a long time of purple and then white. And that may be the opportunity for us to kind of draw up, or shall we say, a kind of spiritual balance sheet to For the last time, just to remind our spirits of what has happened in these last weeks, the celebration of Christmas, the Nativity of our Lord, and of the Epiphany. And to see, and perhaps do it in this way, that one picks out certain things which, of course that is in some way subjective, I know it, but still which in some way made a special impression in this year's Christmas celebrations.

[01:16]

There is one thing right away when we think about the Nativity, the incarnation of the Word of God. What text, which I must confess during these weeks and this year has received a kind of special significance to me, didn't have before, that is, the Epistle of the Third Mass on Christmas Day, the Epistle to the Hebrews. In some way, I must confess, I have always a little hesitation concerning this epistle. Just maybe see right away Why it belongs into this celebration of the nativity of Christ.

[02:20]

You remember it goes this way. God who at sundry times and in diverse matters spoke in times past to the fathers by the cross. This one last of all in these days has spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world, who be the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance, and according all things by the word of his power, making procreation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on earth. He made so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.

[03:27]

For to which of the angels has he said at any time, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a fire, and he shall be to me a sun. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he says, that all the angels of God adore him. To the angels, indeed, he says, he that makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of hope. But to the sun, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of justice is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, thy God, has appointed thee with the oil of gladness above all thy films. And thou at the beginning, O Lord, didst part the earth with the works of thy hands, all the heavens,

[04:33]

They shall perish, but thou shalt continue. They shall all grow old as a garment, and the rest shall thou change them. They shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fade. Now, there is one point that I would like that we remember. That the celebration of Christmas means to us and shows to us that Christianity is, we have said that in the course also of the conferences that you remember about the Mysterio, that Christianity is essentially different from all other what we call all other faiths. God has at certain times and in diverse manners spoken times past to the fathers by the prophets.

[05:41]

That's different. Christ is greater than the prophets. That is important. There is a point that I brought to your attention, you know these things naturally already, but still it is necessary that we remember them. Christianity is not the teaching of a prophet. That was the thing that struck me so much in these two little meetings with Mohammedanism. Mohammedanism is strictly a prophetic religion. It denies fanatically, vehemently the incarnation of the Son of God. It wants and thinks it is necessary in no other way can the one God be worshipped. not in the empty niche of this absolute transcendency and the idea of the incarnation of the Word of God is a scam.

[06:54]

That is, as you see right away, not only, shall we say, the line of Mohammedanism, but that also is the line of Judaism. And therefore, their approach to God can only be an approach through the prophets. God appointed teachers, and they were moving on the line of teaching, and therefore, we may say, on a purely ethical or moral level. That should never be forgotten. While Christianity is the coming of the one who has his delight in this, that he should be with me. Aparigrasia, the mercy of the Father has appeared.

[07:58]

Christ is the Word of God made flesh. And therefore in him, and that is what we celebrate in his nativity and comes out so beautifully here, is not a religion of a prophet, the teaching of a prophet, but it is the breaking in, the invasion of this world by the glory, the life, the power of God himself. That makes the holy. That is the reason why Christmas, the moment in which the Word of God made man, enters into this world, there is man today. What is that today? That is, in this fact, that, as St. Paul points it out here,

[09:01]

Thou wouldst in the beginning, O Lord, expound the earth. The works of thy hands are the heavens. They shall perish. See, that is in the power in certain times and in diverse times. They shall perish, but thou shalt continue. They shall all grow old as a garment, and as a vesture, thou shalt not change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same thing, and thy years shall not fade. That is the meaning which to in our, or to us as Christians, the word today. Holy, not to that time. Here at this moment, this day, the day enters our day.

[10:04]

And our day is fused into God's day. Our day becomes the day that shall never finish. That is the essence of the word here today of the mysterious. And we express this also in our way. We say this is not simply a merely historical fact, but this is a mystery. The nativity of Christ is something which is essentially linked up, which is, as we say, a coming, a manifestation, a presence of the eternal day here today. And that is, of course, that is the foundation of all our celebration. That is the foundation of our life. It has been established that in the beginning has been made with us by the fact that the word of God took all

[11:15]

our human nature in the unity of the divine person. That is what we call the ontological contact between God and man, which has been established. That is the essence of what we call the mystery. That is naturally then for us, not only in this person of Christ, But that is in him as the head of all. But there is naturally an element comes in which we have expressed, as you see expressed in all these explanations of St. Paul in the spiritual beginning on the episode to the Hebrews, that this word of God made flesh. because that is where the age of the whole new body only through his resurrection and his ascension.

