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Á¦¸ñ Look at into the Little Jesus and Maria (2017-12-31)
ÀÛ¼ºÀÚ °ü¸®ÀÚ ÀÛ¼ºÀÏ 2018-01-01


Look at into the Little Jesus and Maria (2017-12-31)


My dear Brethren,


¡°Come, let us adore Him !¡± Today, ¡°God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son ,¡± ¡°For, this day, is born to us a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David .¡± We ¡°shall find the Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger ,¡± because His ¡°flesh is meat indeed: and His blood is drink indeed .¡±

St Bernard tells us rightly, that God gave His Son first to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and then through her to us. If we want to find Jesus, we must first find the Blessed Virgin, and through her we will find Jesus: this is what the shepherds did: ¡°they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger¡± (Lk. 2:16). Note the order of the Gospel: they first found Mary, and then the Infant Jesus.

O Mary! O holy Mother of God, give us thy Jesus, whom we search for so eagerly! We need Him! Our world, so deep in sin, needs its Saviour, Who alone can ¡°save His people from their sins .¡± He alone can do that, because He alone is Holy, He alone is the Lord, He alone is the Most High, Jesus the Christ! But who can come close to Him? ¡°Put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground .¡±

But thou, o Mary, art perfectly pure, ¡°Virgin of Virgins¡±, immaculate virgin, immaculate since thy conception! Thou art ¡°the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys .¡± So, in thy most pure womb, the Holy Ghost has deposited the Son of God, ¡°the Holy One of Israel¡± , and today thou givest Him to us, o Mother of Christ! He is ¡°our life ,¡± so that in giving us Jesus, thou givest us life, thou becomest our mother, Mother of the Church!

By giving us Jesus through Mary, ¡°how hath not God also, with him, given us all things ¡± also through Mary? ¡°Of his fulness we all have received, and grace for grace ¡±. She then truly became the Mother of divine grace. O Mother most pure, give us the grace of purity! O mother most chaste, give us the grace of chastity! So that we may receive Jesus, ¡°the Blessed Fruit of thy womb ¡±, in a worthy manner in Holy Communion.

But thy purity goes beyond everyone else: thou alone art Virgin and Mother, ¡°Mother inviolate, Mother undefiled¡±, virgin before the birth, virgin during the birth, virgin after the birth and for ever!All mothers admire thy purity, all virgins admire thy fecundity, all together admire thy humility in the midst of so great and unique gifts, mother most amiable, mother most admirable!

O blessed Joseph, to whom God entrusted His two greatest treasures, His only-begotten Son and His Mother! Joseph is a man of contemplation: the holy Gospel does not quote a single word of Joseph: he adores Jesus in silence; he admires Mary in silence. He loves Jesus ¡°with his whole heart, with his whole soul, with all his strengthand all his mind¡±  in silence. The holy gospel does not mention any word in the crib: silent, loving adoration and thanksgiving with a heart overcome with gratitude for God¡¯s wisdom: to draw the heart of sinful mankind, the Son of God made Himself a little Babe, so apt to draw our love. Without words, our Lady puts her finger on her mouth, indicating us this rule of silence: let the Child sleep! O Mother of good counsel, teach us how to pray!

Prayer starts with an act of Faith: we believe that this Child is the ¡°Son of Most High ,¡± the Word ¡°by which all things were made .¡± O Mary, thou art the ¡°Mother of the Creator¡±! But even more, He is ¡°the Saviour of the world ,¡± and ¡°neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved :¡± hence thou art the ¡°Mother of the Saviour!¡± Pray to Him for us! Without Him, we are lost.

