Twelfth Day

" Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis''¹ God has said : " Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy," but He remained inaccessible and hidden. The creature needed that He should descend to it, that He should live its life, so that, setting its feet in His footsteps it might mount up to Him, sanctifying itself by His sanctity.

" For them I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth, "f I have now before me "the mystery which hath been hidden from the ages and generations . . . this mystery which is Christ, in you the hope of glory," J says St. Paul, adding that the mystery had been manifested to him. It is, then, *from this great Apostle that I shall learn this wisdom " which surpasseth all knowledge — the charity of Christ. "§

Firstly, he tells me : " He is my peace," that " by Him we have access . . . to the Father," || " because in Him it hath well pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell : and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the Blood of His cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven. "IF "And you are filled in Him," continues the Apostle, "... buried with Him in baptism, in Whom also you are

I Col. i. 26, 27. § Eph. iii. 19.

[1 Eph. ii. 18. f Col. i. 19, 20.

risen again by the faith of the operation of God . . . and you . . . He hath quickened together with Him ; forgiving you all offences : blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross : and despoiling the principalities and powers, He hath exposed them confidently in open show, triumphing over them in Himself* ... to present you holy and unspotted and blameless before Him."f This is the work of Christ as regards every soul of good will — the work which the Father, in His immense, His " exceeding charity," urges Him to do for me.

He desires to be my peace, so that nothing can distract my attention nor draw me forth from the invincible fortress of holy recollection. There He will give me " access to the Father," and will keep me as stable and tranquil in His presence as if my soul were already in eternity. By the Blood of the cross He will make peace in my little heaven, that it may be indeed the place of repose of the Holy Trinity. . . . He will fill me with Himself ; He will absorb me into Himself, making me live with Him by His life : " Mihi vivere Christus est." J

Though I may continually fall, in trustful faith I will ask Him to raise me, knowing that He will forgive me and with jealous care will cleanse me perfectly. More than that, He will strip me, will deliver me from my miseries, from all that offers an obstacle to the divine action upon me. He will draw my powers to Him and make them captive, triumphing over them as they dwell in Him. Then * Col. ii. 10, 12-15. f Ibid,, i. 22. J Phil. L 21.

I shall have passed completely into Him and shall be able to say : " Now I live, now not I ; but Christ liveth in me," and I shall be " holy, and unspotted, and blameless before Him."

Footnotes

1. St. John i. 14. t lbid.y xvii. 19. ↩