour, the initial
letters of these words in Greek spell out ichthus - fish. The fish became a
little fishes of Christ' (Tertullian, de Baptismo, ch I, PL I, 1198 A).

THE WAY
A QUARTERLY

REVIEW

OF CHRISTIAN

SPIRITUALITY

E D I T E D BY JAMES WALSH~ s . J . , W I L L I A M YEOMANS~ S.J., P H I L I P C A R A M A N , S.J.

EDITORIAL
ADVISERS:
DONAL OISULLIVAN, s.L (Ireland) ; JOHN McKENZIE, S.L HERBERT MUSURILLO, s.L (U.S.A.) ;
G~ORGE GANSS, s.J. (U.S.A.); ELMER O'BRIEN, s.~. (Canada); PETER LITTLE, sJ. (Australia).

CONTENTS

OCTOBER z962

GOD

SO

LOVED

THE

WORLD

Page
The Mystery of A d v e n t
CLIFFORD HOWELL
The Fulfilment of the Prombse DENNIS J. McCARTHY
'The First-Born of all Creation' B. R. BRINKMAN
'Sharers of the Divine Nature' WILLIAM YEOMANS
'A Virgin shall Conceive'
JAMES WALSr~
'You Will Find a C h i l d '
GABRIEL R ~ I D Y
LECTIO

243
254
261
272
282
289

DIVINA

Holy Scripture: T h e F a t h e r h o o d of G o d

301

Texts: T h e V e n e r a b l e Bede, Hildebert,

Guerric d ' I g n y , St. Aelred

304

Meditation: Venite A d o r e m u s

310

Spiritual Vocabulary

312

RecommendedReading

314

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THE WAY, 31 Farm Street, London, W. I

~) JAMES WALSH, OCTOBER x962

T H E M Y S T E R Y OF A D V E N T
By C L I F F O R D

HOWELL

VERY year in the world of nature the same seasons come

round - spring, summer, autumn and winter - and the
same things happen over and over again. And every year
in what we might call the world of supernature - the world
of grace - the same seasons come round. We have Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, when likewise
the same things happen over and over again. And in each case the
underlying purpose is the same - to develop and to strengthen life.
A tree, as the result of each natural year, grows in stature and
its natural life becomes stronger. And we Christians, as the result
of each liturgical year, should likewise grow in stature and our
spiritual life should become stronger. But if we let the seasons of the
Church's year go by without taking any part in them, we profit
by them no more than a tree would do if somehow it could contrive
to remain inert during the natural seasons. Activity corresponding
with the season is absolutely necessary if there is to be any growth,
strengthening or maturing.
It should be our object, therefore, to enter into Advent as fully
as possible, to make its spirit and its outlook our own, to impress
its meaning on our memory, to savour it with our understanding
and to embrace it with our wills. It is a season of extreme beauty
and great appeal, for there is about it an atmosphere unparalleled
by any other of the Church's seasons; it is an astonishing blend of
cheerfulness with sadness, of hope with fear, of longing with j o y
in possession. And this comes from the relationship of its mystery
- its underlying reality - with that of the central mystery of the
Christian faith, the paschal mystery.
This consists in a fact, a historic fact, that Christ, the second
Adam, undid the harm suffered by the h u m a n race as the result
of the first Adam's sin. M a n had been handed over to the slavery
of Satan, had become the prey of death, and was debarred from
eternal life. But the Son of God became the 'Son of Man', took
upon himself man's sad condition, and then utterly transformed it
b y passing over from death to life. H e conquered death, not by
evading it but by embracing it, going right through it, and destroying its hold on man.

244

THE MYSTERY OF ADVENT

Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando,
Dux vitae mortuus regnat vivus. 1

That is the essence of our redemption. 'Christ has risen from the
dead, the first fruits of all those who have fallen asleep; a man had
brought us death, and a man should bring us ressurrection from the
dead. Just as all have died with Adam, so with Christ all will be
brought to life. '~
But this victory of Christ divides time into two parts, for it took
place neither at the beginning nor at the end of time. It was an
event for which a long preparation was needed. God intervened in
man's affairs, forming for himself a chosen people, to whom he
revealed his promise of the coming Saviour. An essential element
in their religion was therefore to long for and believe in 'him who
was to come'.
At last he came, won his victory, and thereby formed for himself
a new chosen people to whom he revealed that in them his redemption was to be worked out and applied fill the end of time; then he
would come again in majesty, and would transform them as he had
transformed himself, conferring on them the immortal life and the
glory which he had won for them. It was likewise therefore an
essential element in their religion that they should long for and
believe in 'him who was to come'.
Thus each part of human history leads up to an 'advent', a
'coming' of the Son of God. And we, who live in the second part,
are concerned with both. We look back to his first coming when he
redeemed us; we look forward to his second coming when that
redemption will have its full effect.
The early Church was vividly conscious of both these aspects. She
rejoiced in the victory of Christ, keeping its memory alive by doing,
every week, that which he said was to be done in memory of
himself. Every eighth day she celebrated the Eucharist, memorial
of her Lord's death, resurrection and ascension, and pledge of her
own glorification when he should come again. Every Sunday was
a paschal feast. For nearly two centuries the Church kept but this
one feast, the paschal feast, which she celebrated every week. But
after a while, and in t h e place where Christ had won his victory
1 Death and Life clashed in mysterious strife;
Life's Captain, dead, now lives and reigns instead.
* 1 Cot 15, 20-22.

T H E M Y S T E R Y OF A D V E N T

245

(in Jerusalem), a special importance was given to that Sunday

which was the anniversary of the event. Thus arose the feast of
Easter. Gradually its content was analysed into its historical elements and a celebration was arranged for each. Easter grew into
Holy Week, acquired a festive season to follow and a preparatory
season to precede the main feast, and by the fourth century the
whole Catholic world was acting t h u s .
But the analysis of Christ's redemptive work into its historical
constituents had a further effect. At Easter the Church was celebrating her Saviour's breaking out from the condition of enslaved
mankind into the state of immortal glory. But he could break out
from this condition only because he had previously entered it. And
so, during the course of the fourth century, we find the Church
beginning to celebrate the coming - t h e advent - of God's Son into
t h e w o r l d . In R o m e this was thought of as his birth among men;
in Egypt and Arabia it was regarded as his visit to men. The dates,
chosen in reaction to local forms of sun-worship, were 25th December
bet in Rome and 6th J a n u a r y in Egypt. The R o m a n feast was
Christmas and the Egyptian feast was Epiphany.
In due course east and west communicated their feasts to each
other, so that both were kept in both regions. Indeed, they were
viewed from somewhat different angles and took on different shades
of meaning - the west tending to concentrate on events while
the east preferred abstract ideas. But fundamentally both feasts
have the same c o n t e n t - they are concerned with the first coming
of Christ into this world. And as time went on, both developed a
festive season to follow and a preparatory season to precede the
main festival, as had happened with Easter. This, of course, is an
extremely summary and simplified account of what happened, but
:it may suffice to show how the liturgical year is built up of the Easter
cycle and the Christmas cycle, and that the latter grew out of the
former. The greatest feast of the year is, and will ever remain, the
paschal feast. For therein is enshrined the central mystery of Christ.
When Christmas acquired a preparatory season, it began somewhat tentatively as the analogue of Lent. W e come across something of the kind first of all in Gaul during, the fifth century, but it
was an ascetical rather than a liturgical preparation; that is, there
were no special readings or prayers or Mass formulae assigned to it.
It was in Rome, and about a century later, that these features
appeared in the form of lessons and collects De Adventu Domini.
The Ember Days occurring shortly before Christmas occupied

246

T H E M Y S T E R Y OF A D V E N T

themselves with the theme of Christ's first Coming. But in the divine
Office and some Sunday Masses which took shape a little later, the
processional chants, lessons, responsories, antiphons and other
constituents of the liturgy show that the Church was thinking just
as much - perhaps even more - of Christ's second coming at the
end of time. The Advent liturgy, after local variations both in
length and in content, assumed its present form in all essentials
by the end of the eighth century. In it we find a compilation of
wondrous charm in which remarkably apt passages of Scripture
abound. And their interest and beauty are found largely in their
polyvalence: in m a n y cases they can be interpreted as applying
to the coming of Christ in a n y of three ways.
For we can, in fact, distinguish three advents or comings of
Christ, all of which the Church proposes for our consideration
during this season. One is past, one is present and one is to come;
because of their differing circumstances they have been well named
Christ's 'Coming in History', his 'Coming in Mystery' and his 'Coming in Majesty'. They can be traced out with varying degrees of
clarity and emphasis throughout the whole of the Advent liturgy.
But as the texts of the missal are within reach of everybody, while
those of the divine Office are easily available only to priests, we will
refer here chiefly to the Masses of the season.
I n the Mass of the First Sunday in Advent there is no explicit
mention of Christ's Coming in History, that is, of his birth in the
stable at Bethlehem. It might seem that this Mass is in no way
intended to prepare us for Christmas. Yet that is hasty conclusion.
Christ's Coming in History is, in fact, proposed to our memory by
the choice, as 'stational church', of St. Mary Major's where the
crib is kept!
Christ's Coming in Majesty carried the main emphasis. It is
proposed to our understanding by the account, in the Gospel, of the
end of time when the Son of M a n will come 'in a cloud, with his
full power and majesty'.
And what of the Coming in Mystery? This is the name sometimes
given to a coming of Christ quite different in nature from the
other two comings; it is not an event in history, yet must occur for
each and every one of us if those events are to profit us. It is the
coming of Christ into our hearts by his grace, which is imparted to
us by the 'Christian mysteries' of the Mass, the sacraments and celebration of the liturgical year. It is for us the present reality of the
Advent season - for the Coming in History is past and the Coming

THE

MYSTERY

OF ADVENT

94:7

in Majesty lies in the future. Here and now the coming which
concerns us is Christ's Coming in Mystery. It is, on this first
Sunday, proposed to our will by the exhortation of the Epistle to
'put on the Lord Jesus Christ'.
As already remarked, it is the Coming in Majesty which, this
week, stands in the foreground. When it happens, it will be the
most important and world-shaking event in h u m a n history - that
to which all other events, even the Incarnation and the Redemption, are directed as towards a climax. 'World-shaking' is the right
phrase to use of it, for 'the powers of heaven shall be moved' and
men shall 'wither away for fear and expectation of what shall come
upon the whole world'.
W h a t is it going to mean for us ? The Church wants us to think
and pray about it most earnestly, and to recognize that our fate
then will depend on the earnestness and sincerity wherewith we
collaborate now with Christ as he comes to us in mystery. To make
room in our hearts for the grace which he offers us, we must
'abandon the ways of darkness and put on the armour of light'.
W e must 'pass our time honourably, as by the light of day, not in
revelling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in
quarrels and rivalries'.
To lead good and virtuous lives we must become rich in the
grace of God. But it is those who 'hunger and thirst after justice'
who shall 'have their fill'. It is the hungry whom God fills with
good things. We must fervently want Christ to come into our hearts
by his grace. The greater our desire for his Coming, the more
abundantly shall we be filled with his grace.
And so the Church sets herself to stimulate our desire by reminding us of the intense yearning of good people in Old Testament
times for the first coming of our Lord: his Coming in History.
As Advent goes on, this theme becomes ever more and more prominent till it reaches its climax in the feast of Christmas itself;
while the theme of the Coming in Majesty recedes into the background. Yet it does not quite disappear - for the Epistle of the
third (original) Christmas Mass has for its theme the majesty of
Christ, while that of the Gospel is his Godhead. And the Epiphany
Mass opens with Malachy's prophecy about the coming of the Lord
and Ruler, armed with royal power and dominion.
But all the while the purpose of our remembering Christ's
Coming in History and of our understanding his Coming in Majesty
is that we may effectively will his Coming in Mystery and thus

~4~

THE MYSTERY OF ADVENT

receive abundant grace here and now in our hearts.

O n the Second Sunday in Advent we find that the emphasis is on
the Coming in M y s t e r y - for there is muchinsistence (Introit, Gradual,
Communion) on the idea that our Lord is coming to Sion and
that the people of Sion are to rejoice and to prepare. These passages
are not now applicable to the ancient Jewish capital which w a s
utterly destroyed in fulfilment of the prophecy quoted in the Mass
a fortnight before. It is another Jerusalem into which he is now to
come - and again the choice of the stational church shows us which
it is. For on this Sunday the station is at 'Holy Cross in Jerusalem'
a material church built in Rome, the heart of that immaterial
Church which Christ founded and which is his Bride.
St. John, describing his apocalyptic vision, wrote: 'An angel
came and spoke to m e . . . Come with me, he said, and I will shew
thee that bride, whose bridegroom is the L a m b . . . and he showed
me the Holy City Jerusalem, as it came down, sent by God, from
Heaven. '1 And so it would be quite reasonable to interpret the
references to Sion in terms of Christ's Coming in Majesty, since it
is at this Second Coming that he is glorified in his nuptial union
with the Church. It is then, too, that the Church will be glorified,
for here below none of her glory has yet been bestowed. Only in
heaven can she celebrate the 'nuptials of the Lamb'. And yet it
seems more apt to interpret Sion here as the Church here on earth,
for it is she who celebrates the Christian mysteries. But we are the
Church on earth, we are the grace-filled Body of Christ; it is into
our hearts that he comes by his grace. He comes as healer and teacher
and priest; for all these purposes he comes now to the Church in
his mysteries just as he formerly came to the Jews in History.
That he should heal human ills was one of the signs whereby
he could be recognized as Messiah. The Gospel of this Second
Sunday reminds us of that. When St. J o h n the Baptist sent his
disciples to make enquiries, our Lord drew attention to this very
credential. 'Go and tell J o h n what your own eyes and ears have
witnessed; how the blind see and the lame walk and the lepers are
made clean and the deaf hear and how the dead are raised to life'.
The same things happen now on the spiritual level by his Coming
in Mystery. The spiritually blind can be illuminated and the spiritually deaf are enabled to hear the Word of God through Baptism;
the spiritually lame who do but limp along the road to heaven can
-

Apoc 21, 9.

THE

MYSTERY

OF ADVENT

249

be cured and strengthened by the Eucharist. The spiritually dead

are awakened, in Confession, to the life of grace. Christ is our
healer.
H e is also our teacher. T o t h o s e same enquirers he said: 'The
poor have the Gospel preached to them'. H e still teaches through
his infallible Church. H e comes to us as teacher also at Mass, where
his doctrines are laid before us in the Epistles and Gospels and
expounded in the sermon. 'The Lord shall make heard the glory
of his voice', says the Introit; this comes true at every Mass in the
Scripture readings and whenever the 'Word of God' is preached in
the sermon.
When he first came in History, he came as priest, for his purpose
was to offer sacrifice on Calvary. And it is as priest that he now
comes in mystery, for he is the chief offerer in every Mass.
In his Mysteries, therefore, Christ comes to us as healer and
teacher and priest. We shall receive the more fully of his graces in
proportion as we are ready for his coming. St. Paul, in the Epistle,
tells us what to do. If only we carry out his advice we m a y be
confident that 'God the author of our hope will fill us all with joy
and peace', especially at the holy season for which Advent is a
preparation, the time when we rejoice in his Coming in History.
And we are to have this j o y even before we come to the feast.
O n the third Sunday we find rose-coloured vestments, flowers
on the altar, the organ playing, and a Mass beginning with St.
Paul's lovely greeting: 'Joy to y o u i n the Lord at all times; once
again I wish you joy[' What is the special cause of joy? It is the
message which the Church gives us through the mouth of St. Paul:
'The Lord is neaF. But in the Gospel, through the mouth of St.John
the Baptist, she adds: 'He is here now, he is standing in the midst
of you'.
Is not this rather extraordinary? For the purpose of telling us that
t h e Lord is near is surely to raise our desire for him to a fever-pitch.
W e are to yearn for him with all our hearts. And yet, if he is already
here in the midst of us as the source of our joy, how can we be in a
fever of expectation? Is there not a contradiction in saying that
Christ is near (that is, still to come) and adding that he is in the
midst of us (that is, already arrived)?
For anyone but Christ this would be a contradiction; and for his
Comings in History and in Majesty these two statements could not
be simultaneously true. But for his Coming in Mystery both statements are verified. That is the truth which the Church tries to

250

THE MYSTERY

OF ADV1~NT

impress on us on this Third Sunday in Advent. For Christ is already

with us by his grace; 'I am the vine and you are the b r a n c h e s . . .
you have only to live on in me and I will live on in you[ '1 This
abiding presence of Christ in the Christian is our comfort and our
strength. And yet Christ is also to come, for our life of grace should
be ever increasing and ever growing stronger. We are never so filled
with grace that we can no more receive of his fullness. Always
there is more to come if we are sufficiently desirous of his further
coming.
This blend of joy-in-possession with longing-for-the-yet-to-come
is one of the most characteristic paradoxes of the true Christian
attitude. Our supernatural life of grace is the beginning of our eternal life. Grace is the pledge of glory: but it is not yet glory. We
rejoice in grace now: yet we aspire to glory which is to come. We
are blessed with God'S light now: yet we see but as through a glass
darkly, and long to see him face to face.
We are 'dying men', wrote St. Paul, and yet 'see, we l i v e . . .
sad men who rejoice continually; beggars who bring riches to many;
disinherited, yet the world is ours'. 2 So also we rejoice in possessing
Christ here and now - and yet we are filled with yearning that he
may come. 'Exert, Lord, thy sovereign strength for our salvation,
and come !' The Collect contains this wanting-yet-having thought,
this Advent-Christmas thought, with admirable succinctness: 'By
the grace of thy coming, light up the darkness of our minds'.
The Mass of the Fourth Sunday in Advent lacks unity, for it was
assembled, at a comparatively late date, from materials already
used in the Ember Week just gone by. But the emphasis, as we
would expect on a day so near to the great feast, is on the Coming
of Christ in History. We find many echoes of the Old Testament
desire for his first coming. The Introit is the poetic appeal of the
Advent prophet Isaias: 'Send down dew from above, you heavens,
and let the skies pour down u p o n us the rain we long for, him, the
Just One.' The psalmist in the Alleluia-versicle calls out: 'Come,
Lord, do not linger; loosen the fetters of thy people, Israel'.
Our minds are directed ever more vividly to the Coming in
History by the Gospel wherein that precise historian St. Luke
specifies with exactness the 'fifteenth year of the emperor Tiberius's
reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, when H e r o d was
prince of G a l i l e e . . . ' All this solemn preamble, filled with names
I Jn 15, 3.

s 2(]or6,8.

T H E M Y S T E R Y OF A D V E N T

251

we know, brings us out of the Old Testament memories into the

familiarity and gladness of the New Testament times of 'him who
is to come'. Even his Mother comes into this Mass, for the Offertory
verse consists of the salutations of the Angel and of St. Elisabeth
just before he was born. And the explanation and cause of all this
crescendo of anticipation is given explicitly in the words of the
Communion verse: 'Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall
bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel'.
O f the Coming of Christ in Majesty there is hardly a trace in this
Mass, unless we interpret as such the Postcommunion which prays
t h a t 'with each partaking of this sacrament we may be led nearer
to salvation'. For salvation is complete, of course, only with Christ's
second coming.
And so Advent leads us on through desire to peace and contentment at Christmastide, to joy in Christ's Coming in History which
we celebrate now in Mystery. But if we see things aright, our gaze
will n o t rest there. We shall realize that the Babe whom we contemplate in his crib is there now only in our imagination. He was
there two thousand years ago beyond all doubt. But now he is the
Lord of glory; he is living and reigning for ever and ever, the
'radiance of his Father's splendour and the full expression of his
being', as the Epistle of the third Mass on Christmas day reminds us.
This same thought of glory and spendour comes to the fore even
more insistently in the feast of the Epiphany which follows soon
after Christmas. It is true that for some centuries past the Epiphany
has been understood - at least b y the ordinary run of the faithful as celebrating the visit of the three Wise Men to the Infant in the
crib; and t h e title of the feast, which means 'manifestation', has
been explained as the 'manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles' as
represented by these three good men. But in fact the feast has a
much deeper meaning than that.
It is not just a manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, but the
manifestation of God to the world in Jesus Christ. And this was
originally conceived by the Church as taking place not only
through the visit of the Magi, but also through the baptism of our
Lord and through his first miracle at Cana. Indeed at one period
the Transfiguration was also included in the same idea. But gradually
the content of the feast settled down to what is expressed in the
Benedictus at Lauds: 'Today the Church is united with her heavenly
spouse; for in the J o r d a n Christ washed away her stains, the Magi
hasten with gifts to the royal wedding feast, and the guests are

252

THE

MYSTERY

OF ADVENT

made joyful by the water turned into wine, alleluia.'

But even to this there is a background. The word 'epiphany' was
used in the east for a particular feature of civil life, namely, the
official visit m a d e by a ruler to some city within his territory. This
was always a festive occasion, calling for the greatest pomp and
ceremony. It involved, among other events, the appearance o f the
ruler at a great public banquet; it was thus that he showed or
'manifested' himself to his people.
Thus the word 'epiphany' is eminently suitable for the appearance
of the Son of God among men. For here we have the greatest of all
kings appearing in the holy city of his Church; and we who are
its citizens give him a triumphant welcome in the banquet which
is the Eucharist.
Another overtone of the word comes from eastern marriage
customs. Weddings were - and still are - tremendous affairs in the
east, involving 'appearances' of the bridegroom and bride at
banquets prolonged sometimes for several days in succession.
Orientals take such delight in these marriage festivities that they
are wont to picture the joys of heaven in terms of a wedding feast.
Our Lord showed that he knew well how to appeal to the popular
mind when he said: 'here is an image of the kingdom of heaven:
there was once a king who held a marriage feast for his s o n . . . '
We find nuptial imagery occurring again and again in the Bible,
both in the Old Testament and in the New. The prophets spoke
of God's love for his people in terms of a man's love for his spouse,
and St. Paul used the same figure of speech when describing the love
of Christ for his Church. It is not surprising, therefore, to find the
metaphor used in the liturgy of the Epiphany: Hodie caelesti sponso
juncta est ecclesia,i
The two ideas of the visit of a king to his city and the feast which
celebrates a wedding combine very easily, since both are joyful
public occasions calling for the maximum ofsplendour and magnificence. The Church applies both to Christ who is viewed as coming
to his Church not only as king but also as bridegroom. Our Lord
referred to himself implicitly as king on several occasions, and
acknowledged the title in answer to Pilate's question. He also
acknowledged himself as bridegroom in answer to the question
about fasting put to him by the disciples of St. J o h n the Baptist who
had referred to him as bridegroom. A n d so the liturgy represents
i

'Today the Church is united to the heavenly bridegroom'.

