1st
Sunday of Advent – December 2, 2012
Epistle,
Romans 13: 11-14 - Gospel, Luke 21: 25-33
Today we celebrate the beginning of Advent
which is the season of the coming of our Lord. Jesus Himself told us that He is the Way, the
Truth and the Life and that “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make
you free.” (John 8: 32) St. Bernard says in thinking about the reason
for the season we should understand that the universal Church would not commemorate Advent unless it contained a
sacred mystery. So we inquire about six circumstances of Advent and ask: (1)
Who is coming, (2) Where does He come from, (3) How does