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The Christmas Cycle
already stands at the portals. “Behold I send My angel before Thy face, who shall prepare
Thy way before Thee” (Gospel).
In a few moments Christ Himself will appear in our midst in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. At the
Offertory we begin to prepare for His coming. With John the Baptist we put aside our ordinary
occupations and withdraw into the wilderness to purify our spirit and our heart. “Behold the
Lord shall come to save the Gentiles.” We are the blind, the lame, the sick, and the dead of the
Gospel. Now He is coming to help us. “Thou wilt turn, O God, and bring us to life” (Offertory).
Burdened with the consciousness of our sinfulness, burning with desire for the completion of
our redemption, and eager to be freed from our sins, our faults, and our negligences, we look
forward to the coming of the Savior with faith and confidence. He will heal our wounds and
regenerate us so that we shall live in God and by God.
We learn the full extent of the blessing of His coming in the Communion prayer: “Arise,
O Jerusalem, and stand on high; and behold the joy that cometh to thee from thy God.” The
coming of Christ to Jerusalem, the Church, and to the soul in Holy Communion, is likewise a
preparation for that final coming of Christ when He will lead the Church and all its members
into the world beyond. There we shall enjoy the happiness of the possession of God and eternal
salvation. “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord”
(Alleluia verse). This means that we shall enjoy membership in the mystical body of Christ and
salvation through Christ, who was born of the Virgin of Nazareth. We shall go into the house
of God and celebrate the Mass and receive Holy Communion. We shall eventually go into the
heavenly house of God and enjoy the blessed vision of God and eternal salvation.
Meditation
“People of Sion, behold the Lord shall come” (Introit). In the liturgy Sion is Jerusalem, the new
Jerusalem of the Church, the Jerusalem of the eternal glory of heaven; likewise God’s kingdom
of Christian souls. In addressing the people of Sion, the Church in reality is addressing her own
members. As the second Sunday of Advent dawns, the Church is possessed by the thought that
Christ is coming to His holy city to reign over the kingdom which He has established. This
kingdom is composed of the souls of the Christian men and women whom He has redeemed.
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” Prepare the streets of the city of God for the great moment
when Christ, the divine King and Master, will come to His holy city (at Christmas and Epiphany).
The Lord shall visit the people of Sion, that is, His Church. “People of Sion, behold the Lord
shall come to save the Gentiles; and the Lord shall make the glory of His voice to be heard in the
joy of your hearts” (Introit). “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the
house of the Lord” (Alleluia verse), to Sion of the New Law, into God’s kingdom, the Church,
to which we have been called. Here in the Church we shall find Him; here we shall see and hear
His gentle voice; here we shall obtain forgiveness for our sins and the grace we need. Christ
and the redemption He accomplished for us is made available to us through the Church that
He established. Moreover, by membership in the Church we share in the merit of the prayers
of Christ, in the salvation purchased by His suffering, in the work of His apostolate. “I rejoiced
at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord,” for we are members
of the Church and of the mystical body of Christ.
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