THE

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253

Christ as coming into this world as a bridegroom who woos his

church by redeeming her and celebrates his nuptials in the eucharistic
banquet. And this, in turn, is both a symbol and a presage of the
everlasting union between Christ and his Church described in the
Apocalypse as the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.
The wedding theme explains also the inclusion into the content
of this feast of the Marriage at Cana. This ranks as an epiphany
because, by changing water into wine, Christ 'manifested himself
to these disciples', as the evangelist remarks. And obviously it was
also a prefiguration of the eucharistic banquet wherein takes place
an even more wonderful change. It finks up, too, with the idea of the
Baptism in the Jordan; for there Christ changed water in yet
another way, raising it from the status of a mere natural element to
that of a divine instrument for the generation of spiritual life. According to the Fathers it was the descent of our Lord into the Jordan
which sanctified for all time the waters of Christian baptism. And
clearly the occasion was also an epiphany: a very striking manifestation of God in his Trinity of Persons. For the Father's voice testified
to the Son upon whom descended the Holy Spirit.
The greatest of all manifestations of God to man lies still in the
future: it will be the Second Coming of Christ, the Parousia. Admittedly there is no explicit reference to it in the liturgy of the
Epiphany; but the great king who comes in power and glory is
mentioned so often in the Masses and offices of the season that our
minds are inevitably directed towards that most important of all
epiphanies. For example, the Introit for the feast is the prophetic
cry of Malachy: 'See, he comes, our Lord and Ruler, armed with
royal power and dominion'. That of the following Sunday is
apocalyptic: 'I saw a man sitting on a high throne worshipped by a
throng of angels'. Neither of these passages was verified at the visit
of the Magi, at the Baptism in the Jordan or at the Wedding Feast
of Cana. Only at the Parousia will they, and similar passages from
the season's liturgy, come true.
Rightly, then, we may discern the Coming of Christ in Majesty
as a theme implicit in the Epiphany, just as we found it expficitly
in Advent. For it will be the culmination of all our Saviour's work,
the apotheosis of the Church, and the occasion which realizes
beyond all others the utmost fullness of meaning to be found in
both words 'Epiphany' and 'Advent'.

THE FULFILMENT
OF THE PROMISE
By D E N N I S J. M c C A R T H Y
HRIST is the ultimate gift of God. All history before him
was a preparation for his coming, and after him true life
is to live his life in the Church. It is Christ who has brought
the final word of teaching and the definitive act of salvation.
That is to say, he is the climax of the long history of salvation which
is the Bible. This history is not a simple evolution, the product of
forces immanent in the process; it is planned and directed by God.
We can look at the plan from a number of points of view; as
enlightenment, for instance: the Bible is the record of man's growing
realization of God, in which revelation adds idea to idea, image to
image until it culminates in the coming of the Word who is Truth
itself; or as apologetics: the Bible is also a record of prophecies, a
growing description of the one who is to come: the credentials, so
to speak, by which the Christ is recognized. However, it will not
do to limit our view to this more or less apologetic aspect of the
Scriptures. If we wish to understand the whole, we must grasp the
basic process by which God governed history. That process is the
sequence of promise and fulfilment, of God's free promises and the
loving care with which he surrounds his people, to make them
ready to receive what he has offered. In other words, we are to
consider the fidelity of God, and the fidelity which he expects from
his people in return.
The final proof of the divine fidelity was the Incarnation. Unexpected though it was, it was still the fulfilment of God's promise,
a fulfilment beyond the dreams of the ancients. The Jews hoped for
a Messias, a king who could restore the material and moral prosperity of the Chosen People. But that God should become man to
save man from his sins and so begin the final age of the world, this
was a fulfilment which surpassed all promises. Christ redeems all
the promises of God and manifests perfectly his Father's unchanging
will to save; a will faithful in the face of man's own infidelity. As
the first preaching of the Church loved to point out, x Christ is the

1 Acts 2, 14-36.

THE FULFILMENT

OF THE PROMISE

255

fulfilment of the prophecies; but he himself is also the last of the

line of the prophets, that succession of men who were the instruments with which God sought to guide, to care for, to save his
people. 1 The prophet of old could only announce, blame, instruct;
he could not change the condition of the people. Christ not only
taught and admonished as no prophet had yet done; he did not
simply call upon men to turn to God. His life, death and resurrection themselves effected this change. In Christ mankind was
reconciled radically to God.
The spectacle of the divine fidelity is one that should fill us with
awe and wonder. W e are perhaps so concerned with our own efforts
to be faithful to him that the meaning of the words 'God is faithful
in all his works', escapes our notice. We take his fidelity for granted.
Centuries of speculative thought about the divine attributes may
well have taken away much of our awe in the face of the mystery
of God. But the reverse is true of the Bible. It began before philosophy, and when the sacred authors consider the virtue of fidelity,
it is God who is seen as the principle and the foundation of this as
of all other virtues. It is his fidelity which endures forever. 2 The
fidelity of man is merely a response to the divine fidelity, and an
uncertain one at that. I f we are to understand how revolutionary
this idea is, that the Deity should bind itself to give good things to
men and fulfil the promises which he makes to men, we must try
to put ourselves in the context of this revelation. For the people
to whom God revealed himself, the whole of life was penetrated
by a religion of fear. Nor was this the fear of the Lord which is the
beginning of wisdom; rather it was irrational terror before the unknown and powerful. In the words of the Babylonian epic, 'The
gods are the enemies of man'. The divine was a force to be reckoned
with, captious and maleficent. I f it was to be relied on, it must first
be controlled. M a n must make the first move in order to placate
and even to constrain the divine by rite and magic.
This was the environment upon which revelation burst with the
promise to Abraham. The choice of the people of the promise began
with a pagan in Babylonia. 3 And it was not man who constrained
God; God bound himself by his promise, and so ended the fear of a
capricious divinity. Because of the Promise , hope and trust replaced
terror. It was God who took the initiative with a magnificent promise, the turning point in the relationship between God and man.
1 H e b l , l-2.

~ Ps116,2.

8 Jos24,14.

256

THE

FULFILMENT

OFTHE

PROMISE

For with the promise of blessing upon Abraham, which was to

extend not merely to the people of Abraham, but to all nations, 1
the history of man's sinfulness and consequent decline - which is
the subject matter of the first chapters of Genesis - ends, and the
upward turn begins. The first decisive step in the history of salvation has been taken and it is already a step towards Christ. For
according to Paul, the promise made to Abraham looks to Christ3
God has committed himself to man, and his promise will be kept.
His loving care will never cease.
At the same time, the promise of God commands an answering
fidelity from man. O f this Abraham, the recipient of the first great
promise, gives the example. At God's call he abandons home and
family to commit himself to the faithful care of God. At the apparent command of Yahweh, Abraham is even ready to offer up
Isaac his son, the first fruits of God's promise and of his own hopes.
Here is the ideal of the faithful response to God. It explains to us
what is involved in the human response to the divine fidelity. It
means trust and devotion, something far more than a legal give and
take by which Abraham pays a debt and earns further divine h e l p 3
This is clear in the first great gift, the promise itself. God must begin.
H e must seek out the stranger, the pagan who by definition could
not seek him. But even when the relationship has been established
through the promise given, it would be wrong to think of it as an
obedient response to t h e divine pledge a n d gifts, so as to earn
further gifts; rather as though man were doing business with
money lent to him by God. There is much more to fidelity than this.
For that matter, the use of the word 'faithful' in ordinary language
is not limited to the case of a man who fulfils his obligations in strict
justice. Just so, the Biblical image of the relationship between man
and God is far above that which exists between debtor and creditor.
God and his people are likened to husband and wife, to mother and
child. Indeed, the very hebrew word for fidelity goes back to a
root-word used of a mother holding a child in her arms: surely the
perfect human experience of mutual fidelity and trust. And it is to
this experience that God appeals: 'Can a woman forget her suckling
child, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? Even though
these m a y forget I will not forget you! '4 I f God's faithfulness
surpasses by far that of the mother's care and love for her cbild,
1 G e n 12, 2 - 3 ; c p . Acts 3, 25; Ga13, 8.
3 Cf. l~om 4.
~ Isai 49, 15,

~ G a l 3 , 15 fT.

THE FULFILMENT

OF THE PROMISE

257

man's response must go far beyond strict justice. We d o n o t t h i n k

of the loving care of a mother and the security with which she
surrounds her child as earning the child's response. Nor does the
child simply merit love and care. Love spontaneous and generous,
much more than justice, must characterize the gift and the response.
God gives a whole new life whether it be to Abraham, to his people
in the Promised L a n d , to the Church; his gift obviously demands
the devotion of the whole person in return.
O f course the ideal was not always achieved. Rather than fidelity
God found infidelity. But even this did not cause him to withdraw
the promise. O f his promise to David he says: ' I f his sons forsake
m y l a w . . . I will punish their o f f e n c e . . , but my kindness I will
not withdraw from nor will I be false to m y fidelity'. 1 God's
promises are absolute; man's infidelity may delay their fulfilment
but it cannot prevent it. Indeed the prodigal son, the type of faithless
Israel, seems to be the object of an even more special favour. God
reveals to his prophet that the demands of Israel for a king is an
extreme example of infidelity. Yet he turns the institution of the
monarchy into a new and special channel of grace, and endows
it with a new and expanded promise, and a pledge of his concern for
his people. In its inception, the monarchy was the result of lack
of faith in the God who had been guiding his people by a series of
leaders, the Judges, raised up at his will. The people sought an
authority more human, more stable, a Gentile institution. They
rejected God for a h u m a n monarch, though he himself was their
king.* A sufficiently dubious beginning surely! And the picture was
not brightened by the failure of Saul, the first king, to live up to his
obligations to God. And yet, under David, the monarchy itself
became an object of promise and a source of hope. Nathan's
prophecy 3 assures the king that it is not he who will build a house
(temple) for God, but that God will build a house (dynasty) for
him. David's line is guaranteed by the divine promise; indeed, it is
itself a promise, for there is more here than the mere satisfaction of
dynastic ambitions. This is the first link in the chain which binds
the line of David to the Messianic hope. The promise at first embraced the whole nation of Israel, through Abraham. Now it was
concentrated in a special way on the family of David. The continuance of his line was a continued fulfilment of the divine promise and
the constant pledge of the final gift: the Son of David, the Christ,
1 Ps88,30-33.

2 1 S a m 8 , 4 - 9 ; 12, 12.

2Sam7.

258

THE

FULFILMENT

O F THE

PROMISE

in whom the promise embodied in the prophecy of Nathan was

definitively redeemed.
The aspect of the promise which is made manifest in the history
of the patriarch Abraham and the royal line of David is that of
God committing himself and honouring his commitments: a
fidelity which was and is a source of true hope for his people. But
the divine fidelity means more than the honouring of a pledge. A
faithful friend, a faithful parent surrounds the object of his concern
with care, with love, with guidance, even with admonition and
chastisement if need be. It is the prophets who furnish a special
example of this aspect of the divine fidelity. We tend to think of the
prophets as conveying the divine promise. The word 'prophesy' in
English means to predict; so that the function of the prophets is
normally considered to be merely that of conveying the promise.
They, rather than patriarch or king, would seem to be channels of
the promise. This is true. But we must not forget that they had
another mission, which is in fact revealed in the great bulk of their
sayings. As agents of God they were to guide, warn and admonish
the people. They were a means by which God cared for his people
and tried to keep them in the right path; for even if h u m a n infidelity
was unable to prevent the ultimate redemption of God's promises,
man's failings could retard their fulfilment and multiply suffering.
Thus the prophetic ministry is not simply to transmit promise; it
is to prepare the way for fulfilment. It is itself a sign of God's
continued care, sign which he himself invokes. 1
Moreover, the prophet provides an example of that return o f
fidelity which God seeks from man: total dedication to the God
who promises. Though the prophet does not seek his office and is
chosen by God for it, he does respond to the divine call. He is
faithful to his mission in spite of personal distaste and fears, in spite
of threats and dangers. The whole history of the prophetic movem e n t could be cited to illustrate this. But the most illuminating
example is that ofJeremias. There is the divine call at the beginning:
'Before you were born I set you apart, I appointed you a prophet
to the nations'. 2 There is the faithful response even in the face of
opposition and suffering. In fulfilling his mission, the prophet was
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, 3 but fulfil it he does. Here is
man's response to God, faithful acceptance of his vocation, a vocation to save, cost what it may. This is the fidelity which not only
1 J e r 7, 21--26.

~ J e t 1, 5.

a J e t 11, 19.

THE FULFILMENT OF THE PROMISE

259

pleases God but positively furthers the divine plan.

This we know, since these ideas and images which are revealed in
the history of Jeremias have a future. His call from before birth,
his patient suffering, are resumed and expanded in the history of the
Suffering Servant. 1 This mysterious figure will be called, and his
faithful response in the face of suffering and even death will have
redemptive value. A typical procedure of revelation this, not to
dispose of an idea once for all after its first appearance, but to
have a later writer take it up and develop its implications. We
have the example of fidelity in the face of suffering in Jeremias;
the book of Isaias adds the great concept of the expiatory value of
suffering and projects into the future the figure upon whom the
Lord wilt lay the iniquity of us all. And the end of the process?
How familiar the figure is: he who was designated by God from
before birth to a great office, the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world. The prophets are a means used by God in his
faithful care of his people. They show forth his fidelity and their
response teaches us what man's fidelity must be. It is Christ who
crowns the sequence of the prophets. He brings the word of life,
he is the faithful one whose life and death are at once God's supreme
gift a n d the perfect example of the fidelity required by God: the
perfect fidelity which consists, not merely in teaching and example,
but in the effective work of salvation.
As the Suffering Servant, Christ sums up and fulfils a whole line
of Biblical tradition. The same is true of other great Biblical themes:
Christ is the hoped-for Messias from the line of David; he is the true
vine who brings forth the fruits God desires. ~ All the currents of
revelation flow together in him. He fulfils every figure and every
promise. He makes manifest the justice of God 3 in that he shows
forth God's faithful fulfilment of his promise to save. And, as always,
the fidelity of God made manifest in him calls for a proportionate
response from men. In Christ God has offered life to mankind.
Christ is the true vine and his life flows through that extension of
himself which is the Church. But he has warned that the branches
of the vine must themselves be true. They must live the life offered
to them.
Christ has come and fulfilled the promises. He will come again.
1 Isai 42, 1-9; 49, I-6; 50, 4--11; 52, 13-53, 12. Cf. Frederick L. Moriarty, The

Suffering Servant, in T~E WAY, April 1961, pp. 120-33.

J n 15; cp. Isai 5;Jer 2, 20-22.

n Rom 3, 26.

260

THE FULFILMENT OF THE PI~OMISE

In the meantime the Church lives a life of fulfilment, for it lives the
divine life offered in Christ. But it also lives in expectation; the end
has begun but is not yet. The master continues to demand faithful
service from his people. But, as we have seen, fidelity and the service
which flows from it is self-determined. Every servant of the Lord
is free as Christ is free. So the Lord asks: 'When the Son of M a n
comes, will he find faith on the earth?' Likeness to him is the only
true measure of fidelity.

The Editors would be most grateful if readers

renewed their subscriptions for i963 before the
end of November i962.

THE FIRST-BORN
OF A L L C R E A T I O N
B y B. R. B R I N K M A N

o w to describe who Christ was, what he was and what he

had done was an invitation to the preaching, liturgy and
reflection of the New Testament Church. 'Who is this...,1
was a natural cry of admiration at the wonder-worker's
power over a storm on the lake. The fact that it belonged to Yahweh
to control nature's forces could not escape the reflection of the
writer of the story, and this itself was more than a hint as to how the
question Who? should be answered in the mind of the faithful
believer. And, as he would hear or read in the gospel story, Christ
had, on the occasion when he quelled the storm, made an explicit
appeal to faith.
The names and rifles which were to be given to Christ are partial
attempts to answer the question Who? They were not far to seek
and arose easily in the conscious faith of a community already
breathing a religious atmosphere. In the event one answer to the
question was insufficient and the New Testament did not even
confine itself to one type of answer. In the numerous attempts to
describe the same mystery there are undoubted variations of
emphasis. Though there is only one answer to the question 'Who is
t h i s . . . ' and although we must hold that there can only be one basic
Christian Christology, the appearance in the New Testament of
several answers a n d even of an apparent plurality of Christologies
is undeniable. The New Testament is also aware of wrong answers
to the basic question, and the first epistle of St. J o h n is explicit in its
rejection of the pre-Gnostic Christology of Cerinthus. But what
variation within the bounds of orthodoxy remains! The value for
spiritual reflection of sheer variety in the expression of a divine
mystery is inestimable. To see Christ variously, as the gospels saw
him, in the guise of Prophet, Suffering Servant, Messias, Son of
Man, is to be able to partake of the riches of the divine mystery
in our own developing spiritual insight. And this is true, too, if we

Mk 4, 41.

262

THE

FIRST-BORN

OF ALL

CREATION

meditate with an eye on scriptural contexts upon such titles and

comparisons as Lord, Word, Second Adam, High Priest, even
Alpha and Omega.
Thus, while there is only one mystery, every effort to express it
means a special context from Scripture, or liturgical practice or
even from philosophy. It is proposed here to see something of the
context and meaning of the Firstborn title which occurs in the
Christ-hymn of the Epistle to the Colossians. 1 This has been a
text dear to the teaching of the Church since its origin. The full
history of the usage and interpretation of the title 'Firstborn of all
creation' has not yet been written. Whether the Firstborn referred
to the eternal and pre-existent Word which assumed h u m a n nature,
or whether this title referred to the Incarnate Christ is a subject
upon which patristic tradition was divided. One line of interpretation, begun by Justin, thought that the title must have reference
to the pre-existent Word, whereas the tradition which took its rise
in anti-Arian reaction 2 considered that the Firstborn title of Christ
belonged to the economy of the Incarnate Son. For purposes of this
Christological meditation it will be assumed that this latter position
can be justified exegetically. 8 And first of all we must see something
of the antecedents of the arresting title 'Firstborn of all creation'.
1

The firstborn, in the mind of the Old Testament, was the issue
of the Father's first strength ;~ or from the standpoint of the Mother
it is the offspring which first opened the womb. It would seem that
the prior relation was between the favoured child and his parents.
1 Col 1, 15 IT.
2 Marcellus of Ancyra, whose views were to be modified by Athanasius a n d so popniarized.
s I f this were the place to establish a n exegesis of Col l, 15 we should try to show t h a t
the passage contains a n adaptation of a C h r l s t - h y m n m a d e by St. Paul for the reassurance
of the Colossians, a n d so a reference to the Firstborn in the e c o n o m y of the R e d e m p t i o n
is correct; yet we have to agree that the role of W i s d o m in creation (described in Prov 8,
22) did impress the a u t h o r in such a w a y t h a t the same role is ascribed to Christ. But
this is done without intending a formal identification of Christ-Wis&m with ChristFirstborn. It should be insisted t h a t the h y m n shows two aspects of the work of Christ.
T h e transcendent pre-eminence of Christ is attributed on the one h a n d to his special
relation with his Father, a n d on the other to the special relationship he h a s with a
universe of beings whose creation a n d subsistence depend u p o n himself. It m u s t also
be insisted that the vocabulary, context a n d literary associations are strongly soteriological. T h e Firstborn has a role in creation a n d the Pauline context of the cosmic role of
Christ is one which overlaps our concept of creation a n d relates h i m to redemption as well.
4 G e n 49~ 3; D e u t 21, 17.

THE

FIRST-BORN

OF ALL

CREATION

263

Law and custom gave privileges and honours. Such a son would be
t h e principal heir and the male firstborn was sacred and would
have to be redeemed. In addition, the firstborn of every beast was
sacred to Yahweh; and rules of redemption and inheritance
regarding the firstborn are to be found in the Mishnah. 1
The primogeniture of the firstborn gives a kind of potestas over
the family. There is a subjection of the brethren to the firstborn
which is part of his right, as we know from Isaac's benediction 'Be
thou lord of thy brethren, and let thy mother's children bow down
before thee'. 2 Nor is it in a father's power to transfer the power
of primogeniture. 3
This favoured position of the firstborn is also expressed by names
of strongly messianic import like Son and L a m b of God. The
Beloved or Beloved Son is what Christ is called by the voice in the
theophany. ~ And the Mishnah brings out the connexion between
the titles of Firstborn and Beloved, since such gifts of God as the
Torah, Israel and the Messias himself are the Firstborn of Yahweh
in just the sense of their being 'the beIoved' or sons of predilection?
The Beloved who is unique and the servant of Yahweh is to be a
victorious Messias destined to bring hope even to the Gentiles.
The basis of this doctrine taught by Isaias 6 is quoted by Matthew 7
to show its fulfilment in Christ who is God's chosen servant. And
God's chosen servant is the chosen servant not for himself only but
for his people and with his people. The Beloved used of Christ in
this sense evidently summed up much thought by Christians about
their Master, for it finds its place in the rhythmic hymn of blessing
which is part of the introduction to Ephesians: 'in love he predestined u s . , . to be his s o n s . . , unto the praise of the glory of his
g r a c e . . , in the Beloved. 8, This hymn of blessing should be compared with the Christ-hymn in Colossians 9 in which the Firstborn
title is embedded. It is a further strophic meditation on the primacy
of Christ placing this time the themes of redemption and vocation
1 T h e authoritative collection of the Jewish Oral Law. Its authority rests on the view
t h a t God gave to Moses on Sinai oral as well as written Law.
2 G e n 2 7 , 29.
8 D e u t 21, 15 shows that in the case of a m a n with two wives, w h e n the firstborn child
is by the w o m a n he no longer loves, h e has no power to invest with t h e privilege of
primogeniture the firstborn of the w o m a n he does love. A double position belongs to
the son of the wife h e dislikes because he is thefirst of the children.
4 M k 1,11.
5 See t h e material in Strack-Billebeck on R o m 8, 29 (Komm. III, pp. 256-8).
e I s a i 4 2 , 1-4.
7 M t 12, 18-21.
8 E p h 1,3-14.
9 Col 1, 15ff.

