December 23

 
Traditional Antiphon
O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expectation and Saviour of the nations! Come and save us, O Lord our God! 
 
Liturgy of the Hours
O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people, come and set us free, Lord our God. 
 
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
 
Virtue: Faith – “Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and the Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself.”[i] The center of our faith is the Gospel and the Gospel is “Our Rule”. We speak of Emmauel the King and Lawgiver. It is Jesus Christ, “the King of Kings”, who gives us the “New Law” the law of the gospel by dwelling among us and showing us that He is the prophet (preaches), priest (sacrifices) and king (guides). We are called to this “New Law” by grace and through faith. We hold fast to the faith which then enables us to share in the life of Christ and living out our baptismal call to be a prophet, priest and king. In the mass the priest says during the Eucharistic Prayer the simple but profound words, “The mystery of faith.” We are offered salvation by His cross and resurrection and so we pray, “Save us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.” Why is this the mystery of faith? God reveals the mystery of Himself through the cross and resurrection. We believe this because God reveals it and because the church proclaims and practices it. The church most perfectly embraces this mystery in the mass. We believe that salvation is attained through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is therefore central to our faith. Saint Thomas Aquinas in regards to the Eucharist said, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”
 
Sacraments: Eucharist – The Eucharist is God with us (Emmanuel). There are many ways Christ is present to His people and sets us free.
 
Christ is present to the Church…
when she prays
as she performs her works of mercy
as she moves along on her pilgrimage with a longing to reach the portals of eternal life
as she preaches, since the Gospel which she proclaims is the word of God
as she rules and governs the People of God
as she offers the Sacrifice of the Mass in His name
as she administers the sacraments
in a way that surpasses all the others. It is His presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  This presence is called “par excellence” and is thus titled “real”.
 
More than anywhere else we see “God with us” in the Eucharist, presence in every tabernacle throughout the world. It is no mistake that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread, for He is the Bread of Life. It is no mistake that his crib was a feeding trough, for He would say that His flesh is real food and his blood is real drink and at the Last Supper and at every Mass He gives His flesh and blood for the life of the world. The Christmas Collect says it all, “we pray, that we may share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” It is in the Eucharist that we share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
 
Reflection:
O Emmanuel! King of Peace! thou enterest to-day the city of thy predilection, the city in which thou hast placed thy Temple, - Jerusalem. A few years hence, and the same city will give thee thy Cross and thy Sepulchre: nay, the day will come, on which thou wilt set up thy Judgment-seat within sight of her walls. But, to-day, thou enterest the city of David and Solomon unnoticed and unknown. It lies on thy road to Bethlehem. Thy Blessed Mother and Joseph, her Spouse, would not lose the opportunity of visiting the Temple, there to offer to the Lord their prayers and adoration. They enter; and then, for the first time, is accomplished the prophecy of Aggeus, that great shall be the glory of this last House more than of the first [Agg. ii. 10.] ; for this second Temple has now standing within it an Ark of the Covenant more precious than was that which Moses built; and within this Ark, which is Mary, there is contained the God, whose presence makes her the holiest of sanctuaries. The Lawgiver himself is in this blessed Ark, and not merely, as in that of old, the tablet of stone on which the Law was graven. The visit paid, our living Ark descends the steps of the Temple, and sets out once more for Bethlehem, where other prophecies are to be fulfilled. We adore thee, O Emmanuel! in this thy journey, and we reverence the fidelity wherewith thou fulfillest all that the prophets have written of thee, for thou wouldst give to thy people the certainty of thy being the Messias, by showing them, that all the marks, whereby he was to be known, are to be found in thee. And now, the hour is near; all is ready for thy Birth; come, then, and save us; come, that thou mayest not only be called our Emmanuel, but our Jesus, that is, He that saves us. 

[i] Catechism of the Catholic Church; Section 1814