"Behold I will bring my Servant the Orient." (Zach. III. 8). Now God has kept His promise for Zachary has already sung: "The Orient from on high has visited us." But where is He, this Servant of God Who has come to do His Will, this Man Who is also God, this Splendour of the Light Eternal and Sun of Justice? As yet He is hiding His light, but "fear not for on the fifth day Our Lord will come unto you" (Antiphon of the _Benedictus_ for to-day). He will come and He will not tarry; but when He comes He will still hide His light under the swaddling clothes and the helplessness and dependence of a little babe. Why is this, O Orient? Thou art the Light Eternal and the Sun of Justice and yet Thy rising seems to make so little difference in the world. Hardly any know that Thou hast risen. My child, it is true that I am the Light of the world, true that I am the bright and morning Star, but the light can only reach the world by faith. Those who have faith like Zachary and his wife and infant son know that I have visited them, not because they have _seen_ me, but by faith. It is the same with my own sweet Mother: "Blessed art thou that hast _believed_" (St. Luke I. 45). It will be the same when I am born in a few days' time. Most will see nothing beyond a babe in swaddling clothes, but to a chosen few who have the gift of faith the Sun of Justice will have risen, the Star will have appeared, their cry will be: "Behold a Man," even the Man-God, "the Orient is His name." It will be the same all through My life on earth, only the few will recognize the Light of the world; most will not come to Me, but will prefer darkness rather than light. It will be the same with My sacramental life in the Church. I shall be there, but only the eye of faith will detect Me. The Sun of Justice has risen with health in His Wings, but only very gradually will He make Himself felt in a world that is sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. And why, O Orient, Splendour of the Light Eternal, why dost Thou not cast Thy bright beams over the whole world at once that all may know and recognize Thee as the Dayspring which has risen?