Vigils Reading

TODAY HE MANIFESTED

HIS GLORY

From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny

◊◊◊

“Arise, be enlightened, Jerusalem, for your Light has come.” This present

day of lights has been enlightened for us and consecrated by the Light of Light.

He had lain hidden and unknown, but today he has vouchsafed to reveal himself

to the world for the enlightenment of all nations. For today he revealed himself

to the Chaldeans by the sign of a new star, dedicating in them as in first fruits the

faith of all nations. Today he revealed himself to the Jews, by the witness not

only of John but also of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, when, baptized in the

Jordan, he consecrated the baptism of all. Today he manifested his glory before

his disciples when by changing water into wine he prefigured that ineffable

mystery in which by his word the substance of things are changed…

The Lord indeed had come; he was in the world, and the world was made

through him, but the world did not know him. He was born, but he was not

known, until the day of light began to manifest him. So the Prophet says: “O new

Jerusalem, great city of the new king, arise, be enlightened, for your light has

come.” Arise, you who sit in darkness; look at the light which has risen up in the

darkness but is not mastered by the darkness. Draw near to him and be

enlightened, in his light you shall see the light, and it will be said to you: “You

were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Look upon the Eternal

Light which has tempered itself to your gaze, so that he who dwells in

inaccessible light affords access even to weak and bleary eyes. See the Light in a

lamp of earthenware, the Sun in a cloud, God in man, the Splendor of Glory and

Brightness of Eternal Light in the clay vessel of your flesh.

Majesty indeed lies hid in human nature, power in lowliness; but signs

and prodigies break through the covering and leave no doubt as to their origin.

“The works which I do,” he says, “bear witness to me.” Great indeed is the

witness of John, who came to bear witness as a lamp to the light. But much

greater is that heavenly witness which the Father and the Holy Spirit bore to the

Son, the Father by his voice, the spirit in the form of a dove; since on the

evidence of two witnesses every claim is established… A new-born child cries on

earth while in the heavens he creates a new star, so that light may witness to

Light, a star to the Sun, and so that kings in the splendor of its rising may be led

to the Eternal Splendor which has also risen up…

Thanks be to you who bade light shine out of darkness and have kindled a

light in our hearts whose shining is to make known your glory as you have

revealed it in the features of Jesus Christ… We know indeed through faith,

holding on to it as to a trustworthy pledge so that we shall know by sight too. In

the meantime increase our faith, leading us on from faith to faith, from

brightness to brightness, by your Spirit, so that from day to day we may enter

more deeply into the treasures of light…until, through faith, we are led to the

vision of your face, as if led by a leading star to our Leader at Bethlehem.