Because we were fools, following the ways of sin: ¡°Because we have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in our thoughts, and our foolish heart was darkened. For professing ourselves to be wise, we became fools .¡± We need the Saviour. Pride has lost us. His humility will save us. O Virgin most prudent, thou hast understood this, and humility is the foundation of all thy virtues: while thou wert chosen as the Mother of God, thou offerest thyself as ¡°the handmaid of the Lord ¡±, and He was most pleased with this: ¡°he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call thee blessed: ¡± Virgin most venerable, Virgin most renowned! For truly ¡°whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted! ¡±

Christmas is truly a feast for the humble, for the little ones, for the poor and abandoned: God did not abandon them; He became one of them! This poor little Babe is the Lord of Angels, the Almighty God! He is all-powerful to save those who humble themselves: ¡°as many as received him, he gave them power to become the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. ¡± They need to be strong to say No! to sin, to renounce Satan and all his works and all his pomps, hereby crushing the head of the serpent as children of Mary, the ¡°Virgin most powerful.¡± Especially in the modern world, where Satan has made sin easy, there is need of a very deliberate No! to sin, and all the deceits of the devil.

But there is also need of forgiveness, of mercy for the past sins. Because ¡°all have sinned, and do need the glory of God¡± . Thou alone, o Mary, by a very special privilege wast preserved from all sin: to thee the divine Spouse sings a canticle: ¡°Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee¡± (Cant. 4:7). Yet, though thou hast not sinned, thou hast no contempt for sinners, but rather thou art the Mother of Mercy, the Virgin most clement: not a false mercy that would let the sinner in his sin, but a true mercy that helps the sinner out of his sins, to start a true life of penance and fidelity, Virgin most faithful! Thou art the best example of that absolute fidelity to God: thou hast never done the least sin, not even a single venial sin. Help us to be faithful!

We see thy obedience to the Law, especially in the Circumcision of the Child and the Presentation to the Temple a few days after Christmas, and thy Purification: neither did the Child Jesus need circumcision, being Innocence itself, neither did thou need any purification – Moses had put a special clause that exempted thee from this law of uncleanness of mothers. He had said: ¡°If a woman having received seed shall bear a man child, she shall be unclean¡¦¡± : that evidently did not apply to thee, who hast conceived by the operation of the Holy Ghost . Yet, to give an example of obedience since many around thee did not know of the marvellous work of the Holy Ghost in thee, thou hast submitted thyself to this law of purification, Mirror of Justice. May we always follow thine example!

In thee, as on a throne, we find the Child Jesus, Divine wisdom: many beautiful statues present thee as this ¡°Throne of Wisdom¡±: give us to find Jesus, the Divine Wisdom, sitting on thy lap! The three wise men found thee: ¡°entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh .¡± They had seen the star and they rejoiced : thou art our Morning Star, that announces the coming of the ¡°Sun of Justice ¡± and in seeing thee, we rejoice with the wise men, Cause of our joy!

The heretics do not love thee, because they are looking for external wonders and in thy humble life on earth, there was little to see. The wonders of the virginal conception was hidden to the eyes of the world, and many of them refuse even thy perpetual virginity: they do not understand the beauty of consecrated virginity, of which thou wast the very first example and model for all those that followed, because this beauty is interior: ¡°the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. ¡± Yet the Holy Ghost had announced: ¡°All the glory of the king¡¯s daughter is within! ¡± It is a spiritual beauty, Spiritual Vessel: the Church sings to thee, o Mary: ¡°O Blessed Mary, Mother of God, Virgin for ever, temple of the Lord, sanctuary of the Holy Ghost!¡± Teach us to love this interior life, this spiritual life,Vessel of honour. All true virtue is rooted in this interior devotion, in this interior life of Christ in us. If St Paul could say: ¡°I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me, ¡± how much more true is that of Thee, Vessel of true devotion!

The nativity scene on one portal of the cathedral of Chartres represents the Baby Jesus as laid on an altar: He is indeed ¡°the Lamb of God¡± , and ¡°entering into the world, he saith: Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldest not: but a body thou hast fitted to me ¡±, the offering of His Body and Blood will replace all the sacrifices of the Old Testament: ¡°he taketh away the first, that he may establish that which followeth .¡± So, Christmas is the preparation of the Victim of the Sacrifice. It is also a preparation for the Resurrection; thus St Paul could say: ¡°we declare unto you, that the promise which was made to our fathers, This same God hath fulfilled to our children, raising up Jesus, as in the second psalm also is written: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. ¡± This is the intimate connection of the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries, symbolised by the white, red and golden roses, Mystical Rose! ¡°Bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters¡±.

