Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Reflection for Christmas: Venite Adoremus Dominum

I once heard it said that the strongest equivalent of, "I love you," is "I am you." Love, by its very nature, becomes. It stands for an hour, a day, a lifetime in another man's shoes, and says, "I understand, I have lived as though I was you."

Truly this becoming love is the love our Savior in swaddling clothes overwhelmingly displays toward us. Today we celebrate a Savior who has stood in our shoes for a lifetime and with every breath of his life proclaimed to us, "I am you. I understand the pain and suffering of mankind's decision to sin. I have borne your transgressions. I have been bruised for your iniquity. The chastisement laid upon Me will make you whole."

Truly it is only this measure of love to which we can respond, "Jesus, I love You. I want to be as You are. It is only Your love, Your becoming me, that allows me to ever think it possible to enter into the nature of Your eternal fellowship of love with the Father and the Holy Spirit and to become like You."

Adeste, fideles, laeti triumphantes, venite, venite in Bethlehem!
Natum videte, Regem angelorum.
Venite, adoremus!
Venite, adoremus!
Venite, adoremus Dominum!