264

THE FIRST-BORN

OF ALL CREATION

before the mention of creation. The primacy of Christ in virtue of

his primogeniture, while it is still clearly a primacy over the
cosmic 'all', is yet placed against a more intimate background of
the Christian family: 'he destined us to be his sons'. The association
of the Firstborn and the Beloved is not lost in the Colossian hymn
either when it appears as 'Son of his love'. 1
2
Thus, while the appeal to Christ as 'Beloved' brings out his
unique relationship with God together with the family-relationship
that he has with us, the title Firstborn underlines the h u m a n
solidarity we have with Christ. He is the same as we are and the
Pauline corpus reflects upon this fact; ~ 'this is true of him since he
is in every way like ourselves, short of sin'. a So the relationship
between the Firstborn and his brethren can be explored, and it will
be found to be vital and mysterious. Here in fact is the distinctively
Christian advance: the use of a biblical phrase which is traditional
now becomes an affectionate one, but it looks out upon a wider
range. For the fact that Israel was God's Firstborn was already a
commonplace. But as such its privileges were to be exclusive,
merely for itself. The exclusiveness is clear in the touching fin de
sidcle messianism of the fourth book of Esdras: 'we, thy people whom
thou hast called thy firstborn, thy only begotten, thy beloved are
given up into their hands. I f the world has indeed been created for
our sakes w h y do we not enter into possession of our world? H o w
long shall this endure? '4
But Christian prayer and reflection has its answer to this almost
natural complaint. 5 It is Christ who is of himself unique and exclusive, but his people who are his brethren all share their relation
to this Firstborn. For he is already related to his brethren by the
effect of God's predestination which stamps them as brethren. Man,
1 The early Church used the title of Christ appreciatively. Cf. the Prayerfor All Needs
quoted by Clement of Rome ('through his dear [or beloved[ servant, Jesus Christ') in
Early Christian Prayers, ed. A. Hamman, O.F.M., translated by Walter Mitchell (London,
1961), No. 37, p. 26. The first strophe of this prayer carries echoes of the two Pauline
hymns mentioned. Fr. Hamman's admirable collection shows at a glance how much
the names and titles of Jesus and acclamations to the Victor were used by the Church in
prayer. The Beloved is also used in the Epistle of Barnabas (3, 6; 4, 3, 8.) and in Hermas
(Similitudes, IX, 12, 5).
Cp. Phil 2, 7; Heb 2, 17.
~ Heb 4, 15.
4 I V Esdras 6, 59.
In IV Esdras Israel is at first named as the Firstborn by the side of other peoples and
later in the second vision as the only one, the uniquely chosen people (only begotten),
while in the third vision Israel becomes the 'Beloved'.

THE FIRST-BORN OF ALL CREATION

265

in Pauline thought, having the divine vocation granted to him is to

be like this Son who 'is the image of the invisible God'. 1 In the
Old Testament, the fact that man is created in the image of God is
mentioned only three times, 2 but this doctrine remained very much
at work: the special similarity and relationship with God was
established. But by the predestination 'to bear a nature in the image
of his Son's that he should be firstborn among many brethren '3
an even more intimate relationship is established. Nor does St. Paul
fail to see the completion of our destiny as brethren of Christ:
from the initial vocation in the divine plan he can foresee our joint
glorification with Christ. 4
The relation of the Firstborn to his brethren, however, is at its
most effective and vivid peak in our participation in the resurrection, for Christ is also 'Firstborn of the dead'. 5 That this is Christ
himself through his redemptive passion and resurrection is also a
matter of simple statement in the Apocalypse. There, in the formal
initial greeting, J o h n sends his wish for grace and peace that is to
come from Christ 'the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead,
the head of the rulers of the earth'. 6 More explicitly even 'he is risen
from the dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep'. 7 In his resurrection this Firstborn is glorified by his relation to his brethren, who
are eventually to receive their participation in his resurrection of
the body. Thus the formula 'Firstborn of the dead' is more than a
simple statement of sovereignty. An even wider context of this
primogeniture of Christ is to be found in the first part of the
Christ-hymn in Colossians, where the primogeniture shows his
overlordship of glory and life to be enshrined in an overlordship
of the whole visible and invisible cosmos: - 'for in him were created
all t h i n g s . . , all creation is through him and unto h i m . . , he is
prior to all and in him all things hold together', s

Thus the Firstborn Christ has his primogeniture over all creation
which is as wide as the universe itself. Nothing is excluded. But it is
a universe with a dynamic movement and a centre; and the First1 Col 1, 15.
" Cf. Gen I, 26--7; 5, 1-3; 9, 5--6.
8 R o m 8, 29.
4 Rom8,30.
n C o i l , 18.
~ A p o e l , 5.
1 Cot 15, 20. An allusion to Ps 88 (89), 28 is clear enough. David is made by Yahweh
to be Iris firstborn and overlord of the neighbouring kingdoms.
8 Col 1, 16-17.

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born is not to be excluded from the series of which he is the first. 1

Nor is the totality of creation simply ungraded, or unrelated and
without stress towards its centre, while throughout this cosmos the
individual is also accented. The possibility of a shift of meaning
from creation (totality) to creature (individual) has been outlined
elsewhere; and this graded and accentuated totality is all creationcreature, which is at the same time every creation-creature whose
significance, just like our own, is that of the class or individual
centred upon Christ. 2 It is obviously not wrong to think that the
Firstborn title refers to the whole created universe; but the overlaid
context of redemption produces a change; and P6re H u b y was
justified when he saw the work of creation in terms of redemption;
in so doing he was at one with St. Paul. 3
As creation had been made to deviate from its end by the lack
of intelligent and free creatures who should bring it back to its
creator, 4 so the redemption of man by the Firstborn, who is the
Father's as well as his own, has its echo in that creation. But there
is little advantage in trying to stretch the imagination in regard of
this universe of all creation (it is already difficult enough for us to
envisage the world of principalities and powers with which Paul
and the Colossians were so preoccupied). W e should rather, without
any conscious archaizing, envisage the redemption as having no
limits except in the very extent of creation itself. And since Christ's
primacy of all creation springs from his being First Principle
(ArchE) and Origin of an economy which is redemptive, it is the
Christ-pl~roma which is rather the measure of his creation.
This appears tO some extent in the setting of the first chapter
of Colossians which merits some remarks.
4
The broad context of Col 1, 9-23 is concerned with the one fact
which should find its echo with the Colossians, the fact of our
salvation according to God's design by Christ. So that it should
1 T h e possessive 'of all creation' can express the relationship of brotherhood: the force
of the expression would be 'Firstborn [of the fraternity] of every creature'. Cf. 'It is
impossible not to understand the firstborn as first of the series, as we read in R o m a n s
(8, 29) " t h e firstborn among m a n y brethren".' (J. Bonsirven, L'Evangile de Paul [Paris,
1948], pp. 86-7).
2 Cf. the writer's 'Creation and the Creature', I ; II', B~jdragen, X V I I I (1957),
pp. 129-139; 359-374.
3 Cf. Les Epitres de la Captlvit~ (Verbnm Salutls, V I I I ) , Paris, 1947, pp. 43-4.
R o m 8, 19; E p h 1, 10.

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indeed impress them still more there is a prayer of petition, namely

that the Colossians may be granted 'full insight' into God's will.
The idea is one of some force, for the phrase refers to the call of
God to Christians, a call made to Paul in mystical experience. The
w a y in which this vocation is to be answered appears in a similar
prayer, this time for absent brethren, which occurs later. The
petition on the latter occasion is that they should become 'perfect
and accomplished'? And the worth to us of God's saving election
is that he has made us capable of the apportionment of the kingdom
of fight, a complete break and transfer from the past, for our lot is
now that of the saints. 2 The emergence from darkness to fight is
itself the time of salvation. It must not be thought that the simultaneous mention above of creation and redemption does anything
to lessen the clean break which the history of salvation impfies:
the deliverance and the transfer are real. So much so that now
Christian endurance and patience are called for, ~ and our one-time
hostility has now given way to blamelessness. 4
And God, simply called 'the Father', is seen as the author of
deliverance and rescue (or liberation-redemptlon, apolytrosis) placing
us in the kingdom of 'the beloved' Son. 5 All this is meant to be
reassuring: redemption has taken place with absolute finality. It
exists and is not merely to be hoped for, since Paul preaches the
disarming by Christ of the principalities and powers 6 in order to
eliminate the fearful angel-worship of the Colossians, which in his
mind is nothing more than a superstitious form of salvationism.
Not only have we no need for bogus intermediaries but our Christ
is himself liberation-redemption. 7
It is worth emphasizing that the pre-eminence of the Firstborn
must be made manifest in the sphere of the cosmic powers from which
we have been liberated. For the Son, the 'Beloved' of the Father,
is head and victor over the powers. Both in origin and in their
present subjection they are captive to him. It might be said that
just as Paul has no hesitation in seeing our salvation against the
background of spiritual cosmic forces, so he can see Christ as
indivisible and has no interest in distinguishing the pre-existent

1 Col 4, 12.
~ Co11,11-12.
3 Coll, ll.
4 Col 2, 21.
5 The passages to be compared with this one for the meaning of liberation-redemption
are: E p h 1, 7; 1 Cor I, 30; R o m 3, 24.
8 Co12,15.
7 1 C o r l , 30-31.

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Word in his relation to creation and the Incarnate Christ. 1 This

makes it a little easier to see that Christ's role in creation and redemption affects all things, their individuality as well as their
totality. They are through him because of his function as their term
in the completion of redemption. Founded and created in him
they also have their reconciliation with him. 2 And the point is made
that creation is unto him. To find Christ as the final cause of all
things is not to mistake Paul's Christology. For he sees that the
reason w h y a thing is envisaged and produced for its completion
affects any interim state. I f all creation-creature is unto him it should
here and now show more than a trace of this fact. Thus, because
we can see that Christ is our final cause, so we can accept the doctrine
that 'in him all things hold together'. ~This in fact tells no more. By
means of a speculative and cosmological expression we are taught
the actual coherence of all things in Christ. But the starting point is
Christ as final cause. Pope Pins X I I summed up the point effectively: At the beginning of time, when he decreed the creation of the
world, in order to pour out his love and to bring into existence
other beings who should be happy like himself, God before
all else (if we may so speak according to the way we have of
seeing and acting consecutively) turned his gaze upon him
who was to be H e a d and King. H e decrees that in order to
redeem the human race from the servitude of sin, the Word
born of the Father shall become flesh and dwell amongst us.
There is God's masterpiece, the very finest of his works. Whatever the time and the circumstances of its appearance in
history, it is most certainly that masterpiece which he willed
to be first; and it is in view of that masterpiece that he made
all the rest. 4
5
In the rest of this consideration we may ask whether St. Paul
saw any immediate application to the Christian way of life resulting
from his doctrine of the primacy of Christ the Firstborn. That by
1 Certain parallels with the 'Son of Man'tltle may help to make this sound reasonable.
The Book of Enoch admits that the Son of Man was named before creation (Enoch 28,
3, 6), and in IV Esdras the pre-existent Messias is described (IV Esdras, 13, 25 ft.).
Col 1, 16, 20. 'In him'; 'through him'; 'unto him' (v. 16) are answered by 'in him'
(the pleroma); 'through him' (reconciliation); 'unto him' (finality of reconciliation)
-

(w. 19-20).

s Col 1,17.
Plus X l I , Discourset Pane'gyriques, Paris, 1939, pp. 394-5.

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this very position Christ has power and rights over us needs no
proving. As his subjected brethren we owe him obedience of
heart and mind, and in return (this is the point Paul wished to
impress upon the Colossians) we are protected by him. The
awesome unseen powers - and that there is no vestige of such a
world would seem rather to be the reaction of the last century
than of this - are under his domination, 1 which will increase in
extent till the eventual subjection through Christ to the Father3
In spite of security therefore for the future the interim period allows
for fears as well as hopes.
Paul had in fact several such fears and hopes for his Christians.
Exhortation and prohibition can be direct and roundly proclaimed.
One m a y even wonder if moral behaviour among his communities
was really as bad as some of his prohibitions might suggest. Allowante should be made for commonplaces of rhetoric and exhortation,
and moral and ascetic teaching is to be found in doctrinal exposition
as well as in obviously hortatory passages.
What we would call the triad of theological virtues ('these three')
seem to be the nearest reflection in man of God's gift through Christ.
It calls at once for appreciation on the part of the Christian and for
thanksgiving. This almost instinctive reaction occurs to the author
at the beginning of Colossians and Ephesians. ~ This immediate
advertence to faith is partly conditioned b y the contrast with the
vain works of Judaism. W h a t we now have is our faith in God, as in
Christ Jesus. 4 W e can continue to benefit from the rescue and from
the privileged position we now have under Christ; and this means
constancy in faith and fidelity, an adhesion to God so strong that
it is like a house or temple, firm on its foundations, s
But Christian faith and fidelity cannot be merely stationary or
Static. Paul desires to see it grow to the ambitious point of 'full
knowledge of the mystery of God' which (for such now is his Christocentrism) is 'even Christ. 'e In such a life of Christ-centred faith
there is no room for superstition nor scruple, nor even for merely
compulsive mortification. 7 What we learn to know in faith is to be
a E p h 1, 22.
~ 1 Cor 15, 24-28.
8 CA'.Co1 1, 4-6; E p h 1, 15, 17. The Epistles have an introductory literary unit which
can be identified as a thanksgiving but it is never without doctrinal context. C P.
Schubert, Form and Function of the Pauline Thanksgiving (BeRt. z. Z.N.W., 20), Berlin, 1939.
4 Col 1, 4.
5 Col 1, 23; 2, 7. E p h 2, 19-21 shews how, viewed from the aspect of the community
it is Christ himself who ensures the solidarity of the building.
8 Col 2, 23.
~ Col 2, 21-23.

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so vivid as to haunt the mind benignly: it is to inhabit the mind.

And like all Christian goods which have to be shared, there is an
obligation upon us to share by instructing one another. 1 But above
all the life of faith will mean fulfilling together the first of our
Christian obligations in prayer, which, like faith, entails perseverance. Especially if prayer is the genuine utterance of faith it should
be prayer that by means of the apostles of the Church all that is
believed should spread: 'at the same time pray for us, that God may
open us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ'. ~
So in this interim time we are steadfast and adhere to Christ,
the salvific mystery of God. But this means faith not vision. What
we are to see is now to be hoped for. Together with faith this new
and expectant attitude to God came as his gift with the proclamation of the gospel truth, and it centres on what is 'laid up in heaven
itself.' 3 In spite of fears and distractions, and because we are reconciled and hold on in faith and fidelity, we must also remain
'without swerving from the hope of glad tidings'. 4
St. Paul now makes an interesting connexion which might escape
us. In place of the rather individual and private view of this virtue
which may be our own, he speaks of it as related to others and
at the centre of his ministry and apostleship. The reason why the
ministry can bring him joy in the present is because he can 'make
up in my flesh what is lacking to the sufferings of Christ'. 6 And the
ministry of suffering in and for the Church is necessarily conditioned
by hope. In this w a y hope is anchored in the experience of the here
and now, and it even attains something here and now, no less than
'Christ within you, your hope of glory'. ~
Some remarks may be made in conclusion about the relation o f
charity with Christ considered in his primacy as Firstborn. The
Epistle to the Colossians is not so direct on this point. However it
is shown to be closely related to faith in Christ Jesus ;7 and the depth
of charity between the brethren of the Firstborn appears from the
complete elimination of differences and distinctions between men:
there are no more religious prerogatives, for Judaic exclusivism
has gone, and social caste and even the inequality between the
sexes are all of no consequence, s There can be no question of racial
1 Col3, 16.
~ Col 4, 3.
3 Co11,5-6.
4 Co11,23.
5 Co11,24.
G Co11,27.
7 Col 1,4.
s There are three catalogues of irreconcilable classes which have been abolished b y
the changed condition of Christians: cf. Gal 3, 28; R o m 1, 14; Co13, I 1 (the antithesis
between slave and free is repeated at Eph 3, 8).

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or religious hatred, no inequality legal or natural, but 'Christ

is all and in all'. 1 Or, as the list in Galatians ends by saying, 'ye are
all one person in Jesus Christ'. ~ The individual will then find that
the community whose life he shares is knit together in charity, s
More intimately 'compassion' and 'kindness' are to be 'put on '4 by
each one; and this unwarlike armour is to be matched by such
manifestations of brotherly love as 'bearing with' one another and of
course pardoning faults. But naturally it is to charity that we must
look for the element which will ensure the existence of 'perfection'.
In a deceptively simple phrase it is called the 'bond of perfection'. 5
Finally, that Christian charity, whether it relates to God or to the
brethren, is concerned with Christ is underlined by the best written
expansion of the thought of Colossians, namely Ephesians. Where
there is charity there is Christ. Like faith, charity is the result of the
inhabitation of the Christian by Christ himself ('that Christ may
dwell in your hearts'), s This charity, in an exalted and speculative
phrase, is that by which Christians are to be capable of 'comprehending' the four dimensions of the divine salvific mystery. St. Paul
has a word for this goal of special religious insight achieved even
in this life. But there is a condition: we must build and root our
activities upon charity, and the result will be the knowing of the
'charity of Christ which surpasseth knowledge'. ~

x Col 3, 11.
2 Ga13,28.
3 C o l 2 , 1.
4 Col 3, 12.
5 I n the Epistle to the Hebrews 'perfection' c a n be looked u p o n as rather more intellectual t h a n moral, a n d so more closely related to faith. B u t here the application is
stralght-forwardly moral. O n e should think of such passages as the panegyric of charity
w h i c h shows t h e ' b o n d ' related to so m a n y virtuous actions (1 C o t 13), or of charlty as
t h e fulfilment of the law ( R o m 13, 8-10). T h e traditional Jewish teaching was in a n y
case to show the moral character o f perfection (cf. M t 19, 18-19). As to h o w the ' b o n d '
should be exactly vlsuallsed is m o r e difficult. Does it unite virtues as the tie united the
brindle? O r is it the perfect b o n d because it subsists between those who are friends?
O r is it finally the b o n d itself between persons w h i c h is the element t h a t makes for
perfection? This last view is best in h a r m o n y with Col 1, 28; 'teaching every m a n wisdom,
that we m a y present every m a n perfect in Christ'.
6 E p h 3 , 17.
~ E p h 3 , 19.

SHARERS
OF THE DIVINE NATURE
By WILLIAM YEOMANS

HE Israelite boasted with true pride that no other people

had a God so near to them as the God of Israel was to his
people. The christian boasts that his God is not merely
present to him from without, b u t present within him. God
is not only with us, he is with us as one of us. The Word of God
spoken by the mouths of the prophets and written in the scrolls of
the Torah has become human flesh in Christ; the message of God
comes to us now from within our human nature and existence. For
the Saviour of the World did not come as a deus ex machina suddenly
intruding into the midst of a tangled history in order to solve the
intricate problems of humanity with swift aloof justice, only to
retire again into his celestial isolation. Salvation is not an imposed
solution from above; it is worked out, as the Fathers of the Church
repeat, in medio terrae, in the inmost depths of the earth. Christ is
born, not as a stranger to h u m a n history, not as one absent from it.
All things were created in him, and his birth revealed his hidden
presence. H e came to his own, whither he belonged by right. The
history of Israel had blossomed in the Virgin M a r y in whom Christ
took to himself the fruit of sacred history, a human body and a
human nature. The Fiat of God which brought creation out o f
nothing, echoes in the Fiat of Mary whose humility gave Christ
his humanity; and the Fiat of Christ in his passion and death opens
the way for the return of mankind to its glorious source in the Father.
The Son of G o d emptied himself when he took our h u m a n
nature, to become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. But his
coming was not the degradation of a god, it was rather the glorification of God through his creature, whose soul magnified the Lord.
The eternal light came graciously to shine in this world. Shining it
was not diminished. Like the sun it illumined what it touched,
so that men might see and glorify God in his works. God was not
lessened b y the Incarnation nor was man obliterated. Our faith
obliges us to distinguish the divine and h u m a n natures in Christ,
but we must distinguish them within the unity of the one divine

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person; distinction without separation, unity without confusion.