[12:27]

And that is the beautiful, wonderful thing that one cannot admire enough that we begin the celebration of Christmas With these words, today I have begotten you. And these words are applied, of course, not only to Christmas, but they are essentially, first of all, primarily applied to the resurrection. Today I have begotten you. It's the resurrection. so that we can absolutely and truly say that right from the first beginning, Christmas cannot be separate from the Resurrection. It is the beginning already of the Resurrection. And therefore, this Nativity of Christ, therefore, is then also, through baptism, our beginning and our Nativity.

[13:36]

but through baptism. And you know very well that baptism is the fruit of Christ's death and resurrection. So in that way, that is one aspect of the celebration of the Christmas season that we should keep in mind. This is the cradle of the mystery. This is the beginning of a completely new relation between God and man, which is Christianity's own. On this relation, the essence of the church rests. And upon this foundation, our spiritual life rests. And that is the reason why, just in keeping, let us say, with this basic fact, that here not a new teaching is given to us, not another prophet in some other way explains to us things about God.

[14:46]

But here it is, the Son of God gives him the eternal holy who makes this holy also an eternal holy. in this new sacrament, and therefore then enables us not only to have this irrevocable beginning, restore it only in the celebration of the Christian feast and of the Christian sacraments, but to have it also repeated constantly in our own daily life by what we call our constant return into the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ is this quoting in which he wants God and man in covenant

[15:50]

appearing to us, dying as rising for us, and in this way then fulfilling all justice, so that from this head the Spirit would be poured into us, in which we then cry, Abba, God. So that is our return into the peace of Christ. And therefore, that is for us in every moment of finding ourselves on the periphery in some way. finding ourselves in darkness in some way, finding ourselves entangled in all kinds of sin and guilt, in human attachment, then it is for us the first thing going back into this peace of Christ.

[16:53]

But this peace of Christ is the eternal, everlasting, ontological union between God and man in the person of the curious Jesus Christ. The one who was born, the one who died, the one who rose, and is now ever living for us at the right hand of the Father. He is the throne. He is the, as it is said here, the anointed one, the Messiah. That is what this word wants to express. In that way, the Messiah is more in that way than any prophet. And above all your friends, I am the anointed one. And above all the angels, That means above all the demons and the godless gods and the goddesses of the past.

[17:56]

Far and apart. in the truly in the between. And what we call returning to the peace of Christ is, what I told you before, in the practical application of the sentence of the prophet, in the idea of the secret of the chief, renew our days as from and through and in the between. That is the first thing we see. We see that then here in the Christmas season in various concrete saints. That's the beauty. We saw that. We celebrated the Feast of St. Stephen right after the Nativity because there is the soldier of Christ

[18:58]

There is the servant of Christ. There is the patiches Christi, the federal witness. And he then, in the moment in which he is accused, in which he stands alone and without any help, before the raging crowd of his judges, lifts up his eyes, that is, we turn into the peace of God, short of the Holy Ghost, as the Gospel says. And there he sees the Spirit shows in what? The human, the transfigured one. And how? Standing at the right hand of God, and that means present to him, Now, that is, in a more concrete way, the essence of the Mysterium could not be presented to us.

[20:06]

Or take not only the soldier, the martyr, but take St. John, the evangelist. St. John, the friend of Christ. The one who rests at the breast of his Saviour. the disciple whom he loves and whom the Lord wants to remain just the way he is. Because here already, and in that way, St. John is the archetype of the contemplative life. Through the love of God, through the love of Christ, he has and lives in this eternal holy air, which we mentioned before. And then, this wonderful feast, they are also of the first look. St. Walter Hurt. that belongs all into this whole context of the mystery.

[21:09]

And there it is, at this piece of St. Paul the Kermit, we have that beautiful epistle. I explain it at the time to our novices, because now we have three of them making their temporary vows, one proceeding to solemn confession, And I would want to do what I can to establish them and all those who, as novices and as apostles, are eager to follow them in the way of the Lord, in the way of the mystic. in the way of that union in the peace of Christ, because that is the only basis for our union among ourselves. The nativity of Christ as the hymn is also the nativity of the people and of the church.

[22:11]

Only in the peace of Christ can we be really and truly united. outside of the peace of Christ, we cannot. No monastic community can ever firmly be established on any other foundation. And therefore, this eagerness, anxiousness to show that and to show the way. And there is, we always follow, the guidance of the gospel. Words here, St. Paul says in the Epistle to the Philippians, What is my whole desire? I count everything else for loss. If I only have this one, that I may be found in Christ.

