“What is it that we desire? With today’s O Antiphon, the Church invokes our Savior as “the King of the nations and their desired.” While it is true that the desire for a savior is present in all men, does the savior we meet in Jesus Christ satisfy the expectations and preconceived notions we’ve built up in association with that desire? Popular culture (or, at least, Bonnie Tyler) reveals something of what men naturally desire in a savior, or imagine him to be. We hope for the greatest protector we can conceive of: strong, fast, fresh from the fight, larger than life. We toss and turn for a hero that will come and sweep us off our feet, whisk us away from all our problems and struggles.
With Jesus, what we get is something very different, and in its unexpectedness it is all too often unwelcome. As St. Bernard of Clairvaux puts it, “The infancy of Christ does not console the garrulous.” The same could be said for the rest of the circumstances of Christ’s nativity and earthly life: the humility of Christ’s birth does not console the proud, the poverty of Christ does not console the greedy, the sufferings of Christ do not console the faint-hearted. What at first appears to be less than what we hoped for, however, if instead looked at from a God’s-eye view, is revealed to be more than we could have ever dared to ask for.
In the fullness of time, God could have sent a hero according to the mind of man, but this wasn’t enough for Him. Instead He gave us Himself, a gift too great to be comprehended. Even our wildest dreams are limited, since they stem from limited human reason. But God’s love for us is unlimited, as is the manifestation of that love. Christ did not love us so little that He would merely win for us an undisturbed earthly life, devoid of cares or anxiety. Rather, His incarnation opens up the far greater possibility of the life of grace, by which we are ultimately deified, becoming partakers in the divine nature (CCC 460).
That the greater might not be obscured by the lesser, the heavenly not be hidden by the mundane, Christ spurned all the glory of this passing world. He whom the heavens could not contain chose to dwell in the womb of His lowly handmaid. The King of kings and Lord of lords would not suffer Himself to be made a king by men.(Ed…how foolish, how vain that might have been, Ozymandias. So unlike our great Messiah!) He through Whom all things were made did not show His power by conquering men, but by overcoming the death He allowed them to inflict upon Him. In every way Christ thwarts our earthly desires to open us up to heavenly blessings.
What is it that we desire? If all we want is Bonnie Tyler’s street-wise Hercules, we won’t see very much to be desired in Jesus Christ. But if we allow our natural desire for temporal salvation to open us up to supernatural possibilities, then we will hold out for nothing less than God Himself. It is for this Hero of heroes that we long, as we call out with the whole Church: O King of the nations and their desired, corner stone Who make the two one, come and save man, Whom you formed from the dust.
Love, all hail the True King!
Matthew
Summa Catechetica, "Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam." – St Anselm, "“Si comprehendus, non est Deus.” -St Augustine, "Let your religion be less of a theory, and more of a love affair." -G.K. Chesterton, “When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.” -St Jerome, "As the reading of bad books fills the mind with worldly and poisonous sentiments; so, on the other hand, the reading of pious works fills the soul with holy thoughts and good desires." -St. Alphonsus Liguori, "And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels." –St. Angela Merici, “Yet such are the pity and compassion of this Lord of ours, so desirous is He that we should seek Him and enjoy His company, that in one way or another He never ceases calling us to Him . . . God here speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.” —St. Teresa of Avila, "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, and who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity… I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, to learn to view things as they are, to understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where lie the main inconsistences and absurdities of the Protestant theory.” (St. John Henry Newman, “Duties of Catholics Towards the Protestant View,” Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England), "We cannot always have access to a spiritual Father for counsel in our actions and in our doubts, but reading will abundantly supply his place by giving us directions to escape the illusions of the devil and of our own self-love, and at the same time to submit to the divine will.” —St. Alphonsus Ligouri, "The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." –St. Padre Pio, "Screens may grab our attention, but books change our lives!" – Word on Fire, "Reading has made many saints!" -St Josemaría Escrivá, "Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you." —St. Jerome, from his Letter 22 to Eustochium, "Encounter, not confrontation; attraction, not promotion; dialogue, not debate." -cf Pope Francis, "God here speaks to souls through…good books“ – St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, "You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading. And as to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed by his progress.” -St Athanasius, "To convert someone, go and take them by the hand and guide them." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP. 1 saint ruins ALL the cynicism in Hell & on Earth. “When we pray we talk to God; when we read God talks to us…All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.” -St Isidore of Seville, “Also in some meditations today I earnestly asked our Lord to watch over my compositions that they might do me no harm through the enmity or imprudence of any man or my own; that He would have them as His own and employ or not employ them as He should see fit. And this I believe is heard.” -GM Hopkins, SJ, "Only God knows the good that can come about by reading one good Catholic book." — St. John Bosco, "Why don't you try explaining it to them?" – cf St Peter Canisius, SJ, Doctor of the Church, Doctor of the Catechism, "Already I was coming to appreciate that often apologetics consists of offering theological eye glasses of varying prescriptions to an inquirer. Only one prescription will give him clear sight; all the others will give him at best indistinct sight. What you want him to see—some particular truth of the Faith—will remain fuzzy to him until you come across theological eye glasses that precisely compensate for his particular defect of vision." -Karl Keating, "The more perfectly we know God, the more perfectly we love Him." -St Thomas Aquinas, OP, ST, I-II,67,6 ad 3, “But always when I was without a book, my soul would at once become disturbed, and my thoughts wandered." —St. Teresa of Avila, "Let those who think I have said too little and those who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said just enough thank God with me." –St. Augustine, "Without good books and spiritual reading, it will be morally impossible to save our souls." —St. Alphonsus Liguori "Never read books you aren't sure about. . . even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?" -St. John Bosco " To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer." —St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. "Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. Both are good when both are possible. Otherwise, prayer is better than reading." –St. Isidore of Seville “The aid of spiritual books is for you a necessity.… You, who are in the midst of battle, must protect yourself with the buckler of holy thoughts drawn from good books.” -St. John Chrysostom
