“THE THIRD DAY OF CHRISTMAS”
Saint Luke 2: 33-40
The Sunday after Christmas: 27 December Anno Domini 2015
Father Jay Watson SSP
On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me: three calling birds. Your true love is your Lord and God and He gives you Himself in His Trinitarian fullness—the three calling birds of Father, Son, + and Holy Spirit; the three calling birds of the Evangel’s creation, justification, and sanctification; and the fruit of Tree of Life bursting forth on the third day from the tomb.
The Holy Family, the Three in our text, visited the Temple on the 40th day that The Blessed Virgin might be ritually purified and that her new born son might be “presented” and redeemed back with two turtle doves. The New Testament parents of The Christ, Saints Mary and Joseph, were met by their Old Testament “parents” Saints Anna and Simeon. The old and the new met in the flesh and blood of The Messiah babe.
Simeon in his Benedictus, still sung by his brethren 2,000 years later to confess that in the Body of Jesus, our Lord and our God is present for us…to be held by hands, on tongues, and in hearts, goes on to speak directly to the Blessed Virgin—Christ’s mother and ours. He speaks “Christ crucified.”
Simeon, without saying, knew that the babe would not have arrived at the Temple without Mary’s presence as well, for there is no son without a mother; no Eve without Adam—no rib without a ribcage; and no Virgin Mother without God the Holy Spirit…thus saith The Lord by the Archangel. But we not only do not object like the sectarians but we welcome, honor, and give praise to she who is “blessed among women,” “Gottesmutter” and Theotokos. It’s always better with family. No Christian is ever without his or her brothers and sisters, so why would we ever want to be without our Mother, Notre Dame—Saint Mary, Icon of our One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. From her “fiat”—“be it unto me according to Thy Word” to her always truthful and beneficial counsel at Cana “whatsoever He saith unto you, do it” she leads us and the Host of Sabaoth in our praises of Magnificat and Sanctus.
And yet…as Simeon blessed these three “calling birds” the two sparrows of Joseph and Mary and the One, Uncreate, with Healing in His wings…he also “said unto Mary His Mother, ‘behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.”
What? Doesn’t everybody love a child—a baby? Well, in times past maybe…even today, sorta, if one is not aborting them or using their tissue for Frankenstein experimentation. But the world, your fallen flesh, and the devil do not love The Christ, The God/Man. Everybody loves a secular, pop-culture, sentimental Chriss-Miss but the world stumbles over and curses a Mass of The Lord’s Body and Blood given and shed for the forgiveness of sin! No one likes to hear about sin, about death, judgment and hell. Mankind raises a fist, a dagger, a club to smite and destroy the voice of one calling in the wilderness repent! The sign of the babe that Simeon was prophesying was the sign of The Holy + Cross. The cross of the Crucified One says that man, you and others, are so wrong, so bad, that the only way to fix things, to Redeem back, is with blood—Blood from God. The Babe Who would “grow, and wax strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, having the grace of God” for He was God, would be the only way to The Father…no one would come to Peace and Joy apart from Him without having Him carry one like a palsied, blind, deaf, and dead leper through the door of His Body. This sign is still spoken against to this very hour!
Hearts are revealed, the true inner man and woman of all people is revealed, not so much how they view and treat the Blessed Virgin, though ones orthodox Christology and plain sense of decency can be gauged on how one speaks of The Lord’s Mother, but more so the heart of Saint and pagan is cut through, divided asunder, and rent apart by The Holy
Church’s ever present Law declaring and Gospel preaching. The sword of Moses pierces your soul so that the Blood gushing from Christ’s pierced side might transfuse into you via the Chalice.
All of you like Saint Mary are made virgins again, that is, pure and undefiled and sinless in the eyes of God through the Blood of The Lamb slain for you.
Return now not to Galilee, Nazareth, Jerusalem, or even Bethlehem, but be returned by The Spirit to The Father in The Son. Wax strong and be filled with Jesus.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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