[23:14]

that I may be following in Christ. That means, in this way, you know, we turn all that separates us, all that pushes us into another dimension. Why to him? the one who, through his nativity, his death, and his resurrection, and then through baptism, made that beginning with us, that he poured out his spirit into our hearts so that in this spirit we may be able to call others up, to cry others up, that I may be found in him. not having my justice, my justice, which is our good. Now, everybody knows clearly that any justice which is from the Lord is not something that is bad.

[24:17]

Absolutely not, because this is the Lord God. Still, I am fulfilling And therefore, in the whole prophetical Mohammedan as well as Judaistic approach, it's my justice. I forgive. And the law and the other one doesn't. That is the essence on the palace. And I will not have my justice. See, St. Paul's. And that, I think, is to know that Mary Bell at St. Benedict clearly saw that in his word as a great danger for the monastic life. Not even, let us say, the fact that in a monastery everybody would have his justice. That means would produce, so to speak, a perfect observance

[25:21]

That does not guarantee the inner unity of the monastery. That is not what we are after. We are not after, you see, becoming, let us say, a monastery in which individuals have a good observance. They are just this. But we must have a monastery, and only then we have the community of those who are reborn through faith in the love of God for them. And that's, of course, the peace of Christ. And for those who are reborn, who are found in Christ, But to observe all the rules of the monastery does not mean that one is found in Christ. And not having my justice, which is of the law, but for that which is of the faith of Christ Jesus, which is God.

[26:32]

Justice in faith. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. And then in this beautiful epistle, this whole thing is formulated in this way. I know that I have not yet reached it, but that by any means I may reach or apprehend wherein I am also apprehended by Jesus. Now, that's good English, I would say it this way, that I may lay hold on him who has laid hold on me. That is the mystery. That is the new justice of it. And that is the essence of this whole practice of starting whatever we do in the peace of Christ.

[27:36]

that I know he has a hold of me. And then when I know that, then I also go forward that I may get a hold of him. That is then the fruit of it. So... Then we have another part of this, of our Christmas experience, and that is that this Son of God made flesh, that he comes to us not in glory, but that he comes to us in humility, in poverty, in obedience, and in death. All that is the essential part of our business celebration. He comes in unity. It is the word that I quoted to you before that again also in this year has taken a special significance.

[28:47]

Mortem subsit de Maria. He took them from me. Mary, he took death. That is so, said Augustus. So his nativity is taking place in the womb of his mother, means he takes death. That is, of course, everywhere in all the Gospels of the stuff. Yes, you may. The suffering. What is the suffering? The glory is with the angels. And the glory is in the star. But the Lord is not alone. He is there as a child. And in what state he is all covered with swaddling. That means a little hill-ness, little mud-ness.

[29:53]

and scarcely able to breathe. Anticipating already in this form that children very well, he had pointed that out, about the day, about the time, about in Christian iconography, that the swaddling clothes are always wound, but wound to child in the form of the cross. One stray was the lead. And in this way, anticipating in this form, because later on he will be put into the manger, that means into his tomb of stone, just as the manger, in the winding sheet for the dead. So he took not the substitute of Abijah. This humility in which he counteracts, puts up the remedy, comes to us on the way which is opposite and which therefore destroys the way in which Adam, man, in the beginning, all of his own power tried to compete with God.

[31:09]

The pride and glory, self-glorification of man is opposed and, one can say, repaid by the humility of the Savior. Man's selfishness is undone by God's poverty. Man's self-will is healed by his obedience. Man's wish for eternity is overcome by his death. And in all things he was substitute. He was God put man over his head. Again, just as with us in our monastic life. So the monastic profession is in a special way the imitation and the joining of this aspect of Christ's nativity.

[32:18]

And that is the reason why this time is in so many ways really and truly also the monster. But the third aspect of business that also may be in a special way this year, again, you know, became better known to us, and that is the fact that the word was made flesh. And there I brought your attention to it, that what is the real meaning of flesh? In the Old Testament, in Hebrew language, it is really the flesh, not only the form of humility, but the flesh has a great dignity. It is among all, let us say, God's creation, the highest, the most glorious, with great care, singular care, God has prepared and has created the flesh of man.

[33:32]

Breathing the kiss of peace is all spirit into it in order to adopt it. this form of clay and his image and his likeness as gifts of and therefore the flesh has that human flesh that you need dignity that it is the means through which the spirit reaches this visible world and through which this visible world reaches the spirit the divine spirit The flesh is that intermediary between the material world and the spiritual world. The flesh is the flowing of the blood, and the blood is the carrier of the soul. But with flesh, of course, we mean the skin, we mean the muscles, we mean the nerves, that whole thing.

