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December 24, 2004
Christmas and the
Circles of Being The glory of the Incarnation becomes evident in Bethlehem, when God was born as man in a stable. It is the completion of the Circle of Providence: God, from Whom all things come, becomes one with man, the last of His creation. The beginning and the end are joined in the Person of the Incarnate God. “Thee, God, I come from,
to thee go, -- Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. Whether the Incarnation would have happened without man’s sin and his need for redemption, or not, is not important. Nothing causes God’s action but God Himself. It is the magnificence of the happening which must move us to knowledge, wonder and gratitude. It is a thing of infinite beauty, and deserves our deepest thought. Infinite Truth is infinitely beautiful. There is another Circle of Being to consider. It concerns the Eucharist. The Incarnated God died as man, for man, on the Cross and, as man for man, rose from the dead. This is the supreme moment of Providence: when the Incarnate Son offers to His Father, through the love of the Spirit, apology for the discourtesy of His brothers and sisters. Time and space are made present in that supreme moment, through the Eucharist. It happened thus: The night before his death Jesus reached into the dust of the universe, the humble Earth, and plucked there from its lowly products, the ear of wheat and the grape of the vine. He transformed them into Himself, making them, by the force of His Words, at once, bearers of His death and resurrection, and food and drink for our real lives. So the matter of the universe is joined in the Eucharist with the Person of the Son, Who as God and man is present in the Eucharist. The lowliest thing in creation, matter, is joined with Him from Whom all things flow. The Circle of Providence is redeemed. It is fitting, and in a real sense, necessary that we should at Christmas remember the instrument through whose fiat the symphonic Circle of Providence was completed: the Galilean maiden who is now, body and soul, queen of Heaven and Earth, Mary our mother and model. She is sign and symbol of the nobility to which we are called. Our wish and prayer for you and for us: May she who laid Him in the manager, and stood beneath His cross, intercede with her son for us that He may grant us the great gift to see ourselves as God sees us. Amen Alleluia.
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