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| Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar enter the Crib |
JULIAN OF VEZELAY** (1080 - 1160): ... Julian of Vezelay was
a Benedictine monk noted for the sermons he
gave in the chapterhouse of his monastery to
stimulatemonastic observance and asceticism. ...
veniaminov.blogspot.com/2008/01/wisdom-from-january-14.html
After Epiphany to the Baptism of the
Lord.
Year II
MONDAY
6th Jan 2014
First Reading
Isaiah 54:1-17
Responsory Is 54:8.10; 43:11
With an everlasting love I have had compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer. + My mercy will not leave you, and my covenant of peace will not be changed.
V. I am the Lord, there is no savior but me, says the Lord. + My mercy will ...
Second Reading
From a
sermon by Julian of Vezelay (Sermon 11: SC 192, 80-85)
Imitate the faith of the magi and follow
their path
Herod is troubled, the prince of this world
is troubled, when they learn that a heaven-appointed king has been born. Herod
hides his resentment, however, and pledges his homage. Guided by the star, the magi
reach Bethlehem. They enter the house, which they recognize by the pointing star that
stands over the place where the child was. They
find the child with his mother, but
a mother who is a virgin. "His mother": but who is meant by "his"?
The one who had neither father nor mother, the one who had both a Father and a
mother: where he had a Father, he did not have a mother; where he had a mother;
he did not have a father. Here is a marvel for the human beings for whose sake God
is born and dies a man!
The magi fell down and worshiped him. Do you do likewise? The magi, experts in divine
worship, teach you how you are to worship God. Luke says: They fell down and worshiped him. But that is
not how you act: rather, when you enter the house of prayer, the house in which
we pray to Jesus, you immediately collapse or sit down, overpowered by your idleness
or negligence as by a heavy load; then, carelessly, or even eagerly, you settle
yourself not for prayer but for sleep. Not only do you not kneel for prayer,
but you yawn and scratch yourself, and you cast your wandering gaze now up, now
down. As for the prayers themselves - if
they are to be called prayers - and the psalms, you run through them so quickly
that you cut the verses short by half.
Yet Solomon had knelt on both knees when, after the temple had been completed, this
unwearying petitioner poured out his lengthy prayer. As for David, even though his knees were
weakened
through fasting and his flesh was changed because of the oil (oil being
the supreme luxury which that temperate king allowed himself!), he says that when
he prayed, his soul was humbled to the dust and his belly clung to the earth. He prostrated himself in adoration: Come, he says, let us adore and fall down ... before
the Lord.
If it seems to you too difficult to imitate
kings, who prayed so devoutly and fervently amid the cares and agitation of the
court, then imitate at least the magi, who fell
down and worshiped him. That was how the devil had wanted the Lord
to worship him, when he said to him, after showing him the glory of the world: All these will
I give you if you will fall down and
worship me.
The text goes on to say: Opening their treasures, they offered him gifts. Think
of the wonderful faith of the magi: they saw before them an infant wrapped in
rags and lying in an unworthy inn that was probably a wretched shack; they saw
a mother clothed in the cheap garments of the people, her reputation further blackened
because of the work done by her carpenter husband; they saw, finally, the carpenter
himself, unkempt from his manual toil and labor as a carpenter, and yet called
the father of so mighty a king. The magi saw all this, and yet they did not lose
heart nor think that they had journeyed foolishly and in vain; they did not even
think to themselves: "Is this poor infant, this child of the people, to
become the King of the Jews? Was it for such a child that we have travelled this
long road? How shall so poor, humble, and lowly a child rise to royal honours?
We regret our toil, we are disgusted with our journey. Let us at least take back
with us the gifts we brought."
The magi entertained none of these thoughts.
Instead, made certain by the grace given them of the royal and divine majesty of
the child, they fell humbly down and adored, and then opened their treasures and
joyfully offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
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