'Venite Adoremus'

The Catholic Thing

By Fr. Paul D. Scalia
But first, All of us at The Catholic Thing wish all of you the most Blessed of Christmases, and a New Year filled with happiness and holiness.
Now for today's column...
We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Although this verse does not show up in the Christmas liturgy, it's very much at the heart of the Christmas mystery. This feast is one of looking and seeing, of beholding and being changed. The angels bid the shepherds to go and see the child lying in a manger. John tells us, The Word became flesh, and we have seen his glory. We sing, Come to Bethlehem and see. . . .Venite adoremus. . . .Come and behold Him.
Now, behold means more than just to look at or to see. It means to take hold of internally what we see externally, and thus to allow it to change us. To behold Christ means to be held by Him. The act of beholding Christ is meant to transform us into the very One we adore.
Jesus Christ, the infant lying in the manger, is the invisible God made visible. He comes into the world precisely so that we can look and gaze upon Him. We've been praying for this. Repeatedly throughout Advent we pleaded, Let your face shine upon us and we shall be saved! Now, like Zechariah, we find our prayer answered more than we could ever have imagined. By taking on our human nature he makes Himself visible. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see. . .
We have a hint of this reality at Mount Sinai. Moses's face became radiant after his conversations with the Lord. So radiant that he had to veil it, lest its glory overwhelm the Israelites. A similar thing happened to Bernadette of Lourdes during the Marian apparitions of 1858. When she looked upon our Lady, her face took on a glow of unearthly quality. She became like what she beheld.
Indeed, we always become like what we behold. We are inevitably held by what we behold. This has important implications for our screen-saturated culture. All our devices tug us into looking at what is, at best, superficial and passing. If we become like what we behold, then all our flickering screens and fleeting images are making us superficial - less attentive, less reflective, less inclined to gaze upon one thing. . .or one Person. We are being changed into their likeness from one degree of superficiality to another.
Come and behold Him. How do we behold Him? How do we gaze upon Him? We do not yet see Him face to face in His sacred humanity as Mary and Joseph did. But we do see Him, first, in our mind's eye, in our prayer, in our meditation on scenes from the Gospel. This feast puts the creche before us, so that we can look upon Him with Mary and Joseph. Visiting the creche, looking upon the infant in the manger, is a childlike thing and ought to be done by all children of God. So that we can be changed more into the Child we adore.
All the figures in that scene are changed. Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds are all turned toward the child. The light of the newborn Christ shines upon each face. And each person is changed as she or he beholds the Christ. Mary, like every mother, is changed forever as she gazes upon the Son she bore. Joseph is forever changed as he gazes upon the God Whom he will call "Son" and Who will call him "Abba."
The shepherds behold the child, sleeping among the sheep. He is both the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd. He has become like one in their care and one of them. He has dignified them and their flocks. Soon, when the Magi gaze upon Him, they will be changed in the knowledge of true kingship. Their lives will be so changed that they must, as Saint Matthew puts it, return to their country by another way.
Time before the crèche should change us. We behold the One Who became little and helpless for our sake. Who made Himself dependent on His own creatures and creation. Who came not to condemn but to call to conversion. Who as an infant begs to enter our liv...