Here is the first prayer of the Christian year; and if we take our faith seriously, we shall pray it daily from now till Christmas Eve – as we are encouraged to do.
It is based upon a verse in the epistle – a reading from Romans 13 and verse 12: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light.” “The day” here is that dreadfully wonderful Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to earth to judge the living and the dead. We who seek to follow him and bear his name must be morally and spiritually prepared for that day.
It is masterfully constructed by Cranmer. The first Advent (in which “he came to visit us in great humility”) is compared and contrasted with that time “when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the quick (living) and the dead.” Indeed, the whole prayer is built upon a series of contrasts. Thus: “cast away” versus “put on”; “works of darkness” vs “armour of light”; “this mortal life” vs “the last day”; “this mortal life” vs “life immortal”; “to visit us” vs “to judge the quick and the dead”; and “in great humility” vs “in his glorious majesty.”
In fact it is a miniature creed. The divine Sonship of Christ, his birth (and implicit with that his suffering and death), his return (happens only after his resurrection and ascension), his judgement of the living and the dead, and the resurrection of the body and life everlasting – all are mentioned or implied in just over 10 lines. Not bad, eh?
If we turn to what is prayed, then straightaway we see that God is addressed as “Almighty” – he is the One who has dominion and authority over all the created order, in heaven and earth. And we pray for grace to be given us that we might be holy, now in this mortal life, in which by his Incarnation the Son of God came to us, so that we may cast away the works of darkness. It is not enough though to be merely stripped of dark deeds – we want to be clothed afresh with the armour of light. And our desire is that we would rise from the dead at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, passing through his judgement with his flying colours, so that we may enjoy the beatific vision (seeing the King in all his beauty) and ready for our heavenly service. And we pray this through our only Mediator – the Man Christ Jesus, who has made such a bold approach possible, through his shed blood on the cross, for each of us.
Pray this daily – and we shall surely know his blessing.
コメント