First Sunday of Advent

During this liturgical season, we await the three comings of Christ

WORD OF FAITH: A breakdown of each week's upcoming Sunday readings to better understand the Word of God at Mass.

Advent, this holy season in which we find ourselves beginning this Saturday at First Vespers, is a time of waiting and expectation. Indeed, the violet which we wear and with which we adorn our chapels and churches is not necessarily a symbol of penance (although prayerful repentance and reconciliation is a major factor in this liturgical season), but of deep longing for the coming of the Savior Christ into our life. 

In Advent, we await the three comings of Christ: first, we commemorate the entrance of God, the Word, the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity into human history, incarnate as a man like us in all things but sin; second, we await the glorious, triumphant re-entrance of Christ into human history, when all is all, and the time comes for the Savior, Christ the King, to come to judge the living and the dead; and third, we pray for Christ to be born each day, each moment, into our hearts, to help us grow in virtue, to see Christ, indeed to be Christ, to one another. The Advent Preface I of the Mass clearly reflects this understanding and I ask in a particular way that we all pay close attention to those words as it is prayed over the next three weeks at Mass.

The great Doctor of the Church, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, summarizes this, in his Advent Sermon Number 5, which we will pray in the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours this coming Wednesday, in the following manner:

In the first coming he was seen on earth, dwelling among men; he himself testifies that they saw him and hated him. In the final coming all flesh will see the salvation of our God, and they will look on him whom they pierced. The intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it only the elect see the Lord within their own selves, and they are saved.

Liturgically, the Season of Advent itself can be seen as really being divided into two parts, the first part, up to Dec. 17, is remote preparation for the coming of Christ. The focus is on the second coming of the Lord and the key figure in this time period is the Friend of the Bridegroom, Saint John the Baptist. From Dec. 17 onwards, a period of time marked out by the “O Antiphons” in Vespers, we have a more proximate preparation for the coming of Christ, one which focuses especially on the historical fact of the Incarnation. Our Blessed Mother, Mary, is the key figure during this time period.

Therefore, the Church is calling our attention in this first period of Advent to the eschatological nature of the season. By eschatological, I mean the four last things which each of us have to face, namely death, judgment, heaven and hell. As we well know, the sense of eschatology was so much greater in the early Church. 

These followers of the way, who daily were risking their lives because they believed in Christ, who were considered enemies of the state due to their faith, truly believed that, at any moment, Jesus, King of Glory and Lord of the World, would descend, just as he had ascended to judge each man according to his deeds. The collect for Sunday’s Mass captures the sense of urgency. Listen to it again:

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ  with righteous deeds at his c­oming, so that, gathered at his right hand,   they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.

Advent calls us to regain that “eschatological edge” so necessary for the Christian life. And the focus on the final coming of Christ does not mean that we neglect the other two comings. In fact, it actually enhances our appreciation! Listen again to Saint Bernard, from that same sermon:

Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation.

If you keep the word of God in this way, it will also keep you. The Son with the Father will come to you. The great Prophet who will build the new Jerusalem will come, the one who makes all things new. This coming will fulfill what is written: As we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly man. Just as Adam’s sin spread through all mankind and took hold of all, so Christ, who created and redeemed all, will glorify all, once he takes possession of all.