The humanity is not less human, nor the divinity less divine; there
is but one Christ, true God and true man. Christ is fully man because God saves man not by destroying human nature but by
bringing it to perfection. Christ is fully God - the work of redemption is divine and can be accomplished by God alone. Christ is true
God and true man - in him we see that God is capable of becoming
man and of working like a man; we see too, that man is capable of
becoming godlike and of working with God. As we contemplate God
made man we can rec0gnise in the fullness of his humanity the w a y
towards the fullness of his divinity: he and the Father are one, he
who knows Christ knows the Father. We recognise too, in the fullness of his divinity, the value God sets upon our human nature and
the possibilities he offers to those who accept in love, hope and
belief the Son of God: a possibility which is nothing less than the
power of becoming sons of God.
O n the feast of the commemoration of O u r Lord's birth the
Church directs our attention beyond the historic events at Bethlehem
to the mystery which they enclose. We celebrate not only the
temporal birth of Christ, an event in the past which cannot be
repeated, but also the mystery of God made man, the union of the
divine and the human, into which we are caught up by our baptism. The birth of Christ is the inauguration of effective redemption.
His humble and gentle entrance into this world, 'like rain falling
on a fleece', is the beginnings of the christian people to w h o m we
belong. Hence we contemplate the Nativity not as spectators exterior to the scene. Christian contemplation can never be exterior
to its object. Christ is born for us; he came propter nos homines et
propter nostram salutem, not for his benefit. We are the cause of his
earthly itinerary and each o n e c a n say in truth sum causa tuae
viae. Hence we cannot stand back from the mystery which enfolds
us. In the liturgy of glory which the Church offers us at Christmas
we must learn to recognise our own glorious vocation and renew
our efforts to move steadfastly towards the fulfilment God promises
us in his Son.
The mere external belief that Christ is true God and true man
is not sufficient to constitute christian faith. Belief is an act which
must fructify in activity. It is not enough to confess Christ with our
lips unless we transform our interior attitudes and external behaviour so that they conform to our belief. We must re-live with Christ
in his Church the mystery which he lived for us. With Peter we

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fall on our knees before Christ in wonder, aware of our utter

unworthiness; but we must also rise and follow him. The Incarnation
is the beginning of the road towards glorification. It is not enough
to contemplate that road from afar and admire its course. The trail
blazed by Christ is intended for our use. Every step of his way is
so identified with the mystery of our redemption that Christ can
say of himself 'I am the way'. The measure in which we fail to
make his way our own is the measure of our rejection of him.
Failure to see Christ beckoning to us in every word and incident
of the gospel story is tantamount to thrusting God back into his
heaven, out of the world of h u m a n affairs. We make of Christ's
life a divine tour de force, a display to be admired, not a way which
we must tread. In the desert Christ rejected the temptation to
cast himself down from the temple so that men would gaze on him
in awe. He refused to capitalize on his miracles and fled the heroworship which would h~/ve raised him on a pedestal above the
heads of the rest of men. He had not come to assert his divine
transcendance over man but to be a man among men, the Son of
Man, through whom man was to reach God by being moulded into
the pattern of the humanity of Jesus Christ God and man, our
Mediator.
We belittle the divinity of Christ when we try to make Christ
some sort of religious superman. The unity of the divine person
gives us the unshakeable confidence that by penetrating into his
humanity we shall inevitably come face to face with his divinity.
The plenitude of his h u m a n nature is guaranteed by the plenitude
of his divinity. The more we understand his humanity the closer
we shall come to his Godhead. This is, surely, the whole meaning
of devotion to the sacred humanity of Christ, sacred because it is
sanctified and sanctifying. Such devotion is not an easier, because
a more sentimental, way of following Christ. It is the way chosen
by Christ himself, who was crucified in his humanity. And those
who attach themselves to him will find with him their own crucifixion. The Fathers of the Church saw in the lives of the Apostles
the pattern or the normal spiritual progress of the follower of
Christ. Their h u m a n attachment to Christ the man was refined
and transformed in the mystery of his death, resurrection and
ascension. Before the risen Christ they understood how insufficient
their love had been. Genuine though it was, its spark had been
quenched by the flood waters of apparent failure. It was 0nly
rekindled and fanned with apostolic fire by the Spirit of divine

SHARERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE

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love which many waters can never quench. Their human love of
Christ which had fed its loyalty on present success and future
promises was not suppressed but transformed. Results were no
longer the measure of success for these men who rejoiced that they
were considered worthy to suffer and die for Christ. The future
on which their hearts were set was no longer the restoration of a
material kingdom to Israel, but the coming again of the Lord in
his glory, the establishment of the Kingdom of God. They had
glimpsed the glory of the Only-Begotten. Henceforward they were
unable to take the human life of Christ mereIy on its face value.
Now they saw the divine in his every word and action. This did
not lead them to depreciate the humanity of Christ; instead they
prized it all the more because it was transparent to his divinity.
The Apostles' lives reveal the fundamental tension of the christian
life, the passionate love of God's creation crowned by the humanity
of Christ and the yearning to see and share in his uncreated glory.
Like St. Paul's athlete, their hearts were set on the spiritual prize;
but to reach it they took their purchase from the solid earth beneath
their flying feet. Their activity was not a rejection of their human
condition but a re-appraisal of it. The christian does not give up
being human, but he refuses to believe that it is possible to be fully
h u m a n apart from Christ. In other words it is impossible to be fully
a member of the human race without being united in love and
belief with the head of the human race. No man can be a member
unless he belongs to the body. M a n had sinned originally by
attempting to become divine apart from God's help. A d a m and
Eve had tried to take a short cut towards becoming like God. That
attempt was a refusal to follow the way of human history and
progress which God had given them. The result was that not
only did they sever themselves from the friendship of God, but they
also became incapable of transmitting to their descendants the
integral humanity God had given them. The Incarnate Christ
came to restore what had been lost and assure its permanence. In
him we find our sanctity, in the plenitude of his divinity and the
perfection of his humanity.
God incarnate re-affirms before our eyes in word and deed
that the whole of creation is permeated with the divine presence.
All things came from God and all things return to him. By our
faith we enter into that movement and so doing we become like
to God as we work with him. But this means that we must act with
the conviction that every genuinely h u m a n aspect of our lives is

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OFTHE

DIVINE

NATURE

permeated with God's presence. For no zone of our being and

activity is impervious to his active presence. We must not allow
ourselves to be seduced by the serpent of Eden who speaks of God
as if he were absent from his creation. When we disregard God's
presence in creation, we inevitably disregard his presence in ourselves. In this attitude of absence towards God we are easily
persuaded to put all our yearning for fulfilment into some single
material reality - 'if you eat of this fruit you shall be as Gods'. Thus
we surrender the power and eminence God has given man over
creation, for we make a particular material reality an absolute
necessity for ourselves. In that moment we become separated from
God, the Lord of all creation, i n whose image we are created. W e
become slaves when we should be free.
God, it is true, is to be found everywhere, and for that reason
we may only go out towards created things with him. We are free,
not to choose what we like, but to choose freely with God what
he has chosen for us, God gives us a definite rendezvous in creation
and unless we go to meet him there we shall miss him. In Christ
God is drawing us to himself, and we attain perfection only when
we listen first for his call before we act. We must first of all seek the
kingdom of God through Christ, not in a general, abstract way,
b u t here and now in the day-to-day realities of worship, work,
personal relationships, relaxation. In Christ we realise that God is
not extrinsic to anything which is part of human living.
We live so often on the margin of history and creation when
Christ is in its very core and the principle of its being and the bond
of its coherent course. Christ is not absent from our lives, it is we
who are absent from his presence even in the most material aspects
of our lives. We tend to regard our material activity and environment as sanctified and sanctifying only when there is a deliberate
intention on our part - ' M y God I offer this to you'. But we must
remember that it is only God who can give a divine value to
anything. He is not extrinsic to his creation. He transcends it, true
enough, b u t he also permeates it. The truly christian task is to seek
Christ not so much by intention, but by attention, which penetrates
into the h u m a n realities of life and seeks Christ in them. M a r t h a
was busy about many things which she intended for Christ, but
Mary chose the better part of first of all paying attention to him.
Working for Christ means working with him. The intention i n our
lives must spring from the certainty that in this particular reality
of life, this work, this joy, this sorrow, Christ is beckoning me to

S H A R E R S OF T H E D I V I N E N A T U R E

277

his side - 'Come follow me', here and now in this experience. We
do not perform a good work and then offer it to God; the work is
good because from its very inception it is done with Christ. Sanctification is not merely the reward, but also the actual process of
moving towards that reward. In order to reach the end of the road
we must walk along it.
All things were made in Christ and apart from him nothing was
made. Christ's earthly h u m a n life assures us of his divine presence
in the whole of h u m a n living. In his birth we see the glory of our
h u m a n birth. In his work at Nazareth we see that the glory of God
is hidden, crying out to be made manifest in every h u m a n task,
even those we rashly consider to be beneath us. Finally, Christ
penetrated into the ultimate h u m a n reality, death, in order to
make of it a gateway into life.
But this discovery of Christ is only made through detachment,
through refusing to cling to immediate satisfactions even though
they be apparently pious, as for example our attachment to the
humanity of Christ. Just as Christ himself freely detached himself
on the cross from the h u m a n realities h e loved so deeply, the
Mother whose womb had borne him, his beloved disciples, the
city he had wept over, so those who would live with him must be
ready for this death with him. The ultimate crown of our works
which makes their worth eternal can come from God alone. For
this we must put them entirely in his hands, keeping nothing for
ourselves: 'Father into thy hands I commend m y spirit'. True
detachment is not merely relinquishing our grasp on what we have
gained, b u t returning our talents and the interest gained into the
same hands from which we have received them. Detachment is
nothing but barren stoicism if it is not a surrender into the hands
of the Father.
'For the perfection of this life is nothing other than, by means
of faith, hope and charity, to forget entirely what is in the past
and to reach out towards what lies ahead'. 1 Man's search for God,
his quest for sanctity, is never terminated by one brief contact.
Christian living is a continual process of search and discovery, each
leading perpetually to the other. It is not given to man to be
satisfied with the brief glimpse of glory on Thabor; he must pursue
his search deeper into those h u m a n realities of suffering and death
w h e r e God seems to be absent. Between the seeking and the
1 William of St. Thierry P.L. 180, 367.

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NATURE

finding he must wait. But that waiting is not inertia, it is a vital

activity of watchful expectancy which gives him full possession of
himself, so that when the hour comes he goes out to meet the Master.
Fulfilment lies ahead and the christian is false to his vocation when
he attempts to live by looking back over his shoulder. The pagan
yearning for the return to a lost paradise has been transformed in
Christ to the longing for the discovery of the kingdom of God, the
unity of God in all things: a unity which was, is, and shall be.
In the present moment the christian uses the past to reach out
towards a future of glory in Christ.
The christian strives towards his Father who is in heaven. But
he does not fulfil his vocation alone. The very term christian vocation
means a vocation in Christ, in the Church. Nor is the christian
vocation a rejection of his human nature and human environment.
Again it is a vocation in Christ, God and man, in a Church which
is at once glorious and militant. Hence the christian belongs in the
world and belongs to G o d ; t h a t is, he belongs to both in Christ.
For it is only in Christ that earth and heaven cease to be contraries
and come to belong to each other. In Christ we see that we go to
God and fulfil our destiny through our human nature and our
material environment, and not in spite of these. But we do this
only in Christ: in so far, that is, as we live out our human lives
according to the divine values which Christ reveals. Christ shows
us that all the authentic human values are the fruitful soil of the
seed of grace, which does not destroy nature but which perfects it
as it cannot perfect itself.
To accept the limitations inherent in our human nature does
not restrict or lessen our spiritual ideals, any more than the work
of Christ was limited by his becoming man. He who was sent only
to the chosen people of Israel was he who saved mankind. He who
passed through the narrow door of death gave life to the world. The
follower of Christ can never rebel against his material conditioning,
he can never see in material creation, in which he shares by his
body, a mere potentiality for evil. H e can neither capitulate to
materiality and see it as an impassible obstacle to sanctity, nor
can he believe that it is the unqualified means to the sanctification
which is the fulfilment of his destiny. The christian lives with
Christ when he seeks his salvation in medio terrae, in the depths of
material creation, by reconciling in himself the material and the
spiritual, by seeking to reveal the glory of God in his creation. This
is properly the christian task in which man finds his sanctification,

SHARERS

OF THE

DIVINE

NATURE

279

his union with God. For God is at work in the world with his Son,
reconciling the world to himself. 1 Christ came 'to bring together
into one all God's children scattered far and wide'. 2 Newly-born,
he is a rallying-point. Raised up on the cross he is the focal-point
of all creation, drawing all men to himself. Risen and ascended to
his Father he sends the Spirit, the bond of love and truth who
works within his Church that all may be one, within the oneness
of the Trinity. The christian follows his master when his attitudes
and efforts synchronise with this divine work of reconciliation and
unification.
In this work we can be absolutely sure of one thing: Christ,
who alone knows what is in the hearts of men, alone knows our
potentialities. His ambitions for us are the single factor which
should determine our ambitions for him. It is he who sets the pace
for us. We do not control his grace though we are free to accept
or refuse it. But we can be certain that his infinite love and mercy
are ever at work, leading us to break down, one after another, the
finite barriers which we erect to limit our spiritual activity. We
cannot live with Christ still at work and not progress. The very
fact of not wanting to go forward can constitute sin, just the desire
to progress too quickly will inevitably lead to sin. We must learn
to see the material framework of our lives not as the limiting factor
in our spiritual lives but as the raise en sdne of our living with
Christ. God can the better guide and direct us when we take his
viewpoint of the world, and that is a positive one. He sees creation
as good and as material for redemption and glorification; he works
in history, not outside of it. Christ saw sinners as scattered sheep
who needed to be sought out and brought back to safety, he saw
sickness as something to be healed, he saw death as the beginning
of life. The starting-point of christian work is the adoption of such
a positive outlook when we begin to seek within creation the divine
value waiting to be revealed. We prepare for the coming again of
Christ when we strive to make what is opaque, transparent to his
promise. He came to illuminate creation not merely from above
as God, but f r o m within as he grew out of Israel's history in his
h u m a n nature. Only in him d o the events of the Old Testament,
and indeed of all h u m a n history, become luminous with eternal
truth.
Before Christ at Bethlehem we need never fear that being holy
x

C o l l , 20.

~ Jnll,

52.

280

SHARERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE

means becoming less human. We need never look upon our

humanity as an obstacle to sanctification; indeed it would b e a
lack of faith to adopt such an attitude. When we contemplate God
made man we can only conclude that union with God brings out
all that is best in human nature. We are all aware of our weakness :
we realise that the warp of original sins reaches deep into our
being. But Christ came to strengthen with divine power what had
been weakened by human frailty. The power that flowed from him
and healed all bodily infirmities reaches deeper to the diseases of
the soul. Weakness is a prayer for contact with the strengthener,
the Lord who fights for us. Such contact Christ offers us in the
sacraments of his Church. The sacraments are o u r means towards
becoming holy; by living them, (not merely receiving them), we
live with Christ. O u r baptism is a vocation to holiness, our entrance
into the fellowship of a holy Church, which gives us access to the w a y
of holiness by giving us Christ. God's gift of himself is our capacity
to become sons of God, sharers in his work, and, since God's nature
is never separated from his work, to become sharers in his nature
through our work.
Perhaps we fear that too intense a christian life will disrupt our
lives and destroy our privacy. W e may think of intense christianity
in terms of a multiplication of good works, an intensification of
christian activity. We forget the lesson of the widow's mite, indeed
the lesson of Christ's years at Nazareth. But the fact that there
exists in the world a multitude of urgent necessities does not
necessarily mean that I am the one who must do something about
them. The truth is that God saves the world and fulfils its needs
through my co-operation in what he wants of me, not through my
working away at what I imagine he ought to want of me. The
call o f God is always a gentle drawing of us to himself to which
we must respond. We shall become sensitive to that call b y searching for him here and now in our actual circumstances. The Spirit
will lead us from our own Nazareth in due time if such is the will
of God; but for the moment we all h a v e enough material for
sanctification within our grasp. If we are to find the treasure we
must first of all make the field our own, by convincing ourselves
that our material lives are rich with hidden holiness. Such conviction
is given us in Jesus Christ true God and true man. But to attain this
we must begin to live deeper lives, we must dig beneath the surface
of routine. Material creation is not in itself superficial; how could
it be when the presence of God pervades it? The trouble is that we

SHARERS OF T H E D I V I N E N A T U R E

281

so often treat it superficially, we take it at its face value and cheapen

it for ourselves, or take it for granted and never reflect on its wonder.
When the christian approaches his human task with the object
of seeking Christ therein and so revealing to men the glory of his
Father, he begins to live the Eucharist. Through Christ, the
christian offers the Father the fruits of his own labour, the product
of his own life, asking him to perfect any insufficiency. In this
offering we are to flnd~0~r detachment. We hand over our lives
to be completed. Obviously this does not mean loss of interest,
but rejection of self-complacency and self-gratification, for we leave
the achievement of our endeavours to him. The christian sanctifies
himseff within a holy Church whose mission is identified with the
mission of Christ. Christ came on our account. The Church is,
because there is a world to be saved. The christian fulfils his personal
mission by living for others. Christ came f o r o u r sakes and we offer
ourselves with him for everyone. We work so that we m a y give.
We lose ourselves with Christ so that we may live with Christ in God.
The light of the world shines upon us that our faces m a y reflect his
glory before mankind and lead them to adore him 1 to w h o m the
heavens and the earth belong, who is the founder of the world and
all it contains.

Ps 88, 12.

A V I R G I N SHALL CONCEIVE
By J A M E S

WALSI-I

HE Epistle of the second Mass of Christmas reminds us

that the Church, in commemorating the birth of Christ,
is celebrating the birthday of all her members: 'The
kindness of God our saviour has dawned on us, his great
love for m a n . . . In accordance with his own merciful design he
has saved us with the cleansing power which gives us new birth,
and restores our nature through the Holy Spirit'. 1 The same creative
power which overshadowed the Blessed Virgin in the moment of
the Incarnation energises the waters of our Baptism: ~ 'He has
given to the water what he gave to the mother'. 3 The birth of a
child is the manifestation of the creative power of parental love.
The birth of Christ, w h o is the full expression of his Father's
being, a is the perfect manifestation to the world of the infinite
creative love of him who is Creator a n d Father of all and the
source of all parenthood. 5 Before Christ's coming, God had established with his people a relationship whose substance and reality
was to be found in this Son. Because of this Son, God proclaimed
himself the mother as well as the father of his people, declaring a
love that far exceeded the ideal love of the h u m a n parent for the
child. 6 This creative power of the divine love was given to Christ.
By its means the Church was to be born and come to full maturity:
'All power is given to m e ~ . . , as the Father sent me, so I send
you'. 8 Christ sends those whom his Father h a s chosen and has
confided to the Son's care. As Son, he never arrogates to himself
the rifle of Father, not even with respect to 'his own'. But by his
Father's gift, the apostles, and all those who are to find faith in
him through his apostles' words, 9 belong to him. They are the
m a n y for whom he shall give his blood 10 and lay down his life, in
order to give them everlasting life. 11All these are born from his side
on Calvary, through the creative power of his Father's love. When
Christ sends his apostles, he confers upon them this same power.

1 Tit 3, 4--6.
(PL 54, 211).
8 Cf. supra, p. 256.

Ibid. Sermo 25

Jn 17, 20.

~ St. Leo the Great, Sermo 24 (PL 54, 206).

Heb 1, 3.
5 Eph 3, 15.
~ Mt 28, 18.
8 Jn 20, 21.
1o Mk 14, 24.
11 Jn 10, 15-16.

A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE

283

He is the link between the Father who sent him and those whom he
sends at the behest of his Father.
The apostle, then, in being sent to share in the Father's work of
love, is invested through the Son with the Father's creative power.
He is called to work with the Father in bringing Christ to birth
in the hearts of others. And in making the Father's will his own,
he becomes the mother of Christ: 'If anyone does the will of m y
father in heaven, he is m y mother'. 1
This is the traditional spiritual teaching of the Church: that
there is a parallel between what happened historically at Bethlehem
when the fullness of time was come, and what is fulfilled in every
Christian soul whose baptism is fruitful: whose life, that is, is
patterned after the life of the Word of God. ~ And, though without
the historical birth of Christ there could have been no spiritual
begetting, yet the spiritual birth surpasse s the natural in its power
and effect: 'The virgins are mothers of Christ with M a r y if they
do the will of his Father. For according to this precept, M a r y
herself is the mother of Christ in a more praiseworthy and blessed
way'. 3 Through the virgin birth of Christ, every Christian receives
the divine creative power to become, in himself, the Mother of
Christ: 'The child born within us is Jesus, and in each one who
receives him he grows in various ways in wisdom and age and
grace'. 4 And God himself is the Father of the Christ in us: 'This
birth comes from God. It is fuLfilled every time the immortality
of the spirit is conceived in the living earth which is the heart of
a man; for then he is giving birth to holiness and purity'. 6
When Christ comes to maturity in his heart, the Christian becomes aware that he is sent as Christ is sent: to co-operate with the
Father in bringing Christ to birth in others. Paul says to his Galatians: 'My little children, I am in labour afresh until I can see
Christ's image formed in you'. s Gregory the Great develops the
thought: 'He who is the brother a n d sister of Christ by believing,
becomes the mother of Christ by preaching truth; for he gives
birth to our Lord by bringing him into the hearts of his hearers.
And he is the mother of Christ who by his words inspires the love
of the Lord in the heart of his neighbour'. ~
1
3
4
6
6

Mt 12, 49.
2 St. Gregory of Nyssa, De Virginitate (PG 46, 324).
St. Augustine, De Sancta Virginitate (PL 40, 399).
St. Gregory of Nyssa, Gommentariura in Gantica Cantorum (PG 46, 828).
St. Gregory of Nyssa, De Virginitate (PG 46, 280).
Gal 4, 19.
v St. Gregory the Great, 3rdhomily on the Gospels (PL 76, 1086).

284

A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE

The qualities of motherhood which abound in this divine creative

love bestowed on the apostle belong to Christ himself. H e spoke of
his maternal love for those who, in rejecting him, rejected his
Father. 1 And it is he who gives birth to the Church in the pains
of his passion and death: 'You died in child-birth and brought
forth b y your death. In your desire to bring forth children unto
life you tasted death'. ~ 'Jesus is our true Mother in kind', says the
English mystic, Julian of Norwich, 'of our first making; and he is
our true Mother in grace by his taking of our made kind. All the
fair working and all the sweet kindly offices of most dear motherhood are appropriated to the second P e r s o n . . . The mother's
service is nearest, readiest and surest; nearest: for it is most of kind;
readiest: for it is most of love; surest: for it is most of truth. This
office no one might or could ever do to the full, except he a l o n e . . .
Our true mother Jesus; he alone beareth us to j o y and to endless
living'. 3 This concept of Christ's motherhood may not have an
immediate appeal to the modern western mind. But it is one that
can serve to deepen our appreciation of the title 'mother' and to
teach us a little more about the spiritual birth and growth of Christ
in the hearts of the faithful. The apostle needs an awareness and
an understanding of the Christ in his heart and how h e i s t o be
formed, before he can bring him to birth in the hearts of others.
The birth of Christ is always a virgin birth. Every mother of
Christ must be holy, as was Mary, with the holiness of Christ.
Though Christ dwelt among men and was like to them in all
things except sin, a yet he sets himself apart; for he is consecrated
to the service o f God his Father. The function of priestly celibacy
and consecrated virginity is to make manifest to the world this
holiness and 'apartness ', this spiritual virginity which is a mark
of the true Church of Christ. So Paul tells the members of the
Church at Corinth: 'I have espoused you to one husband, that I
may present you a chaste virgin to Christ'. ~ The Church is 'a
virgin in purity:of heart and in the perfection of love'. 6 The celibacy
of the priest, the virginity of the vowed religious, is an image of
the union of the divine and human natures in Christ's virginal
conception and birth: 'The Lord appeared in our flesh and fulfilled
in himself the perfect union of the human and divine; and since
1 Mt 23, 37.
~ St. Anselm, Orationes, 65(PL 158, 98I).
3 The Revelations of Divine Love, London 1961, pp. 162, 163.
Heb4,15.
5 2Cor11,2.
6 The Venerable Bede, on St. John's Gospel (PL 92, 675).

