Abbot Gregory's Christmas Sermon to the Monks
This Advent, I was particularly struck by that famous sermon of St. Bernard on the Blessed Virgin, and especially on that passage concerning the Annunciation. I am sure it is familiar to you all, but I will read an excerpt from it:
You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.
The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.
Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.
Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.
Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word. (Hom. 4, 8-9: Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 4 [1966], 53-54)
What strikes me is that, apart from its beautiful lyricism and profound expression of devotion to the Virgin, St. Bernard’s exhortation is easily made to each of us. As Abbot Thomas observed in his homily the other night, while we do not conceive the Word of God in our bodies, we can conceive Him in our hearts. In some analogous way, tearful Adam with his sorrowful family begs this of us; Abraham begs it; David begs it; all the other holy patriarchs, our ancestors, ask of us, that we, in our turn open our hearts to the Word Incarnate, and allow the Lord to come to us anew this Christmas.
How can we open ourselves up more fully to this mystery of the Word become flesh and allow it to enter into our hearts? The liturgy of these holy days gives us the key, as it takes us from the darkness of the Midnight Mass through the dawn and into the daylight of John’s holy Gospel: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
For this Christmas to make a difference in our individual lives and in our community, we need to allow the mystery of Christmas to work at the deepest level of our being. We can only become the community the Lord calls us to be if each of us is transformed individually by the action of grace and the power of the Word made flesh at work within us. Our inner transformation will impact our relations with one another, and that is what will be the witness to others of the presence of the Word incarnate in our midst.
So, to paraphrase St. Bernard: Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Open your hearts to faith, O my brethren, your lips to praise, your heart and soul to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at the door of your heart, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving.
May God grant you all a very blessed Christmas!
For the optional sharing, I have printed up the text of St. Bernard’s homily. It might serve as the starting point for your own reflections on how you might experience the coming of the Word of God to your own hearts this Christmas.
You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.
The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.
Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.
Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.
Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word. (Hom. 4, 8-9: Opera omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 4 [1966], 53-54)