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SUMMARY:Vigils Reading - Nativity of the Lord
DESCRIPTION:THE NATIVITY KERYGMA \nBy Thomas Merton3 \n◊◊◊ \nIn its prayers\, the Church plunges us into the Light of God shining in the \ndarkness of the world\, in order that we may be illuminated and transformed by \nthe presence of the newborn Savior\, and thus that he may be born and truly live \nin us by making all our thoughts and actions light in himself. What joy\, then\, \nthat he who dwells eternally in the inaccessible light and peace of the Father has \nleft the throne of his glory and descended to be one of us! Or rather\, without \nleaving the bosom of the Father\, veiling the too brilliant light of his glory in the \ncloud of human nature\, he who is enthroned above the cherubim takes up his \nabode among us in a poor manger. \nThis Child who the shepherds\, dazzled by the brilliance of the angelic \nhost\, can scarcely see in the darkness of the cave lit by Joseph’s lantern\, this \nChild is (by his divinity) the Ancient of Days\, the Creator and Judge of Heaven \nand earth\, of whom the prophet Daniel wrote: “I beheld till thrones were placed \nand the Ancient of Days sat\, his garment was as white as snow\, and the hair of \nhis head like clean wool; his throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a \nburning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth before him: thousands of \nthousands ministered to him and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood \nbefore him.” \nThis\, is Daniel’s vision of the divinity of the Word Who\, in his human \nnature\, lies here helpless in the dark. But the Son of Man\, who is here born\, is \nhimself the Word\, consubstantial with the Father. To this only-begotten Son\, \nwho is equal to the Father in all things as God\, but less than the Father in so far \nas he is human\, all power is given by the Father. So\, Daniel says again: “I beheld \ntherefore in the vision of the night\, and lo one like the Son of Man came with the \nclouds of heaven\, and he came even to the Ancient of Days and they presented \nhim before him\, and he gave him power and glory and a kingdom\, and all \npeoples\, tribes and tongues shall serve him\, his power is an everlasting power \nthat shall not be taken away and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.” This\, \nthen is the King promised from the beginning of the world and of whose \nKingdom there shall be no end. \nDo not be afraid of him. God has emptied himself and come to us as a \nchild\, in order that we who have not been saved by fear\, but only destroyed by it\, \nmay now take heart and be saved by confidence. In “Emptying himself” and \ntaking the form of a servant the Lord laid aside his majesty and his divine power\, \nin order to dwell among us in goodness and mercy. \n  \n3 SEASONS OF CELEBRATION by Thomas Merton (Farrar\, Straus & Giroux\, NY 1965) pp. 108-08.9
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-nativity-of-the-lord-3/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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