A VIRGIN

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CONCEIVE

285

then, the eternal virginity of the heavenly life has graced humankind'. 1
The same demands made by the Father in the call and the
sending of the incarnate Christ are made by Christ himself in the
call and sending of the priest and the religious (and, indeed, of
every Christian who is sufficiently aware of the spiritual birth and
growth of Christ in him): 'As God's chosen children you must be
like him. Order your lives in charity, upon the model of that
Charity which Christ shewed to us, when he gave himself up on
our behalf, a sacrifice breathing out fragrance as he offered it to
God'. 2 This total dedication, this sacrificial single-minded love
which inspired Christ's every thought and action from the moment
of his incarnation to its consummation on Calvary, is the offering
o f the priest and the religious (and, in a different measure, the
offering of all those who, though not called to the life of virginity,
nevertheless realise the full implications of their baptism and wish
to fulfil them).
Christ came to bear witness to the ineffable love of his Father
for mankind; his witness is achieved in the union of the divine and
human natures, a union sealed by his blood. Human perfection
consists in the achievement, personal and collective, of this same
union of love with the person of Christ: 'The true God became
man that I might become God as fully as he has become man'.
So it is that the ideal human achievement, the perfect witness, is
martyrdom. The martyr is the true replica of the holiness of Christ
the King of martyrs, of his single-minded sacrificial love. The
standard of the Church's holiness has always been the perfect work
of love which is martyrdom.~ For true charity demands the total
death to s e l f - the mind which Christ shewed from the moment of
incarnation to his death on the Cross.4 It is because consecrated
virginity proclaims this total renunciation, this kenosis, of Christ,
that it is traditionally accepted as the equivalent of martyrdom. 5
It is in some ways superior to actual martyrdom, because it is
the full acceptance of the Incarnation on a day-to-day basis. The
virgins are those who 'are always being given up to death for
Jesus' sake, so that the living power of Jesus may be manifested
in this mortal nature, n Consecrated virginity is the manifestation,
x St. Ambrose, De Virginlbus (PL 16, 192).
2 E p h 5, I-2.
s Cf. OrigenExhortatio adMartyrium (PG 11,563 ft.).
4 Phil 2, 5 If.
CF. Francois Viller, Martyre et Perfection and Le Martyre et l'asc~se, in Revue d'ascdtique
et de mystique, 1925 pp. 3-25, 105-142.
6 2 Cot 4, 10.

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A VIRGIN

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CONCEIVE

in the daily round, of Christ's sacrificial love. The virgins are

those who allow the sufferings of Christ to overflow into their
lives, for the salvation of others. 1
The birth of Christ, then, in the hearts of all true believers
'virgins in f a i t h ' - (but more especially in the hearts of those
'who are become sterile for the kingdom of God' 2) is to establish
what Christ himself came to re-establish: the true relationship
between Creator and creature, Father and child, Bridegroom and
bride. 'As Christ comes into the world he says, No sacrifice, no
offering was thy demand; thou hast endowed me, instead, with a
b o d y . . . See then, I said, I am coming to fulfil what is written
of me, where the book lies unrolled: to do thy will, O my God'. ~
Through the birth of Christ in us at baptism, we become docile
creatures, obedient children, faithful brides; we receive Christ's
innocence and holiness. But Christ comes from heaven into our
hearts propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem - f o r the salvation
of all human-kind: The acceptance of Christ, in the priestly or
religious vocation especially, is the positive acceptance of the fullest
share in the redemptive work of love by which men are born into
the Church. The baptised, in receiving Christ, are initiated into
the freedom of Christ. But it is when they are called and sent as
Christ was sent that they become 'disciples in earnest' in their
fidelity to his command. ~ Christ's freedom as a human being
consists essentially in his positive determination of himself to do
always what pleases his Father 5 _ 'behold I come to do thy will'.
The priestly orders, the vows of religious, are an assimilation to
the salvific obedience of Christ, and the free binding of the self to
the uttermost limits of self-renunciation in sacrifice and service:
'His nature is from the first, divine, and yet he did not see, in the
rank of Godhead, a prize to be coveted; he dispossessed h i m s e l f . . .
and then he lowered his own dignity, accepted an obedience which
brought him to death, death on a cross'. 6 When Paul reflects on
the vocation of Christ's apostles, he says that they appear destined
by God to be in the lowest place of all, like men under sentence of
death. 7 They share with Christ all that he accepts from the hand
of the Father for the sake of the brethren: becoming altogether like
them, feeling for them, their true representative before G o d ,
making atonement for them. s They are ready to be exhibited as

1 2Cor 1,5,6.
Jn8,29.

~ M t 19, 12.
~ Phil 2, 6-8.

3 H e b 10,5-7.
~ 1Cor4,9ff.

~ Jn8,31.
s Heb2,17.

A VIRGIN

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CONCEIVE

287

captives in Christ's triumph, t his humble and suffering servants.

So often the glory of the priest or the religious would seem to
reside in the authority which the Church confers on them, and in
the consequent respect which Christ's faithful accord them, as
though the priest were set apart in order to lord it over others,
to have them make way for him and doff their hats to him. The
reverse is the truth. The glory of Christ, the dignity accorded him
by his Father, is enshrined in the obedience and humility which
brought him to share every h u m a n weakness and the summation
of them all - death: 'That is why God has raised him to such a
height'.
In his acceptance of the Incarnation, the apostle learns true
knowledge of himself; he has Christ to his credit only because he
casts away whatever else m a y appear to sustain him or give him
dignity and self respect. ~ Christ lives in him only because he is
nailed with Christ to the cross. 4 The incarnate Christ has constructed out of h u m a n weakness the lamp in which his Father's glory
can shine out. 6 H u m a n nature, with all its limitations and torments
is now the vehicle of the Lord's glory; 8 it is the Christopher, the
bearer of Christ.
The Christ whom the apostle is sent to bring forth in the hearts
of others is the Christ he carries in his own heart: the suffering
servant of the all-wise Creator, the obedient son of the all-loving
Father, the Christ whose love for his own is that of a mother for
her hapless children. Ultimately, the priest is worthy of the name
'Father' only in so far as, in his own likeness to Christ, he shares
in the creative love of God. It is the same with the religious who
bears the name 'brother', 'mother' or 'sister'. Each title signifies a
vital relationship with Christ in his relationship with his Father;
and the titles are valid only in terms of the work of love which the
Father sent his Son to do.
The apostle must first experience for himself and in himself
that God has sent his Son to be the redeemer of the world. 7 Only
then can he testify to the truth before others. It is the Christ that
is formed in him, whom he has learnt to recognise, that he begets
in others: the Christ who is crucified and glorified by suffering
humility and obedience. Christ is always the radiance of his Father's
splendour s a n d gives glory to the Father in every aspect of the work
1 1 Cor 4, 9 IT.
s 2Cor4,6ff.

~ Phil 2, 9 IT.
B 2Cor12,9.

8 Phil 3, 4--9.
~ 1Jn4,14.

4 Gal 2, 19-20.
8 H e b l , 3.

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A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE

which his Father sent him to achieve. 1 It is impossible for the

apostle to fulfil this mission without detaching himself from selflove and self-aggrandisement in any and every form. In sharing
the fatherhood of God and the motherhood of Christ, he is essentially committed to Christ's humility and obedience. The Christ he
accepts is the Word made flesh in the womb of the Virgin, the
Christ who is born in utter helplessness at Bethlehem. So Paul
names himself 'slave of our Lord', and the title Christ's mother
gives herself is 'handmaid'.
Over the centuries the Church has been divinely taught to
recognise her mission and its fulfilment in M a r y the Mother of
God. The ideal of the apostolate - Christ's humble obedience and
single-minded sacrificial love - is discovered in her progress from
Nazareth to Calvary. The eulogies of divine wisdom, the attributes
of Christ's motherhood belong, as of right, to her who is the Seat
of Wisdom and the mother of fair Love. The Fathers have not
hesitated to say that the Church is born of her, since the whole
Christ is born of her. ~ And the Christ who is born in us will come
to maturity in us and, through us, in others, only if our witness
is one with the witness of the Queen of Martyrs: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; may it be done unto me according to thy word'.

a 2 Jn 17, 4.
Cf. Hugo Rahner, S.J., Our Lady and the Church, (London, 1961)~ pp. 33-57.

YOU

WILL
A CHILD
By GABRIEL

FIND
REIDY

EVOTION to the infancy of our Lord is implicit in the

infancy narratives of the gospels of SS. Matthew and Luke,
and in the primitive apostolic preaching which lies behind
them. It must have been there already, germinally, in the
earliest Christian life, if only to explain how it was that St. Matthew,
departing from the normal sobriety of his manner, chose to include
so dramatic an episode as that of the Magi's visit, so full of colour
and movement. Similarly with St. Luke's first two chapters. Wherever he obtained his special information about the very beginning of
Jesus, and tradition has always suggested M a r y herself as the source,
he would scarcely have given it such pride of place at the head of
his gospel, unless he was aware that it was already an integral and
acceptable part of the apostolic preaching. From then onwards, the
gate is open: children and people of childlike simplicity m a y enter
in and take their part in this solemn but lowly preface to their
Saviour's life and work. Devotion to the humanity of Jesus, even in
his babyhood, is henceforth and forever a valid introduction to the
total mystery of the divine Word incarnate. This sort of devotion,
and the practices to which it gives rise, particularly that whole
'way' of christian living which St. Th4r6se of Lisieux, with all a
child's boldness, would call 'little, and hers', and then bequeath to
us all, m a y without fanciful exaggeration be claimed as something
as primitive and venerable as the Church herself.
No more is attempted in these pages than to glean a little here
and there in the rich harvest of christian reflection upon the Infancy
of Christ throughout the ages. It will be enough to show that a full
and balanced spiritual life has been and still can be built around, or
at least inaugurated by, devout attention to the first recorded events
in our Lord's earthly existence. The liturgical celebration of the
Epiphany, even in its restricted western form, with devout meditation based on traditional spiritual interpretations of the elements of
the Magi's visit, has enough doctrinal content, and prompt adequate
affective responses, to lead us to the whole mystery of Christ.

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YOU WILL FIND A CHILD

Nowadays, in the west, we are apt to take our Christmas and

Epiphany devotions for granted. We seldom stop to ask, for instance,
how, when and where the Magi first got into the crib. From the
standpoint of the earliest Christian art, as from that of the fully
developed modern crib, the question in that form may seem to lack
meaning. So also if we think of medieval mystery plays done on composite stages, or turn to the liturgies or typical ikons of the east. In a
sense, there never was a time when the Magi were not there, along
with the shepherds, the angels, and the Holy Family itself. Yet how
did the Magi come by their royalty, their names and their complexions, to say nothing of their previous and subsequent careers? And
why three of them, rather than just two, or four or more? Admittedly
such speculations have not greatly distracted the minds of the devout, nor do they still; the questions that have always mattered more
are ' W h o m did they represent?', 'What did they do?' and 'What
is the significance of their gifts?' Consequently we need not concern
ourselves greatly with the minor and accidental modes of the cultus,
the purely local and temporal modes of its expression associated
either with the Middle Ages or that later phase which received so
great an impulse in seventeenth-century France. Doubtless, a good
deal of all this can still be traced in modern Catholic devotional life,
at least as 'survivals'. It will be enough to illustrate the more substantial and enduring results of this manner of reflecting on the life
of Our Lord.
If, in search for the roots of this devotion, we turn to the scriptures,
we may distinguish, to begin with, in the Old Testament, a double
line of mounting, prophetic hope, pointing always to a fuller divine,
self-revelation in the 'last times'. The God of Israel will show forth
His glory more openly than in the partial and figurative theophanies
of the past. Furthermore, a God-sent messenger will come amongst
his people, a Messias who will found a kingdom, complete and transcend all previous communications, and bring about the eternal plan
of salvation. These two traditions merge together in Christ of the
New Testament: he is both the longed-for Messias and God's own
Son incarnate. The 'last times' are Christian times. His Kingdom,
the Church, in what she teaches about her own nature and work, especially in Eucharistic theology, shows us how we may enter ever
more effectively into union with our Head. Individual responses to
this doctrine are personal and may be very varied, but by whatever
door one enters, it must lead to the fullness of this pattern or it will
serve only to mislead us. Wherever a Christian first meets Christ,

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whenever he first hears Christ's voice, the ultimate goal is the same union with Our Lord by grace and love.
It is possible to object that Christ's infancy, or even more a single
aspect of it such as the Epiphany, is not really adequate from this
point of view. Does it possess enough theological content by itself:
does it really provide an effective devotional entry into the whole of
the Christian mystery? It is a commonplace that the Nativity aspect,
especially as exteriorised in the devotion to the crib, m a y in certain
circumstances become impoverished, through being viewed in too
h u m a n and sentimental a fashion. Might it not be urged that the
Epiphany aspect too, can only be made significant when it is 'blownup', glamourised and romanticised a little, by eking out the meagre
gospel data with the aid of much apocryphal legend, and pious but
uncritical interpretation? One must be forewarned against possible
dangers, but the objection is confuted by the tradition of many centuries.-Innumerable saints and holy persons through the ages have in
fact successfully nourished and enriched their spiritual lives by cultivating a devotional attitude of this kind.
Devotion to the Infancy was, then, virtually existent, in its essentials, from the outset, as the oak is present in its acorn. But how can
we date its more explicit emergence into Christian spirituality?
Those who practice any devotion will very naturally try to trace
back its roots to the gospel, or to the practices of the earliest Christians of all. It is not astonishing, therefore, to find the claim that Mary and Joseph are the first patrons of the Infancy devotion. T h e y had
the first close a n d physical contact with the Sacred Infant. So had,
or might have had, Simeon and Anna. Later on there will be m a n y
who will aspire to imitate them by holding Jesus in their arms spiritually. Some of them, either through a more vivid imagination, or
through genuine and objective supernatural visions, will convince
themselves and others that such embraces have actually occurred.
Mystics and poets will describe these intimacies, and artists will try
to depict them. We shall come to envisage St. Antony of Padua and
m a n y others, as we do St. Joseph, holding the Infant in their arms.
I f we accept this as a symbol of the union which devotion to the
I n f a n c y may produce, Origen ranks as a pioneer, for he is amongst
the first who, even in the third century, hints at the future developments. He uses the expression of St. Luke, 'the infant Jesus', as a
current expression, and in commenting upon the rune Dirnittis, he
invites the Christian to imitate Simeon, 'and take Jesus into his
arms, and hold him entirely to his breast'. He adds; 'Let us pray to

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Almighty God, that we too, in our turn, m a y take the Son of God
and embrace him, and merit the graces of pardon and progress. Let
us also pray to this Infant Jesus himself, to whom we desire to speak
whilst we hold him in our arms'. 1 St. Gregory of Nazianzus also,
preaching on the feast of the Theophanies, takes up the same theme.
'We have run with the star, adored with the Magi, have been fascinated with the shepherds, and chanted the divine glory with the
angels. With Simeon we have taken the Infant into our arms, and
with that saintly old woman Anna, we have given praise to God'. 2
But these are no more than hints.
For the most part, these sparse and tentative indications of what
the future might bring did not prevail against the customary attitude
of the Fathers. T h e y preferred a severely didactic and theological
use of the infancy narratives of the gospel. Engaged as they were for
centuries in the defence of the orthodox christological positions
against heresy, they could not but be interested in every aspect of
Christ's sacred humanity; but any devotional response they m a y
have felt towards the infancy of Jesus is less in evidence. Thus the
Christmas and Epiphany liturgies were viewed chiefly as expressions of christological dogmas, and occasions for preaching them to
the people. They were what we should now term 'feasts of ideas'
rather than historical anniversaries of episodes in the h u m a n life of
Our Lord. Hymn-writers for such feasts might sometimes strike a
more lyrical, though hardly a more 'devotional' note. The fabricators
of the apoc~phaembroidered freely on the gospel texts, to fill up what
they regarded as the gaps in them, often with imaginary, grotesque
and tasteless miracles, attributed to the period of his Infancy. Their
outlook and aims were, however, in line with those of the Fathers:
to furnish extra, even paradoxical proofs of Christ's divinity, even
in babyhood. All this bore little devotional fruit, relatively speaking.
The feature of ancient Christian times, therefore, which approaches
nearest to our notion of devotional practice, is the growing habit of
pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Bethlehem and Nazareth, because of
the Infancy, were only a shade less popular than Jerusalem, the
site of the Passion. St. Jerome was only too proud to claim that he
was 'a lover of the inn of Bethlehem and of Our Lord's Manger'.
He settled himself there with his favourite disciples, and we shall
never know how m a n y pilgrims he inspired to come there from
Rome, from the Gauls and Spain, and every part of the known world.
i

PG 13,1838-9.

~ Oratio 59, XIV, PG 36, 349-50.

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Devotion to the Infancy, in fact, remained in a more or less unorganised and undeveloped form until the dawn of the Middle Ages.
There was, accordingly, little distinction between its various aspects;
between, for instance, the Nativity and the visit of the Magi,
Christmas a n d the Epiphany. But the distinction begins to be of
importance from the fifth century, when there was a liturgical exchange between east and west. The former accepted the western
Christmas in addition to their own already established nativity celebrations, and the latter took the Epiphany from the east where it
had originated, and very soon reduced it and focused the attention
almost exclusively on the adoration of the Magi. It is of interest to
set side by side two texts illustrative of the exchange and of the
persistence of the notions about the Epiphany characteristic of the
two parts of the Church. St. J o h n Chrysostom is only one example
out of m a n y Easterns for whom the western notion of the Epiphany,
or indeed any aspect of the Infancy, hardly deserves to be regarded
as a 'manifestation' at all. 'We give this day the name of Epiphany',
he explains, 'because the Saviour's saving grace was manifested to
all. Now why is it not the day that he was born, but rather the day
that he was b a p t i s e d . , because his manifestation to all men does not
date from his birth but from his baptism, for till then not m a n y had
known him'. x Chrysostom's criterion for manifestation is its public
and official character. None of the spiritually precious 'hidden life'
seems to count for very much from this somewhat rigid point of
view. St; Maximus of Turin, also writing in the fifth century, is more
accommodating. He writes, 'Although the tradition of the ancients
about this feast is various, the belief of holy devotion is all one.
Though some think that today Our L o r d . . . at the leading of a
star .:.. was adored by the Magi, others assert that he changed the
water into wine, whilst others i n s i s t . . , that he was baptised, in all
these things there is belief in the Son of God, a n d our festival is
concerned with all of them'. * Actually the western memory continued to recall the triple object of the feast from time to time, and
indeed still does so today, in the hymns and major antiphons; but
all the emphasis has been placed, especially since the time of St.
Augustine, upon the adoration of the Magi. We are not at all surprised today that this should be called the 'manifestation' of Our
Lord; it is rather a text like that of Chrysostom that astonishes us
when we first meet with it.
1 De Baptismo Christi, PG 49, 565-6.

~ De Epiphania Domini VII, PL 57,293.

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We have five Epiphany sermons of St. Augustine; they make

mention of no other object but the adoration of the Magi. This could
only come about by developing the theme of the representativecharacter of the Magi. They stand for the gentile, or non-Jewish, world
into which Christ came. Similar spiritual interpretations of their
journey, their adoration, and particularly their symbolic gifts, are
equally relevant to the process. For Augustine and his followers,
Christmas or the nativity is primarily the manifestation of God made
m a n to the old Chosen People, while the Epiphany is his manifestation to the Church.
Pope St. Leo the Great had recourse to the same themes in his
preaching on the Epiphany. For him the episode contains art 'evident sign of the gentiles' 'vocation', and the three Magi are 'representatives of all the peoples who worship the world's author, that
God may be known not only in J u d a e a but throughout the whole
universe'. He writes: 'This star which warned the Magi living far
away, and drew them to the Lord Jesus, is without any doubt, the
mystery of grace and a sign of v o c a t i o n . . , the star which illuminated the eyes of the Magi did not illuminate the eyes of the Israelites. It signifies the light revealed to the gentiles, and the blinding of
the Jews'. 1 The Pope is still using materials familiar to his predecessors, and speaking as a dogmatic teacher rather than as a spiritual
guide. It is therefore all the more important to emphasise the fact
that he is also amongst the first to assert explicitly the practical value
of 'spiritual infancy' as a mark of Christ's followers. Here, Leo
holds out a hand across the centuries to St. Thdrrse of Lisieux,
whose 'way' of infancy, in substance if not in the modes of expression which she adopted, is probably regarded by most people, as
the most solid, permanent legacy of devotion to the Infancy. Commenting upon a passage from St. Matthew's gospel, 2 Pope Leo says,
'Christ loves infancy, wherein he himself began, both body and
soul. he loves it as a mistress of humility, a rule of innocence, and a
model of goodness. Christ loves infancy, and guides towards it even
the most grown-up and the aged. He proposes it as a model for all
whom he raises to the eternal kingdom'. 3 Far from countenancing
any tendency towards infantilism, Leo stresses the goal of Christian
maturity to which this 'way' is meant to lead. 'Not to the games of
babyhood, nor to its awkward rumblings, must we return; we
a In Epiphanlae Sogemnitate, Sermo V, 1.
3 In Epiphaniae Solernnitate, Sermo V I I , 3.

~ M t 8,3-4.

