In mid-November I traveled to give our Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Monastery of St. Thérèse of Lisieux in Loretto, PA their annual retreat. The retreat lasted nine days during which I gave two conferences per day on the Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Jesus. Of course I celebrated the nuns’ daily Masses and I also met personally with any particular nuns requesting to meet.

But what lent "distinction” to this retreat was my unique opportunity to baptize an eleven-month old little girl whose godmother would be a novice of the community, Sr. Isabel of St. Dominic. It is normal for baptisms to occur within a parish, but the local pastor in Loretto graciously gave permission to the nuns for this baptism to take place at the monastery chapel where Sr. Isabel and the rest of the nuns could gather as witnesses on the “cloistered” side of the grille in the chapel sanctuary.

The baptism of this beautiful little girl (baptized “Therese”!) wonderfully served to remind the smiling Carmelite nuns present (and myself) that our religious consecration as Carmelites has its foundation in that primary consecration we each received at baptism, when the name of the Most Holy Trinity was invoked over us and the waters of the font were poured over us. That is the day each of us “became His.” It was a particularly happy day to celebrate with little Thérèse and to give thanks for the grace and call which to this day remains a flowering forth of baptismal grace. 

My dear brothers and sisters, in Christ Jesus,

Greetings in the manifestations of Jesus in the flesh. Merry Christmas and Epiphany! Yes, Christmas and Epiphany are the celebration of the fulfillment and manifestation of what took place nine months before on March 25th, when the Angel Gabriel brought the Good News to Mary that she was to bear “Emmanuel.” “God is with us” (Mt 1:23). At that moment, when she said “Let it be done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38), she assented to and was impregnated with the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” This is the Incarnation of the Word of God. This the necessary foundation for the manifestations.

Saint Paul contemplates this mystery in the letter to the Philippians (2:6-11) with what is considered to be a hymn:

Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross. 

Because of this, God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

This first manifestation was, according to Scripture, to the Jews. He was born of a Jewish mother, who was married to a Jewish man, named Joseph, and those who were invited by the angels to go and “you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12) were Jews as well. The gentiles celebrate Epiphany, for the fact that Jesus was conceived and born for the gentiles as well. The Magi were gentiles. This is why by ancient tradition Epiphany was considered the greater of the two manifestations for those not of Jewish ancestry. This does not mean that Christmas is not important for those of gentile ancestry. Quite the contrary. It is a necessary prelude to all that follows in Jesus’ life. Even He states to the woman at the well: “ You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews” (Jn 4, 22). Jew or Gentile, we are together but experience the manifestations, two different and appropriate ways of experiencing the Incarnation.

Jesus was conceived and born for us. What more can we ask of God than to express His absolute, unconditional Love for us. God is Love. This unconditional Love is the Divinity that is united to our humanity and thus elevating us through the Cross to a Divinization, or as Saint John of the Cross expresses it, “divine by participation.”

Rejoice then, in your august calling, through these two remarkable manifestations of Love: the gift of an Incarnate Love, God Himself united to our human nature.

God is with your spirit! A bientôt (See you soon)! Deo volente (God willing)!