Vigils Reading

THE DAY OF THE LORD

From a sermon by St John Henry Newman

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“A little while, and you shall not see me: and again, a little while, and

you shall see me, because I go to the Father.“… Now observe what the promise

is… A new era was to commence, or what is called in Scripture “a day of the

Lord.” We know how much is said in Scripture about the awfulness and

graciousness of a day of the Lord, which seems to be some special time of

visitation, grace, judgment, restoration, righteousness, and glory. Much is said

concerning days of the Lord in the Old Testament… We read of those august

days <in the beginning>, seven in number, each perfect, perfect all together, in

which all things were created, finished, blessed, acknowledged, approved by

Almighty God.

And all things will end with a day greater still, which will open with the

coming of Christ from heaven, and the judgment; this is especially the Day of

the Lord, and will introduce an eternity of blessedness in God’s presence for all

believers… Observe how solemn, how high a day it is: this is his account of it, “I

will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; your joy no one takes from

you… At that Day you shall ask in my Name, and I do not say to you, that I will

pray to the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you, because you have

loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.”

The Day, then, that dawned upon the Church at the Resurrection, and

beamed forth in full splendour at the Ascension, that Day which has no setting,

which will be, not ended but absorbed in Christ’s glorious appearance from

heaven to destroy sin and death; that Day in which we now are, is described…as

a state of special Divine manifestation, of special introduction into the presence

of God. By Christ, says the Apostle, “we have the access by faith into this grace

wherein we stand.” He “has raised us up together, and made us sit together in

heavenly places in Christ Jesus.“…

Thus we as Christians stand in the courts of God Most High, and, in one

sense see his face; for he who once was on earth, has now departed from this

visible scene of things in a mysterious, twofold way, both to his Father and into

our hearts, thus making the Creator and his creatures one; according to his own

words, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while,

and the world sees me no more; but you see me: because I live, you shall live

also. At that Day you shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I

in you.“