As it was...so it will be

“As it was…so it will be”

Nothing in all the world’s literature is so full of joy as the prayers of the Church for Advent and for Christmas. Every nation has its heritage of beauty in art, poetry, and music: no matter what foreign tyrant takes over the government, the people will cling to this last greatest wealth of literature. But the liturgy of the Church is a vast storehouse of wealth from which all may draw who possess one Faith. National differences disappear as all the earth cries out, today as two thousand years ago: To thee have I lifted up my soul; in thee, O God, I put my trust…. Show, O Lord, thy ways to me and teach me thy paths….

There is a joy in the Advent prayers that nothing on earth can equal, because they are so perfectly in accord with the spirit of those who did receive the Redeemer. They might be the very words of Mary, or Joseph, or the shepherds. Following these prayers yearly, as the Church urges us to do, makes us one in spirit with the humble ones who saw him and understood. It makes the Incarnation a living thing, not an incident of the long ago but a tremendously important part of our lives which recurs again and again.

You and I were not at Bethlehem when his Mother wandered through the streets looking for a place where the Redeemer of the world could be born. We are ­present when he is born again each day in the Mass…. He comes to us in Holy Communion to bring us joy and strength and holiness and peace…. His Mother would teach us to be humble and obedient…. Perhaps we are too busy to answer her knock, or we have the uneasy feeling that it must be uncomfortable to be holy—and if there is anything this generation asks of life, it is to be comfortable.

Two thousand years are nothing in the eyes of God, who is eternal. Today we are as certainly given the opportunity of receiving or rejecting him as were the ­people of Bethlehem on a starry night long ago when the Word was made flesh, and came to dwell among us. 

Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, o.p.

Sister Mary Jean († 1988) was a Dominican sister, and a prolific author and illustrator, especially of children’s literature. [From Our Lady’s Feasts. © 1999, New Hope Publications, New Hope, KY.