As we are almost ending the first week of Advent, you may have noticed a change in the tone of the readings and prayers this week. There has been lots of focus on staying alert, waiting in hope, a period of expectation, the need to be ready, to wake up .. with words used in the prayers like “Come.. rise up… stir up..”
The Church gives us this beautiful Preface of Advent to use until the 16th of December. It is good to take time to understand the words that the Church prays publicly during this time - because it is a beautiful moment of mystagogy, a time of learning about God through the mysteries we celebrate.
“It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.
For he assumed at his first coming
the lowliness of human flesh,
and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago,
and opened for us the way to eternal salvation,
that, when he comes again in glory and majesty
and all is at last made manifest,
we who watch for that day
may inherit the great promise
in which now we dare to hope.”
The focus of this Preface is the dynamic between what we call the “twofold” coming of Christ. The first time he came as a child, becoming incarnate, the Word made Flesh who dwelt among us. This is what most of us associate Advent and Christmas with due to the customs developed over time to celebrate and remember that God became one of us, in a particular period of time and culture. It was St Francis himself, the great lover of the humanity of Christ who started the tradition of the nativity scene thst many of us now love and associate with Christmas. It was also the Franciscans who gave us the other beautiful devotion of the Way of the Cross, which is another way to meditate on the humanity of Christ and enter into His Passion that saved us.
What can sometimes be lost during this time is the focus we also have on the Second Coming. Advent itself means exactly that - the Coming! This is the time the Church gives us to to focus our attention on the importance of always being prepared to wait for the Return of the Lord - His coming in Glory to finish the work of salvation that began in the Incarnation.
The preface tells us that we “dare to hope” as we “watch for that day may inherit the great promise”. This great promise is the revelation to the world of us being the Children of God (Romans 8:19). It is the great unveiling - that is what Apocalypse & Revelation mean, the unveiling at the end of time of God’s true plan for the world, for us, for you and me. That is when we we understand and all the world will see the hidden meaning behind all the hurts and sufferings we have ever gone through, because all things (good or bad) work together for His purpose (Roman’s 8:28).
This is why after we pray the Lord’s Prayer in every Mass the priest then prays “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin
and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” As we wait for Jesus to return, for him to come again - his Advent, it should always be a blessed time of daring hope. Our hope is our salvation (Romans 8:24), because we know that Jesus has saved us in baptism with the gift of faith, we know that we are still in the process of sanctification and growing in grace through prayer and the sacraments, but all of this is based on the hope we have - that solid anchor of assurance that Jesus loves us and through the Holy Spirit is still completing the work of salvation in each of our lives (Philippians 1:6).
Everytime we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are praying the the End of the world. This may shock you but it is true! When the “kingdom comes” what eise do you think it means? It means we are calling on God to establish His Kingdom on earth and bring it to fulfillment. We are praying for heaven and earth to be one, just as was God’s plan from eternity. To unite us to Himself, to dwell with us (Revelation 21:3), and ultimately we dwell with Him where “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4).
This is the joy we are anticipating and celebrating during this holy time of Advent. It is a time of blessed hope! A time of daring hope, hope that gives us strength, hope is our anchor (Hebrews 6:19) that provides us security in the storms of life to know that Jesus is the Rock of our Salvation (Deuteronomy 32:15; 2 Samuel 22:47; Psalm 89:26; 95:1) who is the cornerstone (Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:4–8) on which we stand.
In the words of the Invitatory Antiphon in the Divine Office for Advent, the Church puts these words on our lips “Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.” Let us today renew our hope in the Lord, worshiping Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
I pray that the same Jesus who is present in every Eucharist in the Churches throughout the world and comes into our parishes, our souls and our hearts will also come visibly in Glory at the end of time! May he come into your life and transform you with his hope, renew your joy and longing for him.
“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20)
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