[34:37]

The bones, it's different, as we said, diametrically opposed to the stone. And therefore, for those last days, The prophet Ezekiel, in his 36th chapter, he recalls, give us in those days you will change the heart of stone, which is no communication, no shape, absolute lostness in itself, the stone, without feeling, without any transparency whatsoever. And you will give us, instead of the heart of stone, you will give us a heart of flesh. So the flesh, he says, it will develop out of which and through which the light of divinity shines here in this world. That is even the interpretation of the word, the very word Adam.

[35:43]

And so we have seen his glory. And there, of course, one must say that on Christmas, for example. See, they go on and say there may be three ways in which the flesh, as I say, concentrates and takes our attention. And one is when man is just born, the baby. The baby is that form in which, they say, the flesh in all its beauty, in all its attraction, plays an enormous part. The whole attention of the mother, the whole delight of those who feed the newborn child is concentrated on its little infant body. On those little hands, and the little fingers, and on the little hair, and on the cheeks, and on the little lips, and on the little feet, and all that.

[36:54]

And with great inner light, you know, man says, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. And that is a beautiful moment. And that is, of course, as you know very well, also, as I say, a great attraction for Christians. And to my mind, a completely legitimate attraction. One should, not only one has, to acknowledge that and recognize that God the Almighty appears, the Word becomes flesh, If it becomes flesh, logically, it appears to us as the baby. And therefore, it's also seen as such, and loved as such, and adored as such. And to adore the Word made flesh in the form of a baby, that is one of the greatest glories of Christianity.

[37:56]

That is one aspect. And of course, you know very well, right with the baby, there also goes the mother. Those two things cannot be separate. The fact that the world was made flesh means that the Virgin Mary is his mother. And therefore, she is part of that The glory of the flesh. And that we also experience in the Christmas season. The glory of Mary. The devotion for Mary as the mother of the Word made flesh. What has that faith and that devotion created? What a world of beauty has it created in the whole Christian tradition? As we just look at the statue there, through the providence of God, we have received as of such a precious gift down here in our own creed.

[39:00]

And we can see that standing before that statue leads us into this glorious world where the flesh is there, but as the transparency of God's glory and God's loveliness. We may say the humanitas de salvator. but the other way in which, naturally, in which the beauty of the flesh is most evident, that is, the glory of the bridegroom. Beauty is brought out over his lips and over his features, the bridegroom and the bride, and that is what we celebrate tomorrow, the marriage at Cana. There is the Lord as the friend of the bridegroom, consecrating this beautiful event in which man leaves his father and his mother and he, as Holy Scripture says, now, again, we don't have one word, cleaves to his wife.

[40:14]

See, one does not say that, for example, in the whole animal world. That, there is nothing there. Male and female don't cling. But in man they do. Man they do. That means that unique unity which is constituted between man and woman, unique unity, which is not found anywhere else, a sharing of one's entire life, is here the warmness of the flesh. This warmness of the flesh which is expressed in the house in which one dwells. The intimacy of the house which this Lord builds. The warmness of the family which this Lord gives and of which this Lord inners the beginning.

[41:16]

But then, as also tomorrow's gospel shows clearly to us, there is Why is the bridegroom of his church? Yes, it is true. He leaves the father. He leaves in the incarnation to his wife, the church. And he seals this union by dying for his wife. And that is the new principle. There he is, as we say in German, the Blutreutiker. The blood-white hook, as we have it already in the Old Testament. And then, as such, he really presents to himself, also that is such a beautiful verb, which expresses that unity between man and hook. He presents to himself his bride unspotted and without a wrinkle in that

[42:19]

Happy union of the Holy Spirit, the eternal covenant between the Lamb and the new Jerusalem and the eternal celebration of that wedding feast. That is to more than could be true of changing water into wine. And one could summarize, you know, the whole meaning of the Christmas season just in this word. The water is changed into wine. You realize, but by water we consider all these various attempts that at sundry times and in different diverse manners the prophets have done. All these preaches of repentance, all these conversions in this way and in that way, All that which is in the realm of the law, in the realm of mere, let us say, ethics or human morality, that is the water.

[43:30]

And this water is changed into wine because the world became flesh. Unite therefore our humanity to him still ontologically in the unity of the same divine. And in this unity, then, not only lived with us, lived with us, but died for us and rose for us, and then poured out his spirit so that we in this way cry, Abba, Father. And this spirit, that is the why. That is then what the Lord has given to us, and that is the thing that makes us so happy in this Christmas season. That is the beginning. That is the beginning of that wonderful process in which Christ changes the world of all our human efforts, also religious efforts.

[44:35]

the efforts of the Lord, the moral efforts into the vine of his Holy Spirit, who then becomes the living God in our hearts.

[44:47]

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