“THE TREE OF REVELATION IS CHRIST HERE FOR YOU NOW”
Advent Midweek 3: 17 December Anno Domini 2015
Father Jay Watson SSP
“And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, ‘I see men as trees, walking.’ After that He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up, and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.” [Mk. 8. 23-25]
Fellow trees, i.e. fellow “little Christs”—Christians who also icon Thy Master, you are restored!
Your salvation and rest comes only through His Tree—His obedience, suffering, and death on the cross. Paul does not write “we preach Christ incarnated or born,” though to be sure, the Apostle considered the incarnation the greatest sacrament, mysterion, mystery. Paul did not write “we preach Christ resurrected” or “Christ ascended” though we know these miraculous occurrences filled and animated everything else he did write or preach. He wrote to the Corinthians: “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called (my fellow trees—green with the sap of supernal Grace) Christ the power of God, and the Wisdom of God.” [1 Cor. 1. 23-24]
As a follower of The God/Man you properly eschew and avoid both concupiscence towards mammon and idolatry towards all worldly diversions (which would pull you away from your Lord). You understand the legend of Saint Nicholas and its historical antecedents focusing on both the historical Bishop of Myra and the Germanic and Scandinavian folk traditions which mixed and mashed Saints and local customs. Fine. You like to decorate your homes with festive trees, lights and ornaments, as well as repeat your own family traditions. Very fine. But as bloody and bruised warriors of The Way, marching in the Camp of The True Saints in this Advent lighted Lenten trek, you know full well that Christ’s imminent final Advent—His return—is nigh at hand. You know that when you congregate here on the eve of the 24th it will be to celebrate both His birth in history and His momentary visible reappearance. When you gather on the 25th at 9am it is not to sing with Shepherd and Angels over the Creche but to sing with the Host of Sabaoth over the Holy Host of His Body and His Blood in His Chalice! And that is it dear brethren—that is your life to come that already in an inchoate, not yet complete way…but even now coalescing IS…In Christ; Christ IN YOU. His Word and Sacrament brings you HIS actual PRESENCE—His Peace; consummation for the Bride.
Even as Christmas should be different for a confessional evangelical catholic such as you all are than for a heterodox sectarian, so too is Advent apprehended and guarded by you in a wholly more salutary way. For forgiveness you do not go to your own works in prayer or alms giving, or even to rigorous works of study and piety. Although all of those things are meet and right. You are drawn as the body of Christ to The Body of Christ—His Word and His fruit of The Tree—The Christmas Tree. When you need forgiveness and Sabbath, when you need family and love, you do not, like so many others, try and go to the historic Calvary in your memory or to the “proof” of your status in your own “feelings” or “deeds.” You come to The Mass and are clothed, fed, and touched by your Lord.
For you, the 4th chapter of Saint John’s Revelation is not a prediction of some Millennialist’s enthusiastic heresy but a coded and symbolic description of an actual Divine Service—John describing with images and types what went on when the Risen and Ascended and Present Christ tabernacled with His New Testament brothers and sisters in the Mass! John was there. You are here and the same applies!
You look and “behold, a door was opened in heaven; voice I heard…of a trumpet, which said, come up hither…I was in the Spirit…a throne was set in heaven…and One sat on the throne.” The Bishop seated upon the high Sedalia by the Holy Altar the trumpet of the Deacon’s voice reading Holy Writ; the trumpet of the Presbyter calling the communicants. “ And round about the throne were four and twenty seats…upon the seats four and twenty elders…clothed in white…before the throne four beast…a lion…a calf…a winged man…a flying eagle…saying holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty.” This is the congregation of faithful shepherds and sheep with the four-fold Gospel of the Evangelists—their tetramorph symbols chanting Gospel and Sanctus with the six-winged Seraphim. This is your Holy Communion Service in a few moments from now. This is your Blessed Happy Christmas even in Adventide—The Christ Mass.
As little children eagerly await Christmas Day to receive gifts they’ve been dreaming about, so too do all mature Christians await the final Advent and the everlasting Christmas. There you will always dine, nay, feast, on the fruit of The Tree, Christ Jesus. And what of that Tree? Where is it now? It is where it has always been since Maundy Thursday, in the midst of His New Testament re-capitulated Garden.
John’s Apocalypse tells you what awaits you in heaven, yes. But his vision always tells you what is here this evening: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what The Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” [Rev. 2. 7]
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” [Rev. 22 1-7]
A most blessed Advent dear Saints.
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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