Christmas is at last the fulfilling of so many prophecies of the Old Testament. At last came He who was the Expectation of nations: ¡°The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations, ¡± as the Patriarch Joseph had prophesised. And the prophet Aggeus said: ¡°I will move all nations: and the Desired of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory: saith the Lord of hosts¡± . And He came through thee, o Mary; hence the Canticle sings to thee: ¡°Thy neck as a Tower of ivory, ¡¦ Thy neck, is as the Tower of David, which is built with bulwarks: a thousand bucklers hang upon it, all the armour of valiant men. ¡± The shields of the valiant men are compared to the jewels on the necklace of the mystical bride, because she brought forth Him in whom they believed and for whom they longed: their strength came from that faith in the Saviour to come.

For nine months, thou wast the true Ark of the covenant, having in Thee the new Manna, being the sanctuary of the Incarnate Word, the Golden House alone worthy to contain the Body of Christ. He came to us through thee, as through the Gate of Heaven, prophesised by Ezechiel: ¡°This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut. ¡± By these words, he prophesised thy perpetual virginity.

Thou hast in thy hands the divine remedy to all our ills, thy Holy Child, our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, we come to thee in our infirmities, Health of the sick, especially the infirmities of our soul: past sins with all their consequences. Thou art the Refuge of sinners: I would not say that thou openeth His Heart to us, but rather our heart to Him: His Heart is always open to us, but ours is too often closed, our ears are closed, our evil will is not docile: the door of our soul is like the inn at Bethlehem. But we come to thee, He has given thee such a marvellous way to soften our heart, and render it humble and docile to His grace; we refuse no longer to do penance when we see thee, innocent and pure, suffering in the cold of winter because of our sins.

Like the poor shepherds who came in this cold night, thou hast consoled them by giving them Jesus: ¡°thou didst feed thy people with the food of angels, and gavest them Bread from Heaven prepared without labour; having in it all that is delicious, and the sweetness of every taste. ¡± O Consoler of the afflicted! As the New Eve, helper of the New Adam, thou dost not give us to eat of the forbidden fruit, but rather the fruit of the Tree of Life, that is Jesus, who is the fruit of the Cross. This is the fruit that we long for, and we hear thy entreaties: ¡°Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. ¡±

¡°Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps, in the vale of tears .¡± So, in this vale of tears we have recourse to thee, because thou art the Help of Christians, Mother of Perpetual Help always ready to help us find thy Son, praying for us without ceasing.

Though thou art so humble in this little crib, yet thou wast saluted with much reverence by the Angel Gabriel as the Full of grace, the Queen of Angels, and they watched over thee, as they watch over us, thy children. Already in the Old Testament, all the patriarchs and prophets were looking forward to the coming of Thy Son, looking forward to that blessed Night in which thou woulst give to the world its Saviour: Queen of Patriarchs and Queen of Prophets!

Later the Apostles would gather in prayer around thee  and thou would teach them about Christmas: how else would St Matthew and St Luke have been able to write their first two chapters? Make us faithful to their teaching, o Queen of the Apostles!


After Simeon had sung his Nunc dimittis, and announced that thy soul would be pierced with a lance, o Queen of Martyrs, Anna the prophetess ¡°at the same hour, coming in, confessed to the Lord; and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel .¡± Obtain also for us the same grace, that in our whole life we have the courage to speak of Him to all, confessing our faith in the Lord thy Son, o Queen of Confessors! And may thy beautiful example of purity inspire many to follow thee and consecrate their virginity to the Lord, o Queen of Virgins!

When will that blessed day come, that all the Saints will gather in front of Jesus thy Son and sing their hymn of gratitude for ever, for His mercy in coming to redeem us, gratitude also to thee through whom He came to us, o Queen of All Saints! From thy Immaculate Conception to thine Assumption, thou hast served Him perfectly, o Handmaid of the Lord: obtain for us to follow this through the faithful meditation of the holy Rosary, in the path to Heaven and eternal peace, o Queen of Peace!

May St Joseph give us his eyes and his heart to contemplate the Child Jesus in His Mother¡¯s arms and to love them and serve them faithfully, so that we may rejoice with them for ever in heaven. Amen!

Father François Laisney