of a dove. A dove announced to Noah that the flood had disappeared from the earth; so now a dove is to reveal that the world’s shipwreck is at an end for ever. The sign is no longer an olive-shoot of the old stock: instead, the Spirit pours out on Christ’s head the full richness of a new anointing by the Father, to fulfil what the psalmist had prophesied: ‘Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.’
Today Christ works the first of his signs from heaven by turning water into wine. But water has still to be changed into the sacrament of his blood, so that Christ may offer spiritual drink from the chalice of his body.
alternative reading
A Reading from a hymn of Ephrem of Syria
Who, being a mortal, can tell about the Reviver of all,
Who left the height of his majesty and came down to smallness?
You, who magnify all by being born, magnify my weak mind
that I may tell about your birth,
not to investigate your majesty,
but to proclaim your grace.
Blessed is he who is both hidden and revealed in his actions!
It is a great wonder that the Son, who dwelt entirely in a body,
inhabited it entirely, and it sufficed for him.
Although limitless, he dwelt in it.
His will was entirely in him; but his totality was not in him.
Who is sufficient to proclaim that
although he dwelt entirely in a body,
still he dwelt entirely in the universe?
Blessed is the Unlimited who was limited!
Your majesty is hidden from us; your grace is revealed before us.
I will be silent, my Lord, about your majesty,
but I will speak about your grace.
Your grace made you a babe;
your grace made you a human being.
Your majesty contracted and stretched out.
Blessed is the power that became small and became great!
The Magi rejoiced from afar; the scribes proclaimed from nearby.
The prophet showed his erudition, and Herod his fury.
The scribes showed interpretations; the Magi showed offerings.
It is a wonder that to one babe the kinspeople rushed
with their swords,
but strangers with their offerings.
Blessed is your birth that stirred up the universe!
alternative reading
A Reading from a sermon of Lancelot Andrewes preached before King James I at Whitehall in 1620
What place more proper for him who is ‘the living bread that came down from heaven’, to give life to the world, than Bethlehem, the least and lowest of all the houses of Judah. This natural birth-place of his sheweth his spiritual nature. Christ’s birth fell in the sharpest season, in the deep of winter. As humility his place, so affliction his time. The time and place fit well.
And there came from the East wise men, Gentiles; and that concerns us, for so are we. Christ’s birth is made manifest to them by the star of heaven. It is the Gentiles’ star, and so ours too. We may set our course by it, to seek and find, and worship him as well as they. So we come in, for ‘God hath also to the Gentiles set open a door of faith,’ and that he would do this, and call us in, there was some small star-light from the beginning. This he promised by the patriarchs, shadowed forth in the figures of the law and the temple and the tabernacle, and foresung in the psalms, and it is this day fulfilled.
These wise men are come and we with them. Not only in their own names, but in ours did they make their entry; came and sought after, and found and worshipped, their Saviour and ours, the Saviour of the whole world. A little wicket there was left open, whereat divers Gentiles did come in, but only one or two. But now the great gate set wide opens this day for all – for these here with their camels and dromedaries to enter, and all their carriage. Christ is not only for russet cloaks, shepherds and such; but even grandees, great states such as these came too; and when they came were welcome to him. For they were sent for and invited by this star, their star properly.
They came a long journey, and they came an uneasy journey. They came now, at the worst season of the year. And all but to do worship at Christ’s birth. They stayed not their coming till the opening of the year, till they might have better weather and way, and have longer days, and so more seasonable and fit to travel in. So desirous were they to come with the first, and to be there as soon as possibly they might; broke through all these difficulties, and behold, they did come.
And we, what excuse shall we have if we come not? If so short and easy a way we come not, as from our chambers hither? And these wise men were never a whit less wise for so coming; nay, to come to Christ is one of the wisest parts that ever these wise men did. And if we believe this, that this was their wisdom, if they and we be wise in one Spirit, by the same principles, we will follow the same star, tread the same way, and so come at last whither they are happily gone before us.
[In the old ritual of the Church we find that on the cover of the canister wherein was the sacrament of his body, there was a star engraven, to shew us that now the star leads us thither, to his body there. So what shall I say now, but according as St John saith, and the star, and the wise men say ‘Come’. And he whose star it is, and to whom the wise men came, saith ‘Come’. And let them that are disposed ‘Come’. And let whosoever will, take of the ‘Bread of Life which came down from heaven’ this day into Bethlehem, the house of bread. Of which bread the Church is this day the house, the true Bethlehem, and all the Bethlehem we have now left to come to for the Bread of Life – of that life which we hope for in heaven. And this our nearest coming that here we can come, till we shall by another coming ‘Come’ unto him in his heavenly kingdom.]
7 January
A Reading from a sermon of Bernard of Clairvaux
‘The goodness and humanity of God our Saviour have appeared in our midst.’ We thank God for the many consolations he has given us during this sad exile of our pilgrimage here on earth. Before the Son of God became human his goodness was hidden, for God’s mercy is eternal, but how could such goodness be recognised? It was promised, but it was not experienced, and as a result few believed in it. ‘Often and in various ways the Lord used to speak through the prophets.’ Among other things, God said: ‘I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction.’ But what did we humans respond, thinking thoughts of affliction and knowing nothing of peace? They said: ‘Peace, peace, there is no peace.’ This response made the ‘angels of peace weep bitterly’, saying: ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ But now they believe because they see with their own eyes, and because ‘God’s testimony has now become even more credible.’ He has gone so far as to ‘pitch his tent
