Advent--The Season of Preparation for the Coming of Christ, the God-man
Dear brothers and sisters, the season of Advent is a special time in the Church’s liturgical calendar. The word, "advent", from the Latin-"advenio"-means "to come to", which implies a preliminary phase or process of preparation for the fulfillment of something of greater importance. Accordingly, in relation to the liturgical life of the Church, Advent is the beginning of the Church’s liturgical year, which is a special time of preparation for the "coming" of Christ "to" his people. Indeed, the Church prepares herself for his coming in human history in preparation for his future, final coming. He alone will fulfill her. He is her Alpha and her Omega, her beginning and her end. In him alone does she live, move and have her being. Through him she has been recreated and matures as his body. She belongs to him. Consequently, what could be of greater importance for the Church than Christ himself? On this basis, preparation for the coming of Christ is the object or end of the season of Advent, which is fulfilled: liturgically, on Christmas; and eschatologically, on the Last Day.
The First Coming of Christ
What do I mean? I mean that during the season of Advent the Church, first of all, prepares herself to receive the first coming of Christ—the coming of God’s divine son as the promised "messiah" through his human incarnation as man. In other words, she prepares herself to commemorate the birth of the God-child, Emmanuel-"God is with us"-on Christmas. This messiah God-child is the person of Jesus himself, "born of a woman", a virgin daughter of Abraham, of the house of David, for the salvation of God’s people. For this reason, in Jesus, God is present to his people as savior.
According to the Old Testament, God revealed to his prophets that he would send the descendants of Abraham a messiah, a son of David, who would save them. Indeed, through the centuries he would reveal more and more to them who this future messiah would be, including the more-than-human quality or nature of his messianic vocation or mission. He would be a righteous man of God who would have the Spirit of the Lord upon him, a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of piety and of fear of the Lord. As a result, he would be called Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever and Prince of Peace. Through him God would save his people, the children of Abraham. In other words, he would establish his reign of peace and justice for them forever. In time God would reveal to his prophets that this salvation for his people through the more-than-human person of the messiah would involve his sacrificial offering of himself—in his suffering and death—for their healing or salvation from sin and the consequences for sin. Accordingly, Isaiah proclaims that the servant of God: "was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed…Through his suffering he shall justify many…Because he surrendered himself to death…he shall take away the sins of many and win pardon for their offenses." Consequently, the divine son of God could only fulfill this mission of salvation by becoming a son of man through his human incarnation. Thus, for centuries before the birth of Jesus, God had prepared his people through his prophets to believe in and anticipate the coming of a messianic God-man, a son of David, who could fulfill the divine function of their salvation.
For this reason, in the first century A.D. the inspired authors of the Gospels record that the first members of the messianic Church—the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ—would be descendants of Abraham who identified Jesus as the promised messiah of God. These people included the Virgin Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, Peter and the apostles. Gentiles, who identified Jesus as the messianic God-man, would also become members of the Church in the first century A.D. In fact, during his life and ministry on earth Jesus himself proclaimed that he was the messiah of God. As such, after Peter confesses to him: "You are the messiah, the son of the living God", Jesus responds, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." Later, Jesus would also prophesy that as the son of man he would suffer and die. In him Isaiah’s prophetic revelation of God’s suffering servant would be fulfilled. What humility!!! What love!!! The divine person of the Son humbly became man for his love of God’s people. Indeed, he became man to save humanity. On this basis, during the season of Advent the Church prepares herself for her commemoration of Christ’s first coming in his human nature as the messianic God-man on Christmas.
The Second Coming of Christ
In doing so, the Church also prepares herself for Christ’s parousia on the day of the Lord. In other words, she prepares herself for his second coming in glory at the end of time. This is the eschatological coming of Christ. According to the Old Testament, God revealed to his prophets that a second phase of his plan of salvation was for his messiah to return to earth in glory at the end of the age to administer his final judgment and salvation to humanity. Thus, the prophet Daniel proclaims in his prophetic revelation from God the glorious coming of a son of man figure at the end of time. In his prophecy he describes a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven who would receive eternal glory, reign and dominion from God to govern all peoples. Consequently, he would administer God’s final judgment and salvation to them. He also implies that this son of man image is more than the person of the messiah himself, just as the image of the body of Christ is more than the person of Christ himself. In other words, just as the body of Christ is an image of the person of Christ and his members—the Church, the son of man is also an image of the messiah and his members—the righteous, "the holy ones of the Most High". This is the fulfillment of salvation—the messiah with his people.
According to the Gospels, in Jesus' preaching in the first century A.D. he ascribed to himself this image or figure of the son of man, from the prophet Daniel, who would come upon the clouds of heaven with great glory at the end of the age or eschaton to administer God’s final judgment and salvation to humanity. Hence, he proclaims: "When the son of man comes in his glory…on his glorious throne, all nations will be assembled before him." He will separate the righteous from the unrighteous, "as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." The righteous will receive eternal salvation; and the unrighteous, eternal punishment. On this basis, during the season of Advent the Church's preparation for the first coming of Christ through his human birth also prepares her for the second coming of Christ in his divine glory.
The Means of Preparation for the Coming of Christ on Christmas and on the Last Day
The first step in the season of Advent for preparing for the Coming of Christ is to consider the Advent preparation of the Virgin Mary as the first Christmas approached for her. According to the Lucan account of the Gospel, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth of Galilee to a virgin, named Mary, betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. As Gabriel reveals himself to Mary, he proclaims God’s word to her: “"Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you…You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus…The holy Spirit will come upon you…Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of Go" After hearing God’s word, Mary said, "'Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Afterwards, Mary traveled to the home of Zechariah and her cousin Elizabeth where she remained for three months to help Elizabeth who was pregnant in her old age with John the Baptist.
What does the Virgin Mary teach the Christian about preparing for the coming of Christ during Advent? First of all, she teaches her that she cannot prepare for the coming of Christ by herself. This preparation requires something beyond her natural human resources. She requires the divine grace of God for a fruitful preparation. As Mary, the Christian is called to be God’s "favored one!" She is called to live in God’s presence. "The Lord is with you." The Lord desires to be with you. Accordingly, this is the first requirement for preparing for Christ’s coming: union with God through grace.
Secondly, the Christian is also called to freely cooperate with God’s word, just as Mary did. "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." By cooperating with God’s word, she conceives the child Jesus in her womb through the Holy Spirit in preparation for his birth. Hence, just as the birth of the child Jesus first required his human conception in the womb of his mother Mary, the Christian is also called to first conceive the life of Christ in the womb of her heart that she may give birth to him on Christmas. For the people of God, including Mary, the heart represented the source or center of the interior life of the human being where she formed and nurtured a prayerful life and relationship with God. As such, this is where the seed or word of God’s grace would first bear fruit in her life.
Finally, cooperating with the word of God also moves Mary to love her neighbor, her cousin Elizabeth, as herself. This is a reminder that loving service to others is a necessary means of preparing for Christ's coming. On this basis, the virgin Mary teaches the Christian that the love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable from one another in preparation for Christ during the season of Advent. Blessings!
Br. Mariano D. Veliz, O.P.
