He Comes

After many long years in a strange land, the Jews went back to Jerusalem. And the old men cried when they saw the place where the city had once stood, for they remembered how beautiful it had been when they were little boys, and the enemy had not yet come and torn it down.

But the Jews set to work and rebuilt the city and the temple, and then they waited for the Redeemer. Daniel had said that He would not come for nearly five hundred years, and Daniel was right.

At length there was born a little girl, and her name was Mary. As soon as God made her He adopted her by clothing her soul in sanctifying grace, and original sin, in which you and I were born, never touched her. She was very pretty, and God loved her so that He made her soul more and more beautiful day by day. And the little Mary loved God so that in all her life she never had the smallest spot of sin on her soul. She liked to work and she liked to play, but she liked most of all to pray.

When she was about fifteen years old, she married a holy man named Joseph. They were married in the temple of Jerusalem and then they went to live in a little town called Nazareth.

Joseph was a carpenter, and one day whilst he was busy in his shop, the blessed Mary, having finished her housework, was on her knees in prayer. All at once the room was filled with a heavenly light and, looking up, she saw an angel. He bowed his head and said to her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.” (Luke 1:28.)

Mary wondered what the angel meant, and then he told her that the time had come for the Redeemer to be born, and that God wanted her to be His mother. Mary said that she was God’s servant, and that what He wanted, she wanted. Then the angel left to carry her answer back to Heaven.

Nine months later, Mary and Joseph were ordered to Bethlehem, the city where David had lived, there to have their names registered, because they both belonged to the family of David. It was winter, the month of December, and the journey was a very long one, for Joseph had to walk the whole way, whilst the Virgin Mary rode on their little donkey.

When they reached Bethlehem, they found the town filled with excitement, its narrow streets packed with strangers who also had come to give in their names and who were eager to find shelter before nightfall.

Joseph and Mary moved on with the crowd, stopping here and there to ask for lodgings. But as often as they asked, as often were they refused, for the people saw that they were poor, and either they had no room or wished to keep it for some one who could pay a better price.

As darkness fell, nearly every one had secured a place in which to sleep, whilst Joseph and Mary stood alone in the deserted streets. All worn out from their journey, they knew not where to turn. At last they left the little town that would not have them and found nearby, an open cave under a hill. A poor place, indeed, but better there than blown about by the cold wind in the lonely streets. An ox and an ass were tied in the back of the cave, but these would not turn them away as men had done. Here they made ready to rest.

O happy cave wherein was born that night the Redeemer of the world. O happy cave wherein the angels knelt with Mary and Joseph before the tiny Christ. While all was still and the world asleep, the little Saviour stepped from Heaven. In the silence of midnight came the King. His throne the manger from which the ox was fed, His robes poor swaddling clothes, His kingdom, Mary’s heart.

And Mary kissed her little Son and knelt before Him, for He was God. God the Son, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, had come from Heaven to take Mary for His mother and be born a little child that He might open Heaven for us all. This was the Redeemer of whom God had spoken to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David, and to Daniel. This was the reason why Mary had been born in sanctifying grace, and had always been free from sin because she was to be God’s mother when God became man.

And Joseph was pure and holy too, but he had been born like us in original sin, for he was not the Child’s real father, only God, the Father, was that.

And that night angels appeared to some shepherds who were guarding their sheep on the hillside, and told them to be glad for the Saviour of the world had just been born. Then the angels sang some of the sweetest songs they had learned in Heaven, and the shepherds caught these words: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will.” (Luke 2:14.)

When the angels had gone and the hillside again lay in darkness, the shepherds hurried to the cave where they found the Child as the angels had said. They fell on their knees about the manger and gazed on that beautiful little face, whilst Mary told them that that tiny Infant was the God of Heaven and earth, who had left His throne of splendor to be born a little boy, so that when He grew up He might win the hearts of men and, by dying, open for all the gates of Heaven.

And the shepherds thought that He need not wait till He grew up to have their hearts, for they were already breaking with love for Him who loved them so much.

And when the Child was eight days old He was given the name of Jesus. It is a name so holy that when any one speaks it, the angels in Heaven bow down, and even the devils in hell tremble and bend. We too should bow our head every time we say the word, or hear it said. Often during the day, and when we waken at night, let us say the sweet name, Jesus.

We call the Redeemer by other names than Jesus, as the Saviour, Christ, our Lord. But by them all we mean the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who was always God and became man when He made Mary His mother.