Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord: just as we recover from Thanksgiving, the seasons, feast days, and mysteries follow one another in rapid succession. As the old year gives way to the new, the Church directs our attention to another calendar – the liturgical year – her own cycle of time that sanctifies and gives meaning to our daily lives, already ordered by the cosmic and civic rhythms of time. The seasons and feast days of the liturgical year shape our minds and hearts according to the Christian mysteries and thus help us live the faith with greater focus and interior devotion.
Saint John the Baptist also orients us and focuses our attention, pointing us to the very Heart of the world. When the Baptist proclaims, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” he directs us to follow Jesus, the Crucified Lamb, whose side is pierced and through whom God saves his people. To follow Christ Jesus, to be his disciple, is both gift and vocation: a gift given at Baptism, and a call, in the words of Saint Paul, “to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Our growth in holiness is largely a matter of how we use our time – how we inhabit our days. To offer our weeks and days to God, indeed all our activities, is to sanctify time itself. To unite our daily prayers, works, joys, and sufferings to the Heart of Christ and to his intentions is to draw closer to his pierced Heart. This self-offering allows him to shape and form our hearts, making us holy with all the saints before the face of his heavenly Father.
In Christ,
Fr. Hermes
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