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desire from it something more becoming to the gravity of age - quick

appeasement of anger, prompt return to calm, forgetfulness of offences, indifference to honours, love of brotherly union, and equanimity.
What a blessing it is, not to know how to hurt, not to have any taste
for w i c k e d n e s s . . , such is the serenity of Christian infancy'?
When Europe entered the Middle Ages, the devotion to Christ's
infancy found itself in an atmosphere more congenial for its growth.
There was more relish for the concrete, more affectivity, or a freer
display of it; people sought spiritual satisfaction in warmer, sometimes more exuberant types of personal devotion. The theological
content of the liturgy now became relatively less important than its
narrative and historical - occasionally pseudo-historical - elements.
There was a taste for lively detail, and little pre-occupation with
accuracy. This affective piety passed down from the more learned
and cultured of clerics and religious, and spread through mystics,
artists and poets to a wider public. The new accents, including a
note of real human tenderness, can be heard even in a fierce castigator of clerical and monastic defects like St. Peter Damian, as well
as in the gentler, more urbane St. Anselm. But devotion to the Infant Jesus only reached its full stature by coming into contact with
two affective streams of piety which were especially favourable to
its development - those of the Cistercians and the Franciscans.
The Cistercian or 'Bernardine' influence inaugurated a tradition
of meditating Christ's human life point by point. St. Bernard's own
childhood memory of a vision of the divine Infant was, doubtless, a
root cause of this habit. It left its traces throughout his works,
especially in all he said about the birth of Christ, his naming, and
the adoration of the three kings. The other Cistercian spiritual
teachers were not slow to follow his example. Amongst them, St.
Aelred of Rievaulx stands out by reason of his well-known little
treatise on The Child Jesus at Twelve Years Old3 He does not, of
course, deal with the Epiphany aspect of the devotion in this work,
but he does elsewhere. It is &interest to compare a Chapter sermon
of his on this subject with the texts from St. Leo. They dwell on the
same themes, but the tone is different. The pope expounds dogmatic
lessons to the Church, whilst the monk sets a more homely, domestic
meditation before his brethren. 'What tidings', he asks them, 'are
better or more welcome than the news that he who lay in a manger
was God O u r Lord, and Saviour of the whole world ? Pagans heard
1

Ibid., 4.

2 PL 184, 849-79.

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the tidings, and so did theJews. Up till then the Jews had been alive
and the pagans dead: then, the pagans came alive and the Jews
died. When these k i n g s . . , learnt through the star they had seen
in the east, of Our Lord's birth, they came with gifts to adore him:
but when Herod heard the news, he sought, with the Jews, by some
trick to kill him. T h e n it was that began the blindness in Israel of
which St. Paul speaks; then also began to rise that light which the
Lord through his Prophet promised to the Church which was to be
gathered from amongst the gentiles'.! Aelred, however, is not altogether content with the notion of a C h u r c h that was only 'to be
gathered': it may, ill a sense, be back-dated to the Epiphany. For,
'to whom did that star call? Obviously not to the blinded J e w s . . .
The church began to be born today, in those pagans who saw the
star and understood its m e a n i n g . . , in these three kings the Church
arose'. 2 St. Aelred then allegorises the persons and objects of the
gospel iI1 customary medieval fashion. Simeon and Anna, Elisabeth
and Zachary, et caeteri spirituales, stand for the devout of every age:
the star is Holy Scripture; the gifts are our Christian - our monastic
virtues. 'Since', he concludes, 'we should not come to Christ empty-handed, nor so adore him, prepare your gifts for him. Offer him
gold, or pure charity, incense or pure prayer, myrrh or your bodily
mortifications. God will be pleased with you for such gifts. So, may
he rise upon you, and his glory be seen in you'.3
Amongst the more interesting devotional relics from this age and
ill the same spiritual current, is the testimony, not of a Cistercian,
but of a Benedictine nun. It is that of St. Elisabeth of Schonau, the
well-known twelfth-century visionary. Her life, written by her brother, E g b e r t of Schonau, a Benedictine abbot, contains what purports to be a diary of hers, in which are two accounts of visions during
the Epiphany liturgy in the years 1154 and 1155. The former and
shorter account runs thus: 'In first vespers I saw three crowned
kings, standing before the throne. Coming near they adored on
bended knee, before the Son of Man. Taking the crowns from their
heads they offered them into his hands, and then received them back
from him. O n the day itself at Mass I saw the same three, adoring
before the Lord Jesus, and they were seen to give into his hands I
know not what shining little gifts'. 4 The point about the crowns
offered and then received back again is curious. Can it have any-

x In Apbariaone Domlni, PL 195,228.

4 Vita de S. Elizabeth Schonaugiensis (die

2 Ibid., 229.
3 Ibld., 233--.4.
18a oTunil), Acta Sanaorum, oTunii 11I, p. 618 E.

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thing tO do with the struggle between Empire a n d P a p a c y ? Is it, perhaps, an editorial touch by Egbert, a known propagandist? Notice
how vague Elisabeth is concerning the nature of the gifts. Even
after twelve months during which she could have easily informed
herself through natural channels concerning them, she is content to
remain only a shade less vague in her second vision. Apparently they
were not of great interest to her. The act of adoration and the obvious ldngliness of the visitors occupied the centre of her field of attention. The account of the 1155 vision runs: 'The Lord multiplied his
grace upon me and I saw in spirit our Lady and her little Baby,
dwelling, as it were, in a certain house placed a long way off. Behold,
three men, in kingly garments, c a m e in, and bending the knee adored the child. One of them, holding out a large golden coin stamped,
it seemed, with the royal image, offered it into his hands. Similarly,
the other two, coming up, reverently offered their gifts in certain
vessels'. 1 Elisabeth then recalls visions of the Cana miracle and the
J o r d a n baptism.
T h e Franciscan movement was another favourable stream of
affectivity, in which Bernardine themes could still further mature.
St. Francis himself had such a devotion to Christmas that he wished
it to be a universal festival, in w h i c h even animals could share.
And the story of what he did to celebrate the feast one year at
Greccio is amongst the best known episodes of his life. He imparted
this devotion to St. Clare, who is amongst the saints who were
favoured with mystical graces - in her case, a 'locution' - connected
with the Infant Jesus. But for the Seraphic Patriarch him,.'elf, the
particular aspect of the Epiphany does not loom very large. It is
merely the end of his favourite feast, and he mentions it in hi~ writings 0nly as the beginning of the 'fast of benediction'. It has been
suggested t h a t Franciscan churches o f the earlier period favoured
representations of the Nativity, whilst Dominican churches chose
rather the Epiphany. If this generalisation is valid for art, there are
other respects w h e r e it needs, seemingly, to be reversed, notably in
the structure of the rosary. The Franciscan version - the c o r o n a of
the Seven J o y s - includes the adoration of the Magi as its fourth
mystery; whereas the episode finds no place at all in the fifteen
mysteries of the Dominican rosary. The Seraphic Doctor, St.
Bonaventure, has left us more than twenty sermons preached on the
Epiphany, to all sorts of audiences - the university of Paris, his
*

Ibid., 625, D & E.

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Franciscan brethren and m a n y other religious of different Orders,

the royal court of King Louis. It would be impossible to summarise
or even quote at length from them here, but we are fortunate in
having also one of those miniature works in which he so excelled;
it contains all the marrow of his thought on the subject. It is the
little treatise On the five festivities of the Infant Jesus) which merits
comparison with St. Aelred's work on the Child in the Temple.
Despite the title, the five liturgical feasts chosen are only a framework and the starting-point for a little book of methodical prayer,
centred upon the 'mysteries' of our Lord's Infancy. It is, in a way,
the opposite process to that of St. Francis at Greccio. Francis had
wanted to 'exteriorise' the spiritual data of the Christmas feast.
Here, Bonaventure wishes to 'interiorise' the outward and more
obvious significance of the five feasts which he has chosen from the
Nativity cycle. It is the aim of the little work to make the 'devout
reader' able to conceive Christ spiritually, to give birth to him
spiritually, to name him Jesus, adore him with the Magi, and present him in the Temple: all spiritually, with the aid, of course, of a
good dosage of allegory. Irt the fourth section, Bonaventure shows
himself quite as ingenious as Aelred in the manipulation of these
allegories. Admittedly, it is a medieval manner which is apt to sound
arbitrary to the modern ear, and very soon grows irksome; but
St. Bonaventure is a past master in the technique. He sustains it
with consideraable unction, and there is plenty of evidence of an
external sort to prove that he supplied many generations of devout
Christians with some quite germinable 'seeds for contemplation'. In
his version of the matter the three kings - reges devoti, reges devotissimi
turn out to be the three powers of the soul. David's royal city of
Bethlehem is 'the whole fabric of the world', viewed through the
eye of a Franciscan; and the symbolic gifts, as with Aelred, are the
virtues, and practically the same virtues. Here is a characteristic
exhortatory passage: 'Offer, I say, the gold of ardent love, the incense
of devoted comtemplation, and the myrrh of bitter sorrow. The
gold of love because of the gifts that he has given, the incense of
prayer because of the joys prepared and the myrrh of sorrow because
of sins committed. The gold to his eternal divinity, the incense to
the holiness of his soul, and the myrrh to the passibility of his body'.
With the climax of the medieval synthesis of the thirteenth century
all the main lines of devotion towards the Infant Jesus had been
-

1 S. Bonaventurae 010era Omnia, Vol. V I I I (Quaraechl 1889), 93-8.

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explored, and all its principal themes elaborated. There were to be

many fresh impulses in the future, notably that imparted to the
devotion in the seventeenth century by Bfrulle, the Oratorians and
the Carmelites of France. But as Bremond points out, the B6rullian
manner was, in several respects, too rarefied and intellectually austere to become really popular. Thus, as it filtered down to a wider
public, so it tended also to hark back to the simpler styles of medieval affective piety: according to Bremond, 'to the more ancient,
Franciscan type of devotion'. Nesta de Robeck in her work on the
crib side of the devotion generalises thus: 'Not only the Franciscans
of the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries celebrated the Christmas crib, but also the newer Orders that were arising in the wave
of enthusiasm for the Counter-Reformation, a wave as vital if more
turgid than that of the thirteenth c o n t u r y . . . Devotion to the holy
Infancy was widespread, though it was a more self-conscious, more
sophisticated devotion than that of the immediate followers of St.
Francis'. The characteristic practices of this later time, local shrines,
pictures, confraternities, novenas and months of special exercises,
still exist. But they can be described by an authority on the development of the devotion as 'survivals'. Yet the essence of the devotion
remains, and is still capable of absorbing new elements, and of serving as the nucleus of a full and rich attachment to Christ.
Before concluding, it will surely be of interest to recall the use
made of the infancy narratives by two nineteenth-century figures
on the English scene: Cardinal Newman and Father Frederick
William Faber. In their different ways they sum up the age-long
Christian attitudes towards the infancy of Christ. Newman, the
historian and patrologist, recalls for us the ancient and severely doctrinal outlook of so many of the Fathers. His fellow-Oratorian Faber,
warm-hearted and enthusiastic, moralist and spiritual director,
represents a kind of synthesis of medieval affective piety, with a
touch of the seventeenth-century French school, and more than a
touch of Victorian romanticism. This is not to deny that Newman
was able to share in many of the outlooks and assumptions of his
contemporaries. But surely it is characteristic that, whilst still an
Anglican in 1839, he should have preached on the feast of the Epiphany, and should have made use of the Magi episode in the day's
liturgy as a mere text to a doctrinal and controversial discourse oi1
Faith and Reason !1 Faber, on the other hand, writing Bethlehem in
1 Sermonsonthe TheoryofReligiousRelief(London 1843),IX, 167-93.

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1860, gives an exclusively 'spiritual' treatment, peopling the 'midnight cavern' with its 'first worshippers' and contriving to distinguish
amongst them no less than nine differentiated types of devotion to
the Infant Jesus, The kings are the representatives of the sixth type.
It is impossible to finish without once again referring to the great
impact on our time by St. Th4r6se of Lisieux. It was a part of her
family background that she joined in childhood one of those confraternities which were keeping alive the traditional piety towards the
Infant Jesus, and she took this devotion with her into the Carmel, as
well as adopting it as part of her religious name. Her conventional
life, and her writings, restricted as they may appear to some critics,
have given a new and vigorous impulse to the infancy devotion. And
the fact of her canonisation, with the way in which her 'little way'
has been proposed as a universal model, is sufficient proof that there
is no question here of a mere survival, or of a particular devotion of a
merely temporal and local character; but a valid, though specialised
interpretation of the Christian vocation as a whole. The terms and
the images with which she chose - could not but choose - to express
it, belong indeed to her age and French provincial background, but
not the substance of the thing itself. Anyone who still finds difficulty
in accepting this would do well to consider closely that other great
portent in the firmament of modern French Catholic life, Charles de
Foucauld. He derived from art utterly different social and cultural
and spiritual background, and was prepared for his extraordinary
vocation in a totally different way. It would surely be difficult to
find a greater contrast than between this French officer, explorer,
Trappist, convent-servant, hermit priest of the Sahara, and the
Carmelite of Lisieux. Y e t these two are astonishingly alike in so
m a n y of their spiritual insights, a n d even in the forms used to
express them. He knew, from a more literal experience than she
could enjoy within her enclosure, what it was to insert himself gradually in the hidden and lowly life of Christ, and he learned a great
deal of this in the Poor Clare chapel, or in his little h u t at Nazareth.
Wheter we turn to the meditative reading of the gospel of St.
Matthew, or try to re-enliven our celebration of the festival of the
Epiphany, it is the same. From Origen and Gregory - or from
Simeon, or the Magi themselves, right down the ages, to Newman
and Faber, or to Thdrhse and Charles de Foucauld, and beyond
into our own day, countless Christians have found out, over and over
again, that the contemplation of Christ's infancy is a powerful and
sure way of entry into the very heart of the whole Christian mystery.

SCRIPTURE
THE

READING

FATHERHOOD

OF

GOD

O n the threshold of the christian era, the faithful Israelite could proudly
say that 'he had God for a Father' (Wis 2, I6; 5, 5)- This recognition of the
fatherhood of God was the fruit of long meditation on the law and the
prophets. It reaches its fulfilment in the recognition of God the Father in
his Son, who is the way to the Father (Jn 14, 6-1o). We shall follow the
theme of the fatherhood of God in the Old Testament in order to show
God's preparation of Israel for the revelation of himself in his Son. We shall
see Christ in the New Testament as the revelation of the Father. From the
' G o d of our Fathers' we pass to God who is our heavenly Father.

OLD

TESTAMENT

The God of our Fathers

i. For the Hebrews the family or 'house', (terms better understood in
the sense of a clan), bore the name of the father of the house. This 'name'
meant that the father's soul imbued and permeated his house and everything
in it. T h e father was its source of life and strength, its provider and ruler.
I t was he who gave the house its own special stamp and characteristic.
Reflection on the book of Genesis reveals the action of a father in God's
creative activity as he breathes the breath of life into m a n : Ps Io3, 29ff;
Wis 9, I; Io, 1-2; Isai 45, I I .
o. The 'God of their Fathers' reveals t o the Hebrews that they are not only
his people, they are his 'first-born', i.e., his best-beloved, the first-fruits of
his powerful action, Exod 4, 22-23; Wis 18, 13; N u m II, 12.
The experience of the Exodus confirms this, and the Alliance between
Yahweh and Israel gives it a permanen t value. Israel became a people set
apart by God for himself, Exod i9, i5ff.
But it is Israel as a people who are the first-born of God. The individual
shares that privilege only in so far as he belongs to Israel.
3. Yahweh's choice of Israel does not depend on their merits but upon
his own free will, Deut 7, 6-16; I4, 2.
4. The relationship imposes upon Israel the duty and privilege of worshipping and obeying Yahweh, Exod 3, I I ; 7, 16; I2, 14; 19, 5; 24.
5- Reflection on the basic experience of the Exodus-Alliance leads later
generations to understand that in word and work Yahweh acts like a Father,
Isai 63, 16; 1V~al 2, IO; God bore Israel through its trials 'like a Father
carries his son', Deut I, 3o-3I. More and more stress is laid on the immense
love and kindness of Yahweh. His choice of Israel is made o u t of love,
Deut Io, 14. I--Iislove is more powerful than Israel's impiety and infidelity,
J e r 3I, I9-2o; 3 , 4 - 5 , I9; Isai 49, 15; 66, 13; 30, 9; Ezek 18, I3, 32; Hos 11,

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SCRIPTURE READING

3ft., 8ft. He chastises because he loves, Ezek 18, 23, 32; el. Prov 3, xI-I2.
Yahweh is a Father who educates, Exod 26, 2o; Deut 5, ~9; 8, 5-6;
32, x2; Sir I8, 11-14; el. Gem 2, 17; 4, 7.
He provides for and protects his children, Pss lO2; I35; x37; 144, I5-I6.
He has especial care of the weak, Exod 22, 2o-22; Isai i, i7; 25, 4;
Ps 67, 6.
6. The Canticle of Moses, Deut 32, 4ft., sums up these ideas and adds the
important notion of adoption, v. I o; this has a legal connotation and implies
the right to inheritance.
7- Yahweh is especially the Father of the King, 2 Sam 7, I4ff.; Ps 2, 7;
88, 27. The idea of the King as the adopted son of God prepares the way for
the revelation of the unique sonship of the King of Kings.
8. Finally, after the exile there is a more frequent personal application
of the notion of sonship. Yahweh is the Father not only of the people but of
each individual who is just, Ps 26, IO; Io2, x3; Prov 3, x2; Sir 23, I-4;
Wis 2, I3-I8.

NEW

TESTAMENT

My Father andyour Father

I. Yahweh completes the revelation of his fatherhood by sending his Son,
'the radiance of his Father's splendour, and the full expression of his being',
Heb i, 3. He who knows Jesus not only knows the Father, but becomes his
adopted son, Jn 14, 7; I, 12, i8.
2. Through Jesus, God reveals that he is the Father of an only Son. Jesus
shows the unicity of his own sonship by distinguishing between 'my father
and your father', Mt 7, o I ; I I, 27; Lk 2, 49; 22, 29; Mt 5, 45; 6, I ; Lk 12,
32. Jesus is so close to his Father that he alone knows the Father's secrets
and reveals them, Mt I i, 25ff. The intimacy of Jesus' relationship is expressed in the word, Abba, a familiar word for Father, Mk i4, 36.
3- In the perfection of his sonship Jesus reveals the perfection and unicity
of the transcendant and eternal fatherhood, and his own equality with the
Father.
Jesus shares the unique divine knowledge of the Father, Mt II, 27;
Lk i% 22; J n 6, 26.
Jesus obeys his Father perfectly, his obedience is a loving union of wills,
Jn 5, I9-23; 6, 38; IO, 15, 37; Mt 26, 39; 6, Io; Rom 5, 19; Phil 2, 8.
In his own work Jesus reveals the Father's work, the two are one, J n 4, 34;
5, 36; 6, 27-3o; 9, 4; 17, 4-8.
Jesus' entire dependence on his Father reveals the Father's love for the
Son, J n 5, 19; x4, lOft., 15, i-lO; Lk 23, 46.
Jesus glorifies the Father, and the Father glorifies the Son, J n I2, 28;
I3, 3Iff., I7, I, 4 ft.
4- The only-begotten Son is the only way to the Father, we become sons

SCRIPTURE READING

~03

in the Son, a n d call G o d our F a t h e r because the Son sends the Spirit into
our hearts, Gal 4, 6; R o m 8, I4ff. , 29.
Acceptance of Christ is acceptance of the Father, M t io, 4o; J n i3, 2o;
I J n 2, 23.
Obedience to Christ is obedience to the Father, J n i4, I2.
W o r k with Christ is work with the Father, J n 20, 2x; I7, 8.
Dependence on Christ is dependence on the Father, J n I5, 5.
Finally, G o d is never so much our F a t h e r as when he loves a n d forgives
us, cf. Lk I5, I 1-32. W e are never so much his sons as when we love a n d
forgive others, i J n 4, 9 - 0 I.

TEXTS
i.

Love for Love

, T o g G o d so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
J ~ a l l who believe in him m a y not die, b u t m a y have eternal life' (John I I I ) .
Note that here he makes the same point concerning God's only begotten
Son as he h a d m a d e a b o u t the Son of m a n raised on the cross, when he
says: ' t h a t all who believe in him m a y not die, b u t m a y have eternal life';
For in truth that Son of G o d who is our Redeemer a n d Maker, existing
before all ages, became the Son of m a n at the close of the allotted time, so
that he who b y the power of his divinity h a d m a d e us to enjoy the happiness
of eternal life, might himself by the frailty of our h u m a n nature renew us,
to receive the life which we lost.
So, dearest brethren, we must bestir ourselves to repay God's kindnesses,
a n d love G o d the F a t h e r with our whole heart, soul, a n d strength. F o r he
loved us with such great love that he did not spare his own Son, but surrendered him for us all. Let us love the Son, who himself, God, took on the
appearance of a slave for our freedom a n d our life, a n d became obedient
to the Father unto death, the death of the cross. As the Apostle J o h n says
about him: ' H e loved us a n d in his blood cleansed us of our sins' (Apoc I).
Let us love the Holy Spirit of this same F a t h e r and Son. By his grace we are
reborn, a n d by his anointing we were sealed on the d a y of Redemption.
l i e breathes where he wills; wheresoever he breathes, he fires at once the
flame of this same divine love. Let us believe that Father, Son a n d H o l y
Spirit are one God our L o r d ; let us in turn glorify his name, for his is the
glory, the dominion, a n d the power, through endless ages. Amen.
From a homily of the Venerable Bede (PL 94, 202 B).

2.

Christmas Nuptials

EAREST Brethren: W e are soon to enter with most faithful devotion

u p o n that holy, venerable, splendid and unique feast, the Nativity of
our L o r d Jesus Christ. W e should accordingly, b y his help, prepare ourselves with all our strength. W e should carefully scrutinise the secret places
of our souls, so that no sin m a y chance to lie there unseen, to disturb our
consciences and offend the sight of the divine Majesty. I t is true that Christ
our L o r d after his passion rose again a n d ascended into heaven. Yet we
believe that he ponders a n d carefully watches how each of his servants,
without greed a n d anger, without pride and extravagance, makes haste to
prepare a n d order himself for the celebration of his birthday. A n d on each
of us he will bestow the grace of his mercy according as he beholds in us good
manners of life.

