Behold, He Shall Come
THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT
Today is the first Sunday in Advent, marking the start of the new Christian year. It is a season filled with expectation, as we eagerly await the fulfilling of the promise declared by the prophets of old who, by grace, were given to see, though dimly, the future promise of God's coming to be with his people, his Advent, his coming, which is what the word Advent means. God promised this through Malachi, saying, "And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
To the prophets, the LORD also promised a deliverer, a rescuer, a messiah who would redeem his people and bring salvation unto Israel. God told Isaiah that redemption would be preceded by a Divine sign, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Is 7:14). Immanuel, meaning in Hebrew, God is with us. In other words, the promise resided within the name Emmanuel. One day, the Divine presence would draw near to Israel through a son conceived of a virgin.
God's visitation in the flesh is the great Advent theme and the reason for excitement and expectancy. You see, the Advent season is a time of preparing for the incarnation of the Son, that day so many, many years ago when God took humanity upon himself and was born of a woman: the Son of God in the flesh who will be called Emmanuel, God with us, and Jesus, deliverer, and rescuer.
Advent is a season experienced across the dimensions of time. In one sense, we experience the past in remembering the birth of the Messiah, evoking the memory of our own salvation wrought by his coming into the world. At the same time, we rehearse or recollect salvation history in the present, moving closer day by day to Christmas morning, as if redemptive history were unfolding for the very first time.
Finally, Advent has a future aspect, as well. You see, the visitation of God, his coming to his people, not only ushers in Salvation but Divine judgment as well. "Who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth?" For the Lord promised that at his Advent, to "come near to [them] in judgment, and [to] be a swift witness" against those who do evil in the sight of the Lord. So, a proper advent theology holds together both salvation and judgment in the coming of the Lord.
This is how we understand the mystery of not merely one Divine Advent, but two Advents of Christ, the promise of a second coming (of which no one knows the hour or the day), to execute justice upon the earth, as foretold through Jeremiah, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth" (Jer 23:5).
Salvation and judgment (two concepts that appear to be totally at odds with one another) are, in fact, the two foundational pillars of all reality. For all of human history has is and will be one grandiose movement of Divine judgment and mercy. You see, time is on a collision course with the next great cosmic event, an event in which all of reality and the sweep of human history is heading: the second coming of Christ.
Therefore, our advent contemplations should be filled with double joy! First, joy in the salvation that has come into the world. Second, for that future day when the Righteous Branch of Jesse will come again and make everything right, to settle all accounts, and to finally bring justice to His people.
Now, you may be asking, "why is the account of our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday read on this first day of Advent?" That's a great question! Well, the answer becomes clearly understood through the dual advent lens of Divine salvation and judgment. Cleverly, St. Matthew records two instances of Jesus' coming or entering. First, he enters the Holy City, gently on a donkey. Then, juxtaposed to his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, Matthew records his coming into the Temple casting out wicked money-changers and overthrowing their tables crying, "My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves:" two advents, two different emphases. Upon the back of a donkey, Jesus ushers in salvation for those who joyfully receive him as he enters, and then, at his second coming into the Temple, judgment befalls those thieves corrupting the house of God. "And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts."
Here, on this first day of a new Christian year, the first Sunday of Advent, I say to you, "awake." For, who knows the day or the hour of the Lord's second visitation? That awesome and future day when the Lord will "come again to judge both the living and the dead." Beloved, "now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now, is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand!" The Great Day of the Lord's coming is at hand, and we would do well to adopt St. Paul's sense of urgency. Whether we believe the end of this world to be tomorrow or a hundred years from now, the fact remains: our lives are lived before God, who sees all things. We, the household of God, stand in judgment before the Father, and the span of our life is short and uncertain. Therefore, we must always live prepared, as wise virgins, with oil in our lamps.
"Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." Yes, at the first Advent of the Lord, when Christ was born on Christmas morning, the dawn broke upon a new age, an era of salvation offered to all of humankind. And we believe that since the day of his birth, the True light has shined into the world. It has shined into our hearts of darkness, and we have become children of light.
And even now, the eternal radiance of future glory is spilling into this age, lighting our paths; the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the light who lightens the world, drawing us through the call of the Gospel to move one day at a time toward eternal glory. And having been awakened to this salvation, we must realize that it is "nearer then when we [first] believed." And herein lies the gift of advent hope: salvation is near because God has drawn near.
We mustn't be a temple unprepared but ready for his coming by "cast[ing] off the works of darkness and put[ting] on the armor of light." Let us "cast off the works of darkness" by no longer making any provision for the desires of the flesh. As sacramental Christians, we celebrate the created goodness of our bodies and, at the same time, remember the numerous warnings in scripture concerning what we do with them.
Yes, we have Christian liberty, but there are things that Holy Scripture says we simply must rule out as sin: vices which must not be shown an ounce of mercy. And, lest we regulate the works of darkness to the realm of the flesh, the Apostle tells us to also do away with "strife and envying" because sin rarely separates the heart and will from the outworking of our bodies. Sin and righteousness are always embodied and will manifest themselves in thought, word, and deed.
How can we use this Advent season to prepare for the coming of the Lord, and what is it we are to do? Another great question! As a penitential season, I encourage you to think of Advent as a "mini-Lent," a time of abstinence, perhaps even fasting, marked by penitence and motivated towards confession, freed from shame and guilt. It is a time of detaching from food and drink and material things through the discipline of almsgiving.
But all of this good practice and piety will be for naught unless we chiefly strive "to put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Our advent labor is to love as Christ loves, to become as he who came for us. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor," writes St. Paul, "therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." To Put on Christ is to fulfill our baptismal vow in which we (or our godparents on our behalf) swore allegiance to God and to fight manfully against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. To live out one's baptism is to do the commandments of God. But rule keeping and spiritual rigor are worthless unless they produce the fruit of love.
To love others as our Lord Jesus Christ loves is the continual and sure means of adequately preparing for the Advent of the Lord. It is the oil in the lamp of the wisest virgin. It is the real and assuring sign of the Children of Light. Beloved, the true light is coming into the world, so "let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But [let us] put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof."
Behold, he shall come. Therefore, let us put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen+
