“Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us” (Lk. 1:78).
“Dayspring” means “dawn”: that period in the morning when light becomes visible, before the sun appears. During the dawn the color in the sky moves from deep red to orange, then to gold and yellow as the sun nears the horizon. It’s the reverse spectrum of colors from sunset. “Dayspring” is the beginning of the new day, the foreshadowing of what lies ahead. A cloudy day will obscure the dawn, but the sun rises nevertheless.
Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the Sunday before Advent, and we are busy wrapping up and preparing ourselves for a new start. We’re commemorating the kingship of Christ, the one who stands both at the beginning and the end of all things. He is the one “by whom all things were made” (as it says in the Creed), and also the one who “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” A royal figure, indeed.
Jesus dominates the horizon at this moment in liturgical time in the same way the sun fills the sky. The early preacher John Chrysostom once said that at Christ’s coming in glory, “Such a blaze of light will there be that even the brightest stars will be eclipsed” (Homily on the Cross and the Thief). With his coming, it will be the dawn of a new day.
Our canticle this morning, from the Gospel of Luke, offers its own commentary on new beginnings. It’s the song of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, celebrating the coming of the Messiah. The child he’s addressing is his own son, who’s been sent to prepare the way for the birth of Jesus. As Zechariah says, the prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah, who would save his People from their enemies. Long ago, God promised their forefather Abraham that he would deliver them. Salvation would come to them from a descendant of David.
Here’s where “the dayspring” comes in. John the Baptist is the “leading indicator” who reveals that the Messiah is at hand. His coming is a sign that the dawn has come, and that the full day is about to appear. The light in the sky is moving from deep red to orange, then to gold and yellow, before the rising of the sun. The glory of the Lord is beginning to be revealed, in the dawn of a new day. As Zechariah says, “To give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk. 1:79).
It’s the dawning of something new, but there have been glimmers before. When the prophet Jeremiah, in our first reading, writes about the “righteous Branch” (Jer. 23:5) that God will raise up to reign as king, it’s the same idea as in our canticle. The branch is the shoot that springs from the stem of Jesse, David’s father, as the prophet Isaiah wrote in a similar passage (Is. 11:1); the latest growth in the house of Israel that signifies that the new has come. “Dayspring” is like the growth that springs forth when the winter ends and the sun rises in the sky, bringing light and warmth. It’s the gleam of the Lenten roses; the first daffodil of Spring.
So what does this new beginning mean for us? St. Paul begins to unpack it in our second reading, where he writes, “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). The new world that is taking shape around us is the kingdom of Christ. As the light increases, we can see more clearly the outline of the kingdom being filled in. What was black and white, a mere sketch of the reality, now has color and vibrancy. The world has been brought out of the shadows into the full light of day.
It’s in the sacraments that we see most clearly the shape of the kingdom. Baptism brings the forgiveness of sins that St. Paul talks about; and the Eucharist we celebrate seals the promise of redemption by the blood of Christ, given and received in this holy sacrament. The death of Christ becomes for us the means of life.
Today, members of the Church will reaffirm their baptismal vows, and receive the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit. All of us will have the chance to reaffirm our own vows, and commit ourselves once again to following Christ. It’s the dawn of a new day, the beginning of a new work, the start of something new. All this comes from Christ, who comes into the world as the sun rising in splendor, in the glory of the Lord.
