REFLECTIONS

"Behold the Lamb"

How suddenly the Christmastide interval comes to an end! For nearly three weeks we have been playing truant from the grim school of life, among sights and sounds that brought back our childhood; the mystery of a cave, and the warm smell of a stable. And then the Epiphany octave has for its tailpiece the gaunt figure of Saint John, pointing to the Man he has baptized and saying: "Look, this is the Lamb of God!" Just as we are wrapping away the last sheep from the Crib ... {we are} reminded that the lamb's role is to be a victim! That is what the Baptist will have meant; to the Jewish mind, the lamb was not particularly a type of innocence. The last present the Wise Men brought was, after all, the wisest; Simeon was right - this Child was to be a sign men would refuse to recognize. The shadow of the Passion has fallen over our rejoicings.

Yes, it is like Saturday night in the schoolroom; our toys must be put away. At all times there have been Christians who were so far betrayed into error by temperament or by false logic, as to think that nature was utterly tainted by the Fall, that God's gifts were only snares, that we must refuse all comfort, fight shy of all mirth, shake our heads over all enjoyment. Against that wet-blanket doctrine, Christmas is a salutary protest; God suckled by a Mother's milk, among friendly creatures, recognized by simple hearts - yes, Bethlehem is the antidote. But Bethlehem - heaven finding a home on earth - is not all. Jordan, too, has its place in the Christian philosophy; baptismal Jordan, the type of death, and separation, and penance for wrong done. God's gifts are not simply his birthday presents; they are the stepping-stones of mortification as well.

By all means let us wish one another - ourselves even- a comfortable new year. But we might steel ourselves with the resolution not to demand comfort as a right or cling to it.

MONSIGNOR RONALD A. KNOX 
Monsignor Knox (┼ 1957) was a British Catholic apologist and translator of the Bible.