O Rex Gentium

 The will of God that all may be saved shines forth in O Rex Gentium, and one cannot help but recall with joy and gratitude that the Roman Martyrology two days later, on December 24^th, is going to celebrate the feast of Adam and Eve, the progenitors of the human race.  The text of the Martyrology on December 24^th is itself remarkable: The commemoration of all the holy ancestors of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham, Son of Adam, that is to say the ancestors who pleased God and were found just and who died in faith—those who did not receive the promises but who beheld them and greeted them from afar, of whom Christ was born according to the flesh and who is God over all things and blessed for ever. Already, Jeremiah 10:7 asked who would not fear you, O King of the Nations. Again, Ephesians2:11-22 relates how both Jew and Gentile have been brought near through the blood of Christ, and how Christ broke down the barrier of hostility that kept them apart, and that they form a building with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. The Advent mystery celebrates the power of that blood poured out for our salvation, the blood already coursing through the infant Christ about to be born, the blood that he inherited from all of his ancestors, and which he gives to us in the Eucharist. With good reason, we pray that he come (veni) and save all people, both Jew and Gentile, whom he formed from the dust of the earth.