Reflection on the 'O Antiphon' - 20th December

Below is the text of a reflection given by one of our sisters on today's Magnificat Antiphon, which invokes Christ as the Key of David.(If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below).

O come now key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home,
make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice, Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to you O Israel.

Reflecting on this Antiphon alongside today’s Gospel, (Lk.1:26-38), we have highlighted for us the Presence of God in our lives.

A few verses before today’s Gospel passage, the Archangel Gabriel, tells Zachary: “my name is Gabriel and my place is in God’s Presence. What a truly stupendous statement! Further on in the same Gospel passage, we are told of this same Archangel when he visits Mary with the tidings of the Incarnation….’into her presence the angel came’. (R.Knox translation)

Surely we are left in breathless awe, as we picture this great Archangel whose place is in the Presence of God Himself, bowing low in the presence of this humble Virgin, who never-the-less, was a creature like ourselves, as he awaited her consent to become the mother of God’s Son – the Key of David.

A key we know, both locks and unlocks - and today, we are called to pray to Christ, the Key of David, to unlock, to open wide our heavenly home and to make safe the way that leads on high, where our destiny too, is to dwell in God’s Presence for all eternity.

In the meantime, so long as our pilgrimage on earth lasts, we are so utterly privileged to have the Real Presence of Christ, the Key of David, continually with us in the Holy Eucharist. Christ dwells too in all our hearts, where in a spirit of Faith, we must endeavour to be constantly pre-occupied with him. May Mary help us to give him our loving attention in all the ups and downs of daily life, as she gave Him hers those precious nine months when she carried his sacred Presence in her womb.

Yes, as Isaiah foretold so long ago – ‘the Virgin is with Child and He will be called Emmanuel – a name which means – ‘God is with us’! Yes, he really is. Let us then rejoice in the Presence of the Lord in the land of the living, then one day as the Psalmist tells us, we too, in the presence of the angels, will bless our loving God for all eternity. cf Ps.137(138)

O Key of David, we thank you for the wonder of our being and the miracle of your Presence in us.