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305

.For~ if he! sees a m a n clothed, in the light of c h a r i t y , a d o r n e d with the

pearlsi of justice o r . m e r c y , chaste, humble, merciful, kind,-sober - u p o n
recognlSingsuch a man, he will.bestow, on him through the ministry of his
priests his Body a n d Blood, not for j u d g m e n t b u t for .healing. But .if he sees
a m a n d r u n k e n , lustful~.~..and lowering,..! fear that t h e words of our L o r d
in, the Gospel ~may apply to him : ' F r i e n d , h o w have you entered here.without
a - w e d d i n g - g a r m e n t ? ' (Mt 2 2 , . . I2).. And., I. fear that what follows (the L o r d
prevent it !) . m a y be.-,addressed to him: :Bind his .hands. and: feet, a n d .cast
him into the darkness outside; t h e r e : shall, b e : w e e p i n g a n d , g n a s h i n g of
teeth'~(ibid..I3)~
.
.. . : "
,'
:
'.
::
. -.: :.-.
..
This is the sentence which will.be.incurred on the .day of Judgement. if
a m a n approaches the .Lord's feast.stained b y the. filth of wickedness a n d
without the healing nfrepentance..For at the Lord's birthday, as a t a spiritual
marriage, Christ is j o i n e d to his bride the Church, F o r .then ' T r u t h has
risen from the earth, justice has looked forth from the sky' (Ps 84,. I2) ;
then does .the bridegroom come forth from his chamber - t h a t is, t h e W o r d
of G o d the F a t h e r from the maiden's.womb. H e h a s come forth w i t h the
C h u r c h his bride, he has taken h u m a n flesh,
So since we .are. invited to this most sacred marriage, since, we are to
partake: of this feast of the F a t h e r , we must .look to the garments in which
we must be clothed. W e m u s t w i t h God.'s help p r e p a r e heartsand bodies
t o - t h e utmost,: so t h a t our divine, Host m a y observe in us no foul, .dark,
dirty or.unw0rthy t r a c e . . -~ ,'
.
. . . .
Therefore, d e a r e s t brethren, we are tO devote no trifling attenti0n, to
this matter, but rather regard it with intense fear. W e have been asked to
our Lord's marriage t h a t we too, if we lead good lives, m a y cleave close
to the Bridegroom. Let us meditate on the marriage, the Bridegroom, the
wedlock to which w e have b e e n summoned. W e . are asked to the table
where is laid not the food of men but the Bread of angels. Let us ensure,
then, t h a t in our souls, where we should be a d o r n e d with the pearls of good
works, we do not appear shrouded in old rags. F o r soft living makes unsightly
not .only the evil b u t also those who shine, with. purity a n d are good in
God's eyes.
.
.
.
So whenever the days o f o u r L o r d ' s Nativity Or of any other feast approach,
we ought, as I have warned you, to a b s t a i n n o t merely from barren association with concubines b u t even from intercourse with wives..We ought
to make ourselves strangers to all anger, so that our past sins m a y be expiated b y almsgiving a n d repentance. No hatred against a n y m a n should
be lodged in our hearts. Let justice in mercy now dispense to the poor w h a t
e m p t y living has expended o n gluttony. Let p i e t y now store up in heaven
that w h i c h soft or gluttonous behaviour once, consumed on earth. A n d
though almsgiving is good a t all times, yet more particularly a n d more
a b u n d a n t l y should i t be practised o n holy feasts, to the best of our means.
Let us above all summon the poor more frequently to our feasting. For
d u r i n g a holy feast a n d amongst a Christian people belonging to the one

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God, it is not right that some should be flushed with wine whilst others are
afflicted with hunger a n d hazard. Both we ourselves a n d the whole people
are servants of the one God, a n d if we lead good lives we shall all attain
equally the one happiness.
Therefore, brethren, as we approach our Lord's b i r t h d a y let us be
cleansed of all impurities of guilt. L e t u s meet him clad not in silken garments
b u t in deeds of worth. F o r though garments can cover naked limbs they
cannot adorn the conscience. I t is a greater source of shame for a m a n
to go forth with body shining b u t inner disposition befouled.
L e t these promptings of ours cling to the dispositions of charity reborn in
you. O u r words have been brief: we repeat their message more briefly.
Because the Lord's b i r t h d a y is near, dearest brethren, this is our advice.
Let us prepare ourselves b y Christ's help as if for marriage a n d heavenly
wedlock, free from all extravagant living a n d a d o r n e d with good works. L e t
us dispense alms to the poor. Let us reject anger or h a t r e d like poison from
our hearts. L e t us faithfully embrace chastity. Let us summon the poor m o r e
often to our feasting. Arise for the morning vigils, take your place in church
for adoration a n d the singing of the Psalms. U t t e r no idle or profane words,
a n d rebuke those who would so speak. K e e p peace with all; reconcile with
each other those w h o m you find at odds. I f you are willing with Christ's help
to achieve these aims faithfully, you can during this life a p p r o a c h the altar
of the L o r d with conscience untroubled, a n d as our L o r d Jesus Christ
guaranteed, you can faithfully attain eternal happiness in the life to come,
Hild2bert's second sermon on the Nativity of our Lord (PL

17 i, 388--90).

3" Three Comings

E await the anniversary of Christ's birth. This Christ, it is promised,
we are soon to see if the L o r d so wills. Indeed, Scripture appears to
d e m a n d such j o y in us t h a t o u r spirits should rise a n d exult at meeting,
so to speak, the approaching Christ; a n d stretching forward with longing,
brooking no delays, we should strive to behold w h a t is to come. But in
truth I believe t h a t those numerous texts of Scripture which b i d us meet him
refer not only to his second coming, b u t also to his first. Y o u ask, H o w c a n
this be? I answer that just as we shall meet his second coming with emotion
a n d j o y of body, so we must meet the first coming with feeling a n d exultation
of heart.
For you know that when our new bodies are taken u p at the resurrection,
in the words of the Apostle 'we shall be snatched u p into the air to meet
Christ amidst the clouds, a n d so we shall always be with the L o r d ' (I Thess 4,
17)- But now also there are 'clouds' which will raise our spirits to the higher
regions, if we be not sluggish nor earthbound, a n d we shall be with the L o r d
in no more t h a n a half-hour. I a m sure that with your knowledge you

a'~XTS

307

recognlse my meaning. These 'clouds' have on occasion made utterance:

in other words, the voices of the prophets or the apostles have sounded in
the Church, where upon your senses have been raised aloft as though borne
by a cloud. Sometimes indeed they have risen so high that they gained a
glimpse, however slight, of the glory of God. Then, I am sure, the truth
became clear to you of those words rained forth by the Lord from the 'cloud'
which every day he places for your ascent: 'He will do Me honour with the
sacrifice of praise, and the place where I shall point the way for him is the
saving path of God' (Ps 49, 23).
I n this way, then, let the Lord come to you before his coming. Before
he comes to the world in general, let him visit you in intimacy. 'I will not',
he says, 'leave you fatherless; I go, and I shall come to you' (Jn I4, I8). And
indeed, during this period between the first and the last coming, these
visits of the Lord to individuals are frequent according to the merit and
desire of each person. They shape us in the form of the first coming, and
prepare us for the last.
It is doubtless for this purpose that he comes now to us, lest his first visit
to us was in vain, and lest his final confrontation of us be in anger. For at
this present coming, he strives to refashion our proud feelings, shaping them
to the humble attitudes he showed on his first coming - so that equally he
may reform our humbled bodies, transforming them to the likeness of his
glorified Body, which he will show when he returns.
This intimate visitation is certainly to be desired in every prayer, and
to be sought with eagerness, for it both bestows on us the grace of the first
coming and promises the glory of the last. For since God loves mercy and
truth, the Lord will bestow grace and glory (Ps 83, I2); in mercy he freely
bestows grace, and in truth he proffers glory.
From a sermon o f Guerric d'Igny on Advent (PL z85, I5-I6).

4. Christ-mass
HIS weakness of my Lord is undoubtedly the strength and support of
my weakness. Be warned then, you who are strong in religious faith
and most ready to endure all hardships. Do not rashly condemn as being
in the ranks of weak those whom you see occasionally mitigating their
rigorous life. I f I see my brother for whose body and soul I have regard
(for i f I neglect any of him I do not love the whole man), ifI see him enduring
some need through harshness of diet or toil or lack of sleep: if, I say, I see
him physically in pain and tried in heart (for when the flesh is sorely afflicted
it is hard for the mind not to be tried) : if then I see him in such affliction
when I have the world's sufficiency, and I close the bowels of compassion
to him, how does God's charity remain in me? (i J n 3).
If indeed I always maintain the rigorous life of the strong, and do not

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TEXTS

occasionally descend to the arena of the weak, I do not run the course in the
fragrance of Christ's ointments, but rather in the obduracy of the Pharisees,
who boasted of the rigour of their fasting, and who condemned the Lord's
disciples and even the Lord himself, calling him a glutton and a tippler.
We must take especial care that under the pretext of going down to aid
others we do not nourish the soft life of relaxation. We must cling fast to the
words of the blessed Gregory: 'Neither strict discipline nor piety must be
relaxed'. Let us then run the course, brethren, let us run the course in the
fragrance of those unguents with which Christ was anointed. Let us hasten
with the shepherds to our anointing, for what was said to them is said also
to us: ' T o d a y is born to us the Saviour of the world, W h o is Christ the Lord'.
' L o r d ' is a word well appended. For if any m a n cannot smell this fragrance
because of the stench of the evils of the flesh, and accordingly cannot love
the Anointed One who is Christ, he should at least fear the Lord. For today
is born to us in the city of David the Saviour of the World, who is Christ the
Lord. It is Bethlehem itself to which we ought to hasten, as did the shepherds
after they had heard the tidings. I n the words of the hymn you sing, ' T h e y
hymned glory to God, they hastened to Bethlehem. And this will be a sign
to you. You will find the Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed
in a manger' (Lk 2).
Note what I have said, that you ought to love. You fear the Lord of
angels but you must love the tiny child. You fear the Lord of majesty but
you must love him who is wrapped in swaddling clothes. You fear the King
of Heaven, but you must love him who lies in a manger.
W h a t was the sign which the shepherds were given? 'You will find the
Child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger' - this is the Saviour
himself, Christ himself, the Lord himself. But is there anything great about
being wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a stable? Are not other
babies wrapped in swaddling clothes? What kind of sign, then, is this? It is
indeed a great sign if we can but understand. And we understand if we
not merely give ear to this love but also have in our hearts the light which
appeared with the angels. W h e n he first announced these tidings, he appeared
with light, that we m a y know that only those who have the spiritual light
in their minds really hear.
Much can be said about this sign, but since the time has now passed I
shall say only a little, and briefly. The 'bread of the house' of Bethlehem
is holy Church in which Christ's Body, the true Bread, is distributed. The
manger at Bethlehem is the altar in church. At it are fed Christ's beasts,
of whom it was said: 'Your beasts will dwell in it' (Ps 67). O f this table it
was written: 'You have prepared the table in m y sight' (Ps 22). I n this
manger Jesus is wrapped in swaddling clothes. The folds of these swaddling
clothes are the armour of the sacraments. I n this manger, under the appearance of bread and wine, is the real Body and Blood of Christ. We believe
that Christ himself is there, but wrapped in swaddling clothes: that is,
seen in the very sacraments. No sign of Christ's Nativity have we so great

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309

a n d so clear as the fact that every d a y at the holy a l t a r we receive his Body
a n d Blood, a n d that we see sacrificed for us him who was once born of a
virgin for us.
So, brethren, let us hasten to the manger of the Lord. But let us first,
so far as we can, prepare ourselves for this coming b y his grace. Let us join
with the angels a n d h y m n the Lord in all our life a n d with all our words,
'with p u r e heart, good conscience, a n d faith unfeigned' (i T i m i), singing
' G l o r y to G o d in the Highest, a n d on earth peace to m e n of good will'
(Lk 9). Through the same Jesus Christ O u r Lord. To h i m be honour a n d
glory for ever. Amen.

From a Christmas Sermon orS. Aelred of Rievaulx (PL I95 , ~26-7).

MEDITATION
Venire, adoremus.
prayer: ' L o r d Jesus Christ, you are the unshakeable
y REPARATORY
defence of all who hope in you. See m y difficulties a n d the pressure of
m y circumstances. Show m e your mercy a n d console me in the midst of
all m y wretchedness. Look at m y weakness a n d console me with y o u r
fatherly love. As long as your loving care supports me, I shall never lack
consolations a n d mercy. Lord, remember me, your creature. Drive off the
enemies who lie in wait for me. Once sheltered by your merciful love,
I shall come to savour your sweetness a n d goodness, a n d do worthwhile
penance for m y sins. Amen'.
N o w go in a n d see for yourself the W o r d who is made flesh for you.
Kneel a n d adore the L o r d your G o d with his mother, a n d offer reverent
greetings to the saintly Joseph. T h e n kiss the feet of Jesus the child as he lies
in the manger, a n d ask our L a d y if she will pick him up a n d give him to
you to hold. T a k e him to yourself a n d cradle him in your arms. Look into
his face, kiss him reverently, a n d let your heart delight in him. You need
not be afraid to do this, because he has come to sinners for their salvation;
in his humility he will treat them as his friends a n d at the last he will give
himself to them to be their food. T h a t is why our kind a n d patient L o r d will
allow you to touch him whenever you wish; a n d he will take it, not as a
sign of presumption, b u t of love. But you must never do it except with
reverence a n d awe; for he is the Holiest of the holy.
Now give him back to his mother. See a n d study the care a n d the wisdom
with which she feeds him a n d looks after him, seeing to all his needs. Be
ready to offer your services; help her in whatever way you can. Bear in m i n d
that this is to be your j o y and delight, t h e constant subject of your thoughts.
You are to stay as close as you can to our L a d y a n d the child Jesus, to keep
your eyes fastened on the face of him on whom the angels long to gaze;
b u t always with reverence a n d fear: your own presumption could drive
you away; you must always count yourself unworthy to be in such company
as this.
Now listen to Anselm: 'Accompany the mother to Bethlehem with all
devotion. Be her support as you turn aside at the inn, a n d tend her during
the birth of her child. A n d when he is laid in the manger, cry out with
Isaias in exultation: A child is born to us a n d a son is given to us. Put your
arms a r o u n d this sweet cradle of God. Love must temper shamefastness,
a n d true affection drive out fear. You m a y touch with your lips his sacred
feet; kiss them again. N o w turn your m i n d to the shepherds as they keep
watch; look with wonder on the swift angelic hosts; let your prayers mingle
with their heavenly song: Glory to G o d in the heavens, and on earth peace
to men of good will'.
Listen to Augustine: ' W h e n the gospel is read, we hear the voice of the

MEDITATION

311

Angel announcing to the shepherds that the Lord Jesus Christ is born of a
virgin: Glory to God in the heavens, and on earth peace to men of good will.
A festive song, a song of congratulations, not merely to one woman who has
borne a child, but to the whole human race for whom the Virgin has brought
forth a Saviour'.
And Gregory of Nazianzen: 'Make your reverence to this child with the
shepherds, sing his praises with the Angels, join in the chorus with the Archangels...'
Reflect with joy what a marvellous feast-day is this. For today Christ is
born. This is the birthday of the eternal King, the Son of the living God.
Today a child is born to us, and a son is given to us. Today the Sun of
Justice who was hidden behind the clouds, shines forth in full brightness.
Today the Bridegroom, the Head of the chosen members who is the most
beautiful among the sons of men, has revealed his longed-for presence. Today
is the dawn of our redemption, the clay of the old wound's healing, the day
of eternal joy. Today peace is proclaimed to us men, as the Angels' song tells
us; it was composed on this day. 'Today', sings the Church, 'Honey flows
from heaven over all the world'. Today the kindness and humanity of God
our Saviour has dawned on us. For, as Bernard says, 'Power made itself
manifest in the creation of the world, and Wisdom in its government: but
now it is chiefly love and mercy which is revealed, in his humanity'. Today
God is adored in the likeness of our sinful nature. Today we too are born
with Christ; for the birth of Christ is the origin of the Christian people.
Today two miracles have happened which defeat all our human understanding; they can be apprehended only by faith: God is born and a virgin
gives birth.
Prayer: 'Sweet Jesus, humble in your birth, born of a humble handmaid;
it was your will in your lowly birth to be wrapped in the swaddling-clothes
of humility. My loving and merciful lord give me this grace: let there be born
in me, through your ineffable birth, the holiness of new life. Let me humble
myself under the habit and apparel of obedience to you; and by dwelling
within the framework of submission to your discipline as in a manger, may
I attain to the summit of true humility. You graciously consented to share
our human nature and its mortal frailty; let me share your divine nature
and its immortality. Amen'.

From the Vita Jesu Christi of Ludolph of Saxony.

SPIRITUAL

VOCABULARY

G L O R Y . The root hebrew word for glory implies in its primitive meaning
the notion of weight (cf2 Cot 4, 17). Hence glory was not an abstract notion
of renown or fame. It was a real value which was measurable in terms of
actual possessions, riches, flocks and herds, lands, etc. Glt~ry was also used of
a high social position and its inherent weight of responsibility and authority.
Glory was the proper attribute of the king - 'Solomon in all his glory',
implying his possessions, his state, his position, but with the important addition of his wisdom. The bible knew how ephemeral riches and authority
were and applied glory more and more to religious and moral values.
Obedience to God is the solidest foundation of glory for man. Linked with
glory is the idea of power, which emphasises a quality inherent in the hebrew
notion of glory, i.e., glory is also a manifestation, a splendour, a shining-forth
which is perceptible, an action which produces its effect.
So the glory of Yahweh is seen in the infinite weight of his power in action
on behalf of Israel. His resplendent interventions in history, e.g., the Exodus,
the Manna in the desert, reveal his glory. The Israelite victories are his glory.
Their glory is founded on God's, i.e., has weight behind it, when they walk
in the way of God's glorious direction. Hence salvation and liberation for the
Hebrew was at times almost synonymous with seeing and sharing in the glory
of the Lord.
The glory of Christ is a manifestation of his Father's glory both in his
works of wonder, the miracles, and his humiliations. In him glory shines
forth and works its effects in weakness. Christ is glorified on the cross. But
this glory is only perceptible to those who believe. Their belief is itself a light,
a reflection of eternal glory which uncovers hidden glory under humble
circumstances, e.g., the Nativity. The christian glorifies God, i.e., is united
with God's leading mankind to the glory of heaven, when Christ shines
forth in his actions and words, under the guidance of the glorious Spirit
of God.
HUMILITY.
The foundation of all virtues and the most misunderstood
of all christian notions. It is sometimes said, inaccurately, that humility is
simple truth. More precisely it is an essential predisposition for truth, it is
the soil in which the grain of evangelical truth grows and fructifies. For
humility is in essence the practical expression of man's fundamental religious
attitude of adoration. It consists in a deep consciousness of utter dependence
on God, of having received everything from him; an awareness of one's
own weakness and sin, of having neglected and misused what has been received; and with this an attitude o f gentleness and compassion towards one's
fellow men. Humility is then an admission of one's own frailty and sinfulness
which leads to compassion towards human weakness and suffering, and
brings home to man his utter need of God in everything. It is a virtue which

SPIRITUAL VOCABULARY

313

opens b_is heart and mind to himself, to his fellow men and to God. This
openness means that man is disposed to accept the truth about himself, that
he never presumes he has the right to judge others, and seeks fulfilment
outside of himself in God.
The humility of Christ is precisely his filial attitude of having received
everything from his Father and of accepting from mankind the history which
man had marred. He chose to know by experience what, as God, he knew
intellectually. Through this he sought to glorify God by serving him in the
salvation of mankind.
Christian humility is thus a social and practical virtue, and service is an
essential part of it (cf. Christ's washing his disciples' feet). It does not inhibit
a man from using his real talents, but prevents him from using them as if
they were entirely his and entirely for his own benefit. The humble man
realises that because he belongs to God, he belongs to his feliow men.
What he has he shares with others for their benefit. His compassion towards
his fellows is not a mere understanding of their troubles but an experimental
knowledge of them. With his Master Christ he prefers to share the troubles
of others rather than remain safely aloof from them.
E C O N O M Y . This is literally 'the management of a household', and in
the New Testament the term is extended to cover an office or commission
in the Church; but it is also used in the New Testament of God's mysterious
plan of salvation for man (Eph 3, 9). In theology the term can be used in
seVeral senses: (i) the dispensations of the Old and New Testaments may
each be called an economy; (2) the Greek Fathers most commonly speak of
the economy of the Incarnation and the Redemption; by which they intend
to refer to the objective fact, with its theological structure, of the Incarnation
together with the salvific consequences of this mystery. It is especially this
usage which a western writer would have in mind when he uses the term;
(3) Economic theology among eastern theologians is the study of the restoration of communion between God and man in Jesus Christ and it is distinguished from Theology (without any adjective) which is concerned with
God as he is in himself, in his attributes and in the life of the Blessed Trinity;
(4) by a further extension of meaning, in the Eastern Orthodox Church the
term economy is applied as meaning the power of a charitable modification
of the strict letter of canonical prescriptions (akribeia), especially with regard
to the adm~nistratlon of the sacraments.

