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The Light of the World
Vigil of Christmas (3)
“Be ye lifted up, O eternal gates” (Offertory). Such is the cry that ascends from mankind weeping
before the eternal gates. Behind those gates stands the promised Redeemer. He is the one who
is to lift up these gates and bring to men the salvation so ardently desired.
The holy gate which conceals the expected Redeemer whom we so much desire is Mary, the
Virgin. In the mind of the liturgy she is the Regis alti janua et porta lucis fulgida, the gates through
which the light of the rising sun, Christ, is to reach mankind. Mary appears in the Mass today
as the gate of light through which the Redeemer will come to open for us the gates of paradise,
which have been closed to us for so long. She has conceived by the Holy Ghost, not by man.
We are assured by the angel that what is born of her is of the Holy Ghost. He who is conceived
in the Virgin by the Holy Ghost, is to redeem His people from their sins. We gather about the
gate through which He is to come to us. We raise our voices and cry to Mary, the tabernacle in
which He is now enthroned: “Show unto us the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.”
The Redeemer stands behind the holy gate, ready to come. This is He who is the Son
of God, “who was made to Him of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Epistle). He is
God and man united in one person. He is the Son in whom the Father is well pleased (Mt
3:17). All things are given into His hands by the Father (Mt 11:27). Before Abraham was, He
is, and He was possessed of glory before the world was made ( Jn 8:58; 17:5). All power in
heaven and earth is given to Him (Mt 28:18). Heaven and earth will pass away, but His word
will not pass away (Mt 24:35). He is God, and God He will ever remain. It is His will that
we become perfect, even as His heavenly Father is perfect. He has a just claim to our faith,
our service, and our love. Salvation is possible to us in His name, and there is no other name
under heaven whereby we can be saved (Acts 4:12). He is God and at the same time man, the
son of the Virgin, flesh of our flesh, like to us in all things, sin excepted (Heb 4:15). He is the
Son of Man, a term which He liked to apply to Himself; He is our high priest, our brother,
and our Redeemer.
He is full of grace and wisdom, “and of His fullness we all have received” ( Jn 1:16). He is
the God-man, to whom the winds and the waves are obedient, before whom all human ailments
disappear. When the moment of His great humiliation is come, all nature expresses its grief: the
sun hides its face, the earth trembles, the stones burst asunder. This is the one who now stands
behind the eternal gates and is ready to come to us. Tomorrow He will pass through the gates
and come to us to redeem us.
The Mass of the vigil gives us a threefold promise that tomorrow the Redeemer will come and
save us. We receive this assurance in the Introit, the Offertory, and the Communion. The event
which we have awaited with such great longing all during Advent will become a reality tomorrow.
Tomorrow he comes to us through Mary. Lift up the gates of your churches, the gates of your
hearts, that the King of Glory may enter.
“Today you shall know that the Lord shall come.” His coming in the Mass and in Holy
Communion is our best assurance that we shall see His glory tomorrow, as we are promised in
the Introit of this Mass. Christmas is the great revelation of His glory, which is revealed in His
virgin birth, in the rejoicing of the angels on Christmas morning, in the voluntary poverty of
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