Celebrating the Seasons. Robert Atwell
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our Governor, O Lord our Jesus, how excellent is thy name in all the world!’ It is all ‘clothed with majesty and honour’; it is ‘decked with light’; it comes riding to us ‘upon the wings of the wind’; the Holy Spirit breathes it full upon us, covering heaven and earth with its glory.
But it is a name of grace and mercy, as well as majesty and glory. For ‘there is no other name under heaven given by which we can be saved,’ but the name of Jesus. In his name we live, and in that name we die. As St Ambrose has written: ‘Jesus is all things to us if we will.’ Therefore I will have nothing else but him; and I have all if I have him.
The ‘looking unto Jesus’ which the apostle advises, will keep us from being weary or fainting under our crosses; for this name was set upon the cross over our Saviour’s head. This same Jesus at the end fixes and fastens all. The love of God in Jesus will never leave us, never forsake us; come what can, it sweetens all.
Is there any one sad? – let him take Jesus into his heart, and he will take heart presently, and his joy will return upon him. Is any one fallen into a sin? – let him call heartily upon this name, and it will raise him up. Is any one troubled with hardness of heart, or dullness of spirit, or dejection of mind, or drowsiness in doing well? – in the meditation of this name, Jesus, all vanish and fly away. Our days would look dark and heavy, which were not lightened with the name of the ‘Sun of Righteousness’; our nights but sad and dolesome, which we entered not with this sweet name, when we lay down without commending ourselves to God in it.
So then let us remember to begin and end all in Jesus. The New Testament, the covenant of our salvation, begins so, ‘the generation of Jesus’; and ‘Come Lord Jesus’, so it ends. May we all end so too, and when we are going hence, commend our spirits into his hands; and when he comes, may he receive them to sing praises and alleluias to his blessed name amidst the saints and angels in his glorious kingdom for ever.
2 January
A Reading from a sermon of Augustine
Who can know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and concealed in the poverty of his human flesh? ‘Though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich.’ When he made this mortal flesh his own and abolished death, he appeared among us in poverty; but he promised riches, riches that were only deferred – he did not lose riches that were taken from him.
How great is the abundance of his goodness which is stored up for those who fear him, which he brings to perfection in those who hope in him! Our knowledge now is partial until what is perfect is revealed. To make us fit to receive this gift, he who is equal to the Father in the form of God was made like us in the form of a slave, in order that we might be transformed into the likeness of God. The only Son of God was made Son of Man, and so the children of earth became the children of God. We were slaves, entranced by this visible form of a slave, and have now been set free and raised to the status of children so that we might see the form of God.
As Scripture says: ‘We are God’s children; it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ What are those treasures of wisdom and knowledge? What are those divine riches except that which will truly satisfy us? What is that abundance of goodness except that which fills us?
In the gospel, Philip says: ‘Show us the Father and we shall be satisfied.’ And in one of the psalms it is written: ‘I shall be filled when your glory is revealed.’ The Son and the Father are one: whoever sees the Son is seeing the Father also. So then, the Lord of hosts, the king of glory, will bring us home, and will show us his face. We shall be saved, we shall be filled, and we shall be satisfied.
Until this happens, until God shows us what will ultimately satisfy us, until we drink of him as the fountain of life and are filled – until then, we are exiles, walking by faith. Until then, we hunger and thirst for justice, longing with a passion beyond words for the beauty of the form of God. Until then, let us celebrate his birth in the form of a slave with humble devotion.
3 January
A Reading from a letter of Athanasius of Alexandria
The Scriptures record that the Word ‘took to himself descent from Abraham’ and that therefore it was essential that ‘he should become completely like his brothers and sisters’, and have a body similar to our own. This explains the role of Mary in the plan of God: she was to provide the Word with a human body so that he might offer it up as something that is his own. Scripture records her giving birth, and tell us that she ‘wrapped him in swaddling-clothes’. The breasts that suckled him were called blessed. Sacrifice was offered because this child was her firstborn. The angel Gabriel announced the good news of his birth in careful and prudent language. He did not speak of ‘what will be born in you’, to avoid the impression that a body had been introduced into her womb from the outside. Rather, he said: ‘what will be born from you’, so that we might know that her child originated within her entirely naturally.
The Word adopted this pattern so that by assuming our human nature and offering it in sacrifice, he might both abolish it and invest it with his own nature. As the apostle Paul was inspired to write: ‘This corruptible body must put on incorruption; this mortal body must put on immortality.’
His birth was no pretence, as some have suggested. Far from it! Our Saviour really did become human, and from this has followed the salvation of humankind. Our salvation is no pretence, nor is it the salvation of the body only. The salvation which the Word has secured is of the whole person, body and soul.
What was born of Mary, according to Scripture, was human by nature. The Lord’s body was real – real because it was the same as ours. Mary, you see, is our sister, for we are all descended from Adam.
This is the meaning of the words of St John: ‘The Word was made flesh.’ His words have the same import as others of St Paul: ‘Christ was made a curse for our sake.’ The human body has acquired something wonderful through its communion and union with the Word. From being mortal it has become immortal; though physical, it has become spiritual; though made from the earth, it has passed through the gates of heaven.
4 January
A Reading from a sermon of Bernard of Clairvaux
When God emptied himself and took the form of a servant, he emptied himself only of majesty and power, not of goodness and mercy. For what does the Apostle say? ‘The goodness and humanity of God our Saviour have appeared in our midst.’ God’s power had appeared already in creation, and his wisdom in the ordering of creation; but his goodness and mercy have appeared now in his humanity.
So what are you frightened of? Why are you trembling before the face of the Lord when he comes? God has come not to judge the world, but to save it! Do not run away; do not be afraid. God comes unarmed; he wants to save you, not to punish you. And lest you should say ‘I heard your voice and I hid myself,’ look – he is here, an infant with no voice. The cry of a baby is something to be pitied, not to be frightened of. He is made a little child, the Virgin Mother has wrapped his tender limbs in swaddling bands; so why are you still quaking with fear? This tells you that God has come to save you, not to lose you; to rescue you, not to imprison you.
God is already fighting your two enemies, sin and death – the death of both body and soul. He has come to conquer both of them; so do not fear, he will save you from them. He has already conquered sin in his own person, in that he took our human nature upon himself without spot of sin. From this moment on he pursues your enemies and overtakes them, and will not return until he has overcome them both. He fights sin with his life, he attacks it with his word and example; and in his passion he binds it, yes, binds ‘the strong man and carries off his goods’. In the same way it is in his own person that he first conquers death when he rises as ‘the firstfruits of those who sleep, the firstborn from the dead’. From now on he will conquer it in all of us as he raises up our mortal bodies, and death, the last enemy, will be destroyed.
In his rising he is clothed with honour, no longer wrapped in swaddling bands as at his birth. At