RECOMMENDED

READING

SCRIPTURE.
The Conscience of Israel, Fr. Bruce Vawter's study of
prophecy and the pre-exilic prophets, gives a profound insight into the role
of prophecy in the life of Israel. Ft. Vawter combines an attractive style
with great clarity of thought and solid biblical scholarship. He brings the
prophets to life by placing them in their historical and political context,
and gives the essentials of the religious message of each. The book is extremely
well constructed, very readable, and a fine treatment of a difficult Subject.
We hope for a sequel dealing with the post-exilic prophets.
The God of Israel, the God of Christians, a translation of Grands th~mesBibIiques,
is a symposium of articles dealing with biblical themes which develop the
basic idea of God's choice of Israel, i.e., God's plan, God's revelation, God's
demands, God's fidelity, God's victory. The contributors are all eminent
scripture scholars but the book is not over-technical, nor encumbered by
too many notes. Ft. Congar's Myst~re du Temple which has also been
translated under the title The Mystery of the Temple, deals with the idea of
God's active presence at work in the world, building a spiritual living
temple of which we are the stones. The idea is fundamental in the bible and
in Christian spirituality, and Ft. Congar does ample justice to his subject,
His investigation is essentially biblical, for he follows his theme from Genesis
to the Apocalypse. This book is another worthwhile addition to the library.
An essential work of reference has been published in French: Voeabulaire
de TMologie Biblique. This is not just another biblical vocabulary or lexicon,
but rather a systematic theologicai presentation of the major themes and
symbols of revelation, and the characteristics of the christian life. Hence for
biblical study, preaching, biblical conferences, it is an indispensable guide.
The presentation is excellent and abundant cross-references make its use
easy. No biblical library should be without it. Let us hope for a speedy
English translation.
In A Study of Hebrew Thought Claude Tresmontant contrasts the Hebrew
mind with the thought of Greek and modern philosophy. In endeavouring
to discover the metaphysical structure of the Bible, he makes many valid
and useful points on the notion of creation, the relationship of body and
soul, faith etc., but the work is only a preliminary investigation There is
a little too much reliance on Bergson as a criterion of hebrew thought,
and many of Tresmontant's intuitions need working out in more detail.
But the book is worth reading. The S.C.M. Press have published two more
of their Studies in Biblical Theology series: Twelve New Testament Studies
by John A. T. Robinson , and Biblical Words for Time by James Barr. The
first is a varied and scholarly collection of articles by Dr. Robinson, ranging
over many exegetical and theological questions, e.g., Qumran, the Temptation of Jesus, etc. Unfortunately Dr. Robinson's christology is, from certain
points of view, unacceptable to Catholic theologians. Professor Barr offers us

RECOMMENDED

READING

315

a very scholarly and technical semantic study which scripture scholars will
welcome. Both books are for the specialist in scripture studies rather than
for the general reader.
On a more popular level we recommend God's Own People by Fr. Norris.
The book is designed to open the eyes of the christian to the wonder of
the Church on this earth. Fr. Norris seeks his inspiration in scripture and
develops his theme clearly, laying stress on the community aspect of the
Church. The result is a book one would readily put into the hands of anyone
who asks 'What is the Church?' As an introduction to a spiritual interpretation of the psalms, Fr. Gasnier's book, The Psalms, School of Spirituality, has
undoubted merits, and is devotional in the true sense. But one would hesitate
before recommending the book to those interested in the psalms from a
biblical point of view. Fr. Gasnier does not look at problems squarely, as the
Appendix on The Imprecatory Psalms reveals clearly. Nevertheless many will
find this book a real help towards praying the psalms.
A book for every apostle, clerical or lay, is Mgr. Cerfaux's Apostle and
Apostolate. This is a prayerful reflection by a great exegete on Christ's
instruction to his apostles, Mt 9, 35-m, 42 in particular. It is not technical
exegesis but an expos6 of the deep spiritual attitudes behind Christ's instructions: 'the apostolate is measured by the plumb line not by the tape
measure' (p. 3). Simple, direct, deep and truly prayerful, it is a book to be
read before, during and after apostolic activity. With My Whole Heart is a
useful devotional commentary on psalm I 18 (I 19) by Jonathan Graham, of
the Anglican Congregation of the Resurrection. The psalm is treated as an
expansion of the phrases of the Our Father. The result is certainly devotional,
but at times the devotion runs parallel to the psalm instead of flowing from it.
L I T U R GY. Ft. Jungrnann's name is its own excellent recommendation.
We welcome a rich collection of his studies and lectures in Pastoral Liturgy.
Although the articles treat of disparate subjects, they all converge on one
central purpose: to establish the current liturgical revival in solid historical
foundations. Furthermore, Fr. Jungmann never loses sight of the need to
translate the results of historical investigations into practical pastoral
attitudes. No liturgical library can afford to be without this book. Dom
Godfrey Diekmann has also published in one volume, Come, Let us Worship,
a collection of his lectures and articles. This is liturgical writing at its best.
Fr. Diekmann's chapters on the sacraments are especially valuable and
reveal the sound theological basis of the liturgical movement. This book is
another fine addition to the liturgical library.
It is thirty years since Dora Odo Casel wrote Das Christliche Kultusmysterium; now a translation of this work and of a selection of his other writings
has been published under the tire The Mystery of Christian Worship. In his
preface Fr. Charles Davis wisely points out the value of publishing again a
thirty year old work: Casel was a pioneer of the liturgical movement, and
as a pioneer he stressed abiding values even though he had his limitations.

316

RECOMMENDED READING

There is a need to keep before us the best of w h a t he said; and this book
makes that available. Wo small Plan b y D o m E d m u n d Flood is full of sound
ideas. I t looks at the broad sweep of God's activity in drawing m a n to himself, a n d the continuation of this activity in the Mass. But unfortunately the
author's style is so undisciplined that his book makes very difficult reading,
e.g., pp. 5o-5~. Dora Flood's words often confuse a n d obscure his thought;
which is all the more regrettable since he obviously has some very worthwhile things to say.
' T h e recitation of the divine office is an art in more senses t h a n one',
writes Fr. H a u s m a n n in Learning the Wew Breviary, a simple workmanlike
book which will help m a n y to acquire the technique of an art which so
m a n y learn ambulando. Church musicians will welcome The History of
Catholic Church Music, a competent survey of the relationship of music to
liturgy over the ages. T h e translation has been m a d e from the 1949 edition
of Fellerer's work. High Gothic, b y Hans Jantzen, is another translation. T h e
book deals with the cathedrals of Chartres, Reims a n d Amiens a n d is thorough in so far as it deals with the technique of architecture. But the chapter
on Ecclesia Spiritualis is too brief a n d superficial a treatment of a very
profound idea.
HAGIOGRAPHY.
W h e n Fr. Brodrick's Blessed Robert Bellarmine was
published thirty-four years ago it set a style in hagiography a n d has rem a i n e d a classic ever since. Now he has revised, rewritten and condensed
into one volume his earlier work. Robert Bellarmine Saint and Scholar is thus a
new book which does not supersede its predecessor. Instead it presents
Bellarmlne in the newer and often more subtle light of m a n y years of m a t u r e
reflection. H a g i o g r a p h y is once again in d e b t to Ft. Brodrick's indefatigable
scholarship, patience, a n d skill. W e welcome also the p a p e r b a c k edition of
Fr. Brodrick's Saint Francis Xavier.
Blessed and Poor, The Spiritual Odyssey of the Curd of Ars, b y Daniel Pezerill,
is a very good study of the saint, which makes use of the m o d e r n research
into his life. Those who are dissatisfied with Trochu's monumental work
will find here a more living a n d h u m a n portrait of the man. V e r y little is
known about St. Benedict but Stephan Hilpisch gives us a solid historical
study illustrated b y Leonard von M a t t ' s superb photography, in St. Benedict,
which includes also a brief but sound survey of the development of the Benedictine Order. A book well worth having, The Life of St. Teresa of Avila by
Herself has been pubfished in the O r c h a r d Books series. T h e translation is
competent a n d reads easily, a n d there is a very helpful Introduction by
D a v i d Knowles.
SPIRITUALITY.
How to Give the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to
Lay Apostles is a self-explanatory title. T h e basic interpretation of the
structure of the Exercises is sound, a n d Fr. M c Q u a d e makes m a n y enlightening observations. Similarly his idea of what a retreat should be is thoroughly

RECOMMENDED READING

317

Ignafian. The book succeeds as a commentary on the Exercises though it is

unfortunately too short to be a really adequate commentary. But it falls
short when there is an actual question of adaptation of a particular exercise
to a particular group of people. Similarly the schemes for retreats at the end
of the book are too sketchy: is it possible and, were it possible, would it be
wise in a three day retreat to cram into the second day all the major exercises
of the second week? One is surprised too, to find that Fr. McQuade, who
obviously knows the Exercises thoroughly, clings to the incorrect 'reflect on
themselves', (p. 4 8) when St. Ignatius clearly wrote 'reflect in or within
themselves', a much less introspective phrase. A second book on the Exercises:
A Do-it-yourself-Retreat by Fr. J. F. Hogan S.J., provides a series of conferences
on the main topics of a retreat, sin, invitation of Christ etc. The style is
colloquial, and down to earth; and Fr. Hogan uses stories to illustrate his
point. It is the sort of book many will find helpful to read during a retreat;
but as a do-it-yourself manual the book should have contained instruction
on how to make a retreat before being offered to the beginner.
The Gold Ring by Ft. Burke is a book on marriage, and a very useful one.
Engaged couples and priests responsible for their instruction will find here
a rich sacramental theology of marriage, well developed and expressed in
simple language. An inspiring book which deserves a wide sale, The Medieval
Mystics of England, now available from an English publishing house, is to be
highly recommended. Besides the lengthy and well-chosen extracts from
six leading English spiritual writers, it also contains a very informative essay
on the history of pre-Reformation English Spirituality and an excellent
bibliography.
THEOLOGY.

We welcome the English translation of Ft. Peter Fransen's

Divine Graceand Man. Ft. Fransen's treatment of his subject combines rigorous
thought with a simple vocabulary and relates the theology of grace to daily
Christian living. It would be difficult to find a better introduction to the
theology of grace, or a better explanation of its reality.
Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited is a fine treatment of the problem of evil,
physical and moral. Dr. Farter writes with great honesty and clarity. He
does not attempt a facile solution but rather strips this difficult question of the
emotional overtones which so often obscure the real point of the problem.
T h o u g h Dr. Farter, regrettably, disbelieves in the devil, his book is undoubtedly a help towards a deeper understanding of the great mystery of evil.
MISSIOLOGY.
The Church's Mission in the World, the translation of
Pour une Eglise en dtat de' mission by Louis and Andr6 R6tlf, is a book which
provides abundant material for prayerful reflection for apostle cleric or lay.
I n comparatively few pages the authors analyse the present situation of the
world, the Church's mission-field, and draw a bold clear outline of the
fundamental principles which must govern the christian apostolate. African
Mission, by J o h n M. Todd, is an historical study of the Society of African

318

RECOMMENDED

READING

Missions. It is a story of immense courage and enterprise, which exemplifies

in its successes and failures much of what Frs. Rdtif have to say. Therein lies
the special interest of Mr. Todd's book, which is not merely a factual account
but a missiological study as well.
Lexikonfiir Theologic und Kirche keeps up its high standard of completeness
and scholarship in the sixth volume Karthago-MareeUino. It will be useful to
indicate that this volume contains the words Katholisch, Kirche, Konzil,
Liturgie and their allied terms, e.g., Katholische, oTugend, Aktion etc. The
competence with which these articles are composed is all that one would
expect from a standard work which every theological library should possess.

Barr, James: Biblical Wordsfor Time (SCM Press I3S 6d, pp. 174).
Brodrick, S. J., James: Robert Bellarmine (Burns and Oates 35s, pP. 43o).
Burke, T. W. : The Gold Ring (Darton, Longman and Todd 9s 6d, pp. 134).
Casel, Odo: The Mystery of Christian Worship (Darton, Longman and Todd
35s, pp. 2!2).
Cerfaux, Mgr. Lucien: Apostle and Apostolate (Desclee Company, New York
$ 2.75, pp. 184).
Colledge, Eric: (Ed.) The Mediaeval Mystics of England (John Murray 25s,
PP. 3o9).
Congar, O. P., Yves: The Mystery of the Temple (Burns andOates 42s, pp. 322).
Diekmann, O. S. B., Godfrey: Come, Let Us Worship (Darton, Longman and
Todd 2IS, pp. 18o).
Farrer, Austin: Love Almighty and Ills Unlimited (Collins 2IS, pp. 191 ).
Fellerer, Karl Gustav: The History of Catholic Church Music (Helicon Press,
Baltimore $ 7.5o, pp. 235).
Flood, Edmund: No Small Plan (Darton, Longman and Todd I4s , pp. 117).
Fransen S. J., Peter: Divine Grace and Man (Desclee Company, New York
$2.25, pp. I 17)Gamier, O. P., Michael: The Psalms (Challoner Publications 16s 6d, pp. 16o).
Giblet, J (Ed.) : The God of Israel, The God of Christians (Desclee Company,
New York $ 3.95, PP. 26I).
Graham, C. R.,Jonathan: With my whole Heart (Darton, Longman and Todd
7s 6d, pp. 55).
Hausmann, S. J., Bernard A. : Learning the New Breviary (Benziger Brothers,
New York $ 3.5 o, pp. 119).
Hilpisch, Stephan and yon Matt, Leonard: Saint Benedict (Burns and Oates
42s, pp. 230).
Hogan, S. J., Joseph F. : A do-it-yourself retreat (Loyola University Press,
Chicago $ I. 25, pp. 274).
Jantzen, Hans: High Gothic (Pantheon Books $ 4.5o PP. 18i).
Jungrnann, S. J., J. A. : PastoralLiturgy (Challoner Publications 63s , pp, 43o).
McQuade, S.J., James J.: How to Give the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to
Lay Apostles (Loyola University Press $ 2.50, pp. 95).

RECOMMENDED READING

319

Norris, S. S., Frank B. : God's Own People (Helicon Press, Baltimore $ 2.95,
pp. 122).
t~dtif, Louis and Andrd: The Church'sMission in the World (Hawthorn Books,
New York $ 3.5 pp. 157).
Robinson, John A. T.: Twelve New Testament Studies (SCM Press I3S 6d,
pp. I8O).
Teresa of Avila, St. : The Life of St. Teresa of Avila (Burns and Oates 3os,
PP. 432).
Todd, John M. : African Mission (Burns and Oates 25s pp. 23o).
Tresmontant, Claude: A Study of Hebrew Thought (Desclee Company, New
York $ 3.75, PP- 178).
Vawter, C. M., Bruce: The Conscienceof Israel (Sheed and Ward 22s 6d, pp.
308).
Lexicon fiir Theologie und Kirehe (Band VI Herder Freibourg im Breisgau
DM 86, 1376 cols.).

We would like to call our readers' attention to the following paperbacks:

Adam, Karl: The Christ of Faith (Mentor Omega 95c, pp. 408).
Augustine, St.: Confessions (Collier Books 65c and 5s, pp. 255 ).
de Lubac S. J., Henri: Catholicism (Bums and Oates 5s, pp. 294).
Knowles, David: Saints and Scholars (C. U. P. 9s 6d; $ 1.65, pp. 208).
Leclercq O. S. B.,Jean: The Love of Learning and the Desirefor God (Mentor
Omega 75e, pp. 336).
Maritain, Jacques: A Preface to Metaphysics (Mentor Omega 6oc, pp. 142).
Thibon, Gustave: Love and Marriage (Burns and Oates 3s 6d, pp. 116).
Thompson, Francis: St. Ignatius Loyola (Bums and Oates 3s 6d, pp. I9I ).
Trask, Willard (trans.): d%an of Arc: stir-Portrait (Collier Books 95c and
7s 6d, pp. 128).
Waddell, Helen (trans.) : The DesertFathers (Fontana Library 7s 6d, pp. 224).

INDEX
VOLUME 2
Page

ARTICLES
Subjects

282

'A Virgin shall Conceive' (James Walsh)

Eucharist and the Atonement, The (H. P. C. Lyons) .

94

Fulfilment of the Promise, The (Dennis J. McCarthy)

Good and Evil Spirits (Heinrich Bacht)

254
i88

Hour of Temptation, The (Bernard Cooke) .

I77

'If We endure with Him' (William Lawson).

83

Judge of all the Earth, The (John L. McKenzie)

2o9

Lord's Freedman, The (Barnabas M. Ahem)

i66

Missing the Mark (Bruce Vawter) .

I9

Mystery of Advent, The (Clifford Howell)

243

Need for Direction, The (James Walsh)

I63

Plea for Direction, A (Hugh Kay and James Walsh)

i96

Praying the Passion (Donal O'Sullivan)

135

Renouncing the World (Gerard Hughes)

44

Sense of Sin in the Modern World, The (Robert O'Connell)

'Sharers of the Divine Nature' (William Yeomans)

Sin and the Glory of God (Jean-Marie Le Blond)

27~
28

Suffering Servant, The (Frederick L. Moriarty) .

I2I

'The First-Born of all Creation' (B. R. Brinkman)

261

'They Hated Me without Cause' (Edward Mally)

52

Waters of Rebirth (Matthew O'Connell)

lO5

Worship in Spirit and Truth (H. A. Reinhold)

115

'You will find a Child' (Gabriel Reidy)

289

Your Adversary (John Sheets)

36

Authors
Ahem, Barnabas, M., The Lord's Freedman

166

Bacht, Heinrich, Good and Evil Spirits

~88

Brinkman, B. R., The First-Born of all Creation

261

INDEX

321

Cooke, Bernard, The Hour of Temptation

I77

Howell, Clifford, The Mystery of Advent .

243

Hughes, Gerard, Renouncing the World

Kay, Hugh, A Plea for Direction

44
~96

Lawson, William, "If We endure with Him'

83

Le Blond, Jean-Marie, Sin and the Glory of God

28

Lyons, H. P. C., The Eucharist and the Atonement

94

Mally, Edward, ' The Hated Me without Cause'

52

McCarthy, Dennis J., The Fulfilment of the Promise

254

McKenzie, John L., The Judge of all the Eearth

2o9

Moriarty, Frederick L., The Suffering Servant.

I2I

O'Connell, Robert, The Sense of Sin in the Modern World.

O'Connell, Matthew, Waters of Rebirth .

Io5

O'Sullivan, Donal, Praying the Passion

I35

Reidy, Gabriel, 'You will find a Child'

289

Reinhold, H. A., Worship in Spirit and Truth

II 5

Sheets, John, Your Adversary

36

Vawter, Bruee, Missing the Mark

I9

Walsh, James, 'A Virgin shall Conceive'

The Weedfor Direction
A Plea for Direction .

282
~63
~96

Yeomans, Willie/m, 'Sharers of the Divine Nature'

~72

MEDITATIONS
Lead us not into Temptation .
Quality of Mercy, The

232
7I

Venire Adoremus .

3IO

'You Have Prepared a Cross...' .

~55

RECOMMENDED READING
January

75

April .

x58

July

236

October

3~4

322

INDEX

SCRIPTURE

READING

Blessed are the Merciful

62

Blessed are the Sinless in the W a y .

~I9

Fatherhood of God, T h e .

~OI

Lumen Christi

~43

SPIRITUAL

VOCABULARY

Adoration .

157

Atonement.

158

Commemoration

158

Compunction

73

Conversion

74

Director

234

Economy

313

Expiation

73
312

Glory .
Guilt

73

Humility

312

Mystery

x57

Pasch .

I57

Passover

I57

Sacrament

I57

Scruples

235

Spiritual F a t h e r

234

Temptation

234

Worship

I57

TEXTS

Subjects
64

Christ our Healer

Christ-mass
Christmas Nuptials

307
.

3o4

Direction: T h e K e y to Holiness

222

Discernment of Spirits, T h e

226

INDgX
Discretion, The virtue of
The necessity of .
A pattern of .
Flight from the World
God wiU provide

323
223
224
225
66
222

Lighten our Darkness

Love for Love

67
304

Motherhood of Mercy
Necessity of Discretion, The

69
224

Paschal Mystery, The

~45

Pattern of Discretion, A .

225

Purpose of Penance, The

66

Sinner's Prayer, A

68

This Day of Battle

64

Three Comings.

3o6

Virtue of Discretion, The

223

Authors

Aelred of Rievaulx
Ambrose
Anselm
Augustine .

307

Bede
Cassian

3o4
~23
226
222
224
66

66
68

65

Cloud of Unknowing, Author of

de Foucauld, Charles
De Vitis Patrum .

Eueherius .
Gregory the Great
Guerrie d'Igny .
Hildebert
Julian of Norwich
Melito of Sardis
Mozarabie Liturgy
Origen
Vincent de Paul

225

3o6
3o4
69
~45
68

64
222

NOTES

ON

CONTRIBUTORS

FR. CLIFFORD HOYVELL, S.J., a u t h o r of Preparing for Easter a n d o t h e r

books o n t h e liturgy, is e n g a g e d in p r e a c h i n g , l e c t u r i n g a n d w r i t i n g a b o u t
l i t u r g i c a l subjects. H e is a f r e q u e n t c o n t r i b u t o r to The Catholic Herald a n d
to Worship, of w h i c h h e is a n associate editor.
F R . DENNIS J. McCARTHY, S.J. h a s s t u d i e d S c r i p t u r e in Boston a n d Paris,
w h e r e h e g a i n e d his d o c t o r a t e . A t p r e s e n t h e is d o i n g p o s t - d o c t o r a t e w o r k
o n S c r i p t u r e in R o m e .
FR. B. R. BRINKMAN, s . J . is Professor o f D o g m a t i c T h e o l o g y a t H e y t h r o p
College, a n d e d i t o r of The Heythrop Journal.
FR. C A E ~ I E L REIDY, O.F.M. is Professor of D o g m a t i c T h e o l o g y a n d
Ecclesiastical H i s t o r y a t the T h e o l o g a t e of the E n g l i s h P r o v i n c e of the
F r i a r s M i n o r , E a s t Bergholt, Suffolk.

SIGLA
OLD T E S T A M E N T
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Josue
Judges
Ruth
I Kings
II Kings
I I I Kings
IV Kings
I Paralipomenon
II Paralipomenon
I Esdras
II Esdras

Gen
Exod
Lev
Num
Deut
Jos
Jg
Ruth
1 Sam
2 Sam
1 Kg
2 Kg
1 Chr
2 Chr
Ezr
Neh

Tobias
Judith
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Canticle of Canticles
Wisdom
Ecclesiasticus
Isaias
Jeremias
Lamentations
Barueh
Ezechiel

Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts of the Apostles
Paul to the Romans
I Corinthians
II Corinthians
Galatians

]Vit
Mk
Lk
Jn
Acts
Rom
1 Cor
2 Cot
Gal

Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
I Thessalonians
II Thessalonians
I Timothy
II Timothy
Titus
Philemon

Tob
Jud
Est
Job
Ps
Prov
Qoh
Cant
Wis
Sir
Isai
Jer
Lam
Bar
Ezek

Daniel
Osee
Joel
Amos
Abdias
Jonas
Micheas
Nahum
Habacuc
Sophonias
Aggeus
Zacharias
Malachias
I Machabees
II Machabees

Dan
Hos
Joel
Amos
Obad
Jon
Mic
Nah
Hab
Zeph
Hag
Zech
Mal
1 Maec
2 Mace

To the Hebrews
The Epistle of James
I Peter
II Peter
I John
II J o h n
III J o h n
Jude
The Apocalypse of
St. John

Heb
Jas
1 Pet
2 Pet
1J n
2 Jn
3 Jn
Jude

NEW TESTAMENT
Eph
Phil
Col
1 Thess
2 Thess
1 Tim
2 Tim
Tit
Phm

FATHERS
Patrologia Latlna (Migne) PL

Patrologia Graeca (Migne) PG

M o n u m e n t a I-Iistorica Societatis J e s u M H S J
Monumenta Ignatiana M I

Apoc

:5

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