"Come let us adore the King our Lord Who is to come." These are the
opening words of the Invitatory which the Church uses every day at
Matins during the first fortnight of Advent. Let us turn then from the
Precursor, who has taught us so many lessons, to JESUS Christ Himself.
What is He doing during these months of waiting before Christmas? He,
too, is preparing, preparing for the work for which He has already come
into the world, although He is not yet manifest. John the Baptist has
pointed Him out to me: "Behold the Lamb of God!" Now I will do what his
disciples did--leave "the Friend of the Bridegroom" for the Bridegroom
Himself. He has become incarnate for me; it behoves me then to keep as
close to Him as possible, to love Him with all my heart and to copy Him
as far as I can. He is God and therefore there can be nothing imperfect
about Him; from the first moment of the Word being made flesh in the
womb of His Mother till "she brought forth her first-born Son" on
Christmas day, His faculties, His reason, His intelligence, His
sensibilities were all in a state of perfection; He knew the past, the
present, and the future; and He, the Source of grace, was pouring forth
grace on all around Him. Directly we understand this, we feel that we
must draw near, not only to adore but to sympathize, to wonder, to love,
to learn, to imitate. For those who understand the Incarnation, His work
did not begin on Christmas Day, but on the Feast of the Annunciation,
when Mary said: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me
according to Thy word." What happened at that moment? The Holy Ghost
overshadowed her, the Body of Our Lord was formed from her pure blood,
God created the human Soul to dwell in it, and by the act of the
Incarnation that Soul and Body became the Soul and Body of the Word, the
Second Person of the Blessed Trinity; Mary became the Mother of God and
Gabriel worshipped before the Tabernacle of the Word made flesh.
Mary was the next to adore; Joseph, Elizabeth, John, Zachary followed,
and there may have been other privileged ones to whom Our Lord Himself
revealed His secret; but the world at large went on as usual--it "knew
Him not." The same thing happens every day in our midst. When the priest
with his God hidden on his breast passes on his way to give the Bread of
Life to some sufferer, only a few privileged ones know the secret and
offer their silent adoration. _Venite adoremus._