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The Christmas Cycle
“Behold the joy that cometh to thee from thy God” when at the end of time He will take you
to Himself in heaven. We look forward to that blessed day.
Prayer
Teach us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, through our participation in the mystery of the Holy
Eucharist, earthly prudence and heavenly life. Amen.
Monday
“When John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples he said to
Him: Art Thou He that art to come?” (Gospel.) Today John the Baptist appears in the liturgy
for the first time. He was imprisoned because he had declared to the adulterous Herod, “It is not
lawful for thee to have her,” thy brother’s wife (Mt 14:4). In thought he was living with Christ,
whose way he had been sent to prepare.
John had gathered about him a group of disciples when he was preaching at the Jordan, and it was
from among these that he sent messengers to Jesus. He intended to divert their attention from
himself to Christ. A few of them attached themselves to Jesus, but the others remained aloof.
Christ was more winning in His ways than John. He engaged the confidence of the people even
more fully than John had done. John had settled near the Jordan, and the people had sought him
out; but Christ journeyed from place to place in search of them. John was austere and ascetic;
Jesus was gentle and mild. The Pharisees complained because Christ ate with publicans and
sinners (Mt 9:11). He performed countless miracles for the benefit of the sick. But many people
preferred a harsh and severe master such as John had been. Many of them were displeased with
Christ’s mildness and began to make comparisons between Him and John.
They came to John and complained: “We can no longer make progress with your work.
This man is drawing all the people after Him.” John did not let himself be deceived. His first
concern is to direct the attention of his disciples to Jesus. He is above all envy and flattery and
will not allow his disciples to become so attached to him that they will lose Christ. He chooses
two of the dissatisfied ones and sends them to Christ to inquire: “Art Thou He that art to come,
or look we for another?” John’s sole concern is that his disciples discover Christ and in Him
the truth and everlasting life. He seeks nothing for himself, but only the glory of Christ and the
salvation of his disciples. John, the forerunner of Christ, is a symbol of the Church. She directs
our attention to Christ, the Savior who is to come.
“Art Thou He that art to come, or look we for another?” This is the great question that perplexes
John’s disciples and still puzzles the world. Jesus gives the answer in a way that cannot be
misunderstood. His works proclaim it, for “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” The kingdom of
God is distinguished by the works of charity it performs. In Jesus the truth of the kingdom of God
appears on earth. He is the personification of the infinite love which assumes the poverty of the
poor, which destroys the miseries of the sick, which does not shrink from the lepers, and which
conquers even death itself. Even thus He comes to us today in Mass and in Holy Communion,
and lives day and night in the tabernacle to comfort us with His holy love. We are, in the mind of
the liturgy, the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the dead. He comes to us each day to continue the
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