The subject of this book is the “Christmas” dogma: the divinely revealed truth of the Nativity of Christ, as proclaimed by His infallible and immaculate Bride, the Church. It is the splendor of this truth, of “Love’s noon in Nature’s night,” which for two millennia has captivated the minds of Fathers and Schoolmen, activated the genius of poets, painters, and musicians, and, in even the bleakest of mid-winters, brightened the eyes of little ones kneeling by the Crib.
And also, as our Greater Wichita G.K. Chesterton group continues to read The Everlasting Man (also for the second time as group, but with different members), I must note how often Father Saward quotes and references Chesterton throughout the book. There are also a few mentions of Saint John Henry Newman, but the theologian and saint quoted most often is Saint Thomas Aquinas, whose feast (though superseded by Sunday! as we know Saint Thomas would think entirely fitting!) was January 28, opening Catholic Schools week. Other saints and theologians frequently cited are Pope St. Leo the Great, Saints Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure, Cyril of Alexandria, and Jerome, etc. In addition to Chesterton, Father Saward also cites another Englishman, Father Frederick Faber of the London Oratory, especially Faber's book Bethlehem: The Sacred Infancy of Our Most Dear and Blessed Redeemer.
What impressed me most this reading was Father Saward's emphasis in Chapter One, "How great the mystery!" The Mysteries of the Life of Jesus, that every act of Jesus's life on earth was an act for our salvation: not just (!) His Passion, Death and Resurrection, but every act from His Infancy and through His active ministry: every teaching, every healing, every rejection--everything the Incarnate Son of God did on earth was for our salvation. Not just for our moral improvement, doctrinal instruction, or our spiritual development, but for our salvation.
From page 78-79 in the Ignatius press edition:
But the mysteries of the life of Jesus are more than just a series of dogmatic instructions and moral lessons. They provide not only a model for outward imitation but also a source of inward transformation. . . . they sanctify us by an efficient as well as an exemplary causality; they not only show us how to be holy in the likeness our Saviour but reproduce that likeness in our souls. From the fleshly birth of the Head comes the spiritual rebirth of the members. When the divine Messiah takes on the Old Law at His Circumcision, He lifts the burden from other men. The immersion of His body in the Jordan gives a new sacramental vocation to water. His victory over Satan in the wilderness strengthens His faithful against temptation. His Passion saves us my merit, satisfaction, sacrifice and redemption. His Resurrection from the tomb is the source and model of our own resurrection, in soul and in body. "Redemption," says the Catechism [of the Catholic Church], "comes to us above all through the blood of his cross, but this mystery is at work throughout Christ's entire life." [517] As Pope Pius II [in Mediator Dei, no. 163], in each mystery, Christ is the 'Author of our salvation.'
I think this knowledge should make a great difference in the way I read or, especially, hear the Gospels proclaimed at Holy Mass!
As a good friend of mine said, who finished the book before Christmas, this is a book to read again and again--probably more often than every ten years!
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