By Fr. Thomas Brouillette
Vicar General
Last Sunday we celebrated the beginning of the new Church Year with the first Sunday of Advent. We lit the first candle of the Advent wreath, symbolic of the building anticipation to welcome the light of Christ as he comes into the world. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival”; “appearance.”
We know that Jesus Christ already arrived, already appeared, so we are not preparing only to ‘remember’ his first coming which has already taken place in history. We are preparing for Christ’s second coming, his second arrival or his second appearance at the end of time. Since we are somewhere in the middle, Advent gives us pause to prepare to receive Him by grace at Christmas.
We are more than just encouraged to prepare for that coming, but even commanded to do so by Jesus because he knows the eternal consequence of being ready or not and only wants us to be safe with him forever in our home of Heaven.
A question that we could reflect upon is this: “How do we prepare well for this second coming and Christmas when Christ will come into our hearts by grace?” I would suggest a good confession, for starters. Jesus is the one who calls us to the sacrament, and much of the distance we might experience from Jesus melts away when we come to him in our brokenness. We are all sinners, and he came for us and the forgiveness of our sins.
This season of the year is not simply pious playacting, awaiting the arrival anew of the Baby Jesus on Christmas. We live historically between the two great comings of Christ: His first in poverty and humility as our Savior and His second in glory and majesty as our judge. The season of Advent is meant to focus our attention on where we stand in the stream of history.
This Sunday at Mass, when we affirm that we believe Jesus “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and of His kingdom there will be no end,” we are announcing our Advent hope. The early Christians greeted one another saying, “Maranatha!” which roughly translated means, “Come Lord Jesus,” words that conclude the book of Revelation.
It is wonderful to fill children with knowledge of how the coming of Christ was anticipated as He was awaited since the fall of Adam to the time of His birth in Bethlehem. We are reminded that we are still in a state of anticipation of His second coming. “We wait in joyful hope for the Coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ” by grace into our hearts at Christmas, and at the end of time. Maranatha!
