As promised, herewith Fr Dench's homily for the Rorate Mass this evening. We are very grateful to him. The Grand Priory wishes all its readers a very peaceful and blessed Christmas.
RORATE AND SAINT LUCY
Isaiah 7:1-15; Luke 1:26-38
Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
Words from the prophet Isaiah which are, of course, familiar to us all. This prophecy, the Gospel account from St Luke, the singing of the Rorate Coeli, the church lit only by candles. . . all these aspects of this evening’s liturgy are to point us towards the great feast of Our Lord’s Nativity. Look at the altar this evening, and we cannot help but think of Midnight Mass, and we should.
Advent is more than just a period of getting ready to celebrate Christmas, of course. It is a season in which we are invited to consider the Four Last things of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. It is a time in which are reminded of Christ’s promise that he will return, not with the cries and gurgles of a tiny child which marked his first coming, but rather with the sound of trumpets in the glory of his second. It is a time in which we are reminded that even now, before the Second Coming, He is still with us as he promised, in the Sacraments which we receive and celebrate and, above all, in the Eucharist.
This evening’s Mass brings out dramatically and vividly some of the great Advent themes. The flickering of the candles in our dark church remind us that it is in Advent that we relive that hopeful expectation of the children of Israel. We imagine ourselves as the people who walked in darkness and who have seen a great light.
Of course in many ways we still walk in darkness, yet guided by the Light that is Christ. A light which all too often is obscured by the darkness in our hearts, shadows of our own sin which mean we can’t pass that light on, or even see by its radiancy, because it is hidden in our own selfishness. That light all too often is hidden in our concerns with the world around us, in the trivialities of day to day existence and, yes, even in our anxieties and worries. But it is because we have been given that Light that we should take courage.
That Light, which is given to us, we are called to fan it into a flame, to keep it burning brightly, and to give it to others to burn all the more beautifully and warmly, scattering the darkness which blights their own lives and obscures the radiancy of God’s piercing love.
In Advent we remember that Light was born of the Virgin Mary to be given to the world. But before that Light was brought into the world, it was shielded within the darkness of the Virgin’s womb, carried, nourished, protected, before being brought forth into our world. So too for us we have a duty to protect that light in our hears, shielded from the fierce winds of doubt and despair which seek to snuff it out. Once guarded and preserved, it is then to be shared. Given away, even as Our Lady as offered her only Son for the world in order that God’s plan might be fulfilled.
Our calling as members of God’s Church is to protect that Light within our hearts and, like the Virgin, to bring him forth into the world, so that its darkness might instead be illuminated.
And St Lucy, who we commemorate today too, provides us with, for want of a better word, a shining example both in her life and name. And in that she stands in a long line of virgin martyrs of the early Church, consecrating her virginity, indeed her whole life and being to God. Famously it was through a dream that she received from God, a message carried by St Agatha, promising her healing for her family but also the glories that God was offering her, and what it was He wanted to accomplish through.
We remember that her virginity was no incidental adjective. It was an essential part of what she gave to God, and what she, and other virgin martyrs like her, possessed which radically upturned the values of the world around her. The dignity she possessed as a creature of God, and her use of God-given freedom, to give that dignity back to him was what enraged the culture around.
Her courage stands out as an example of us to follow in that path whatever the challenges and the dangers might be. To follow that same light of Christ as it guides on our journey, and holding true to the paths it illuminates for us, in spite of the what those around might think, in spite of those who seek to pull off that path in the vain promises of the dark.
Yes, as we will hear later on, ‘the people that walked in darkness has seen a great light.’
Christ is that light which will guide our journey towards our eternal home.
It is our fidelity to that path which will win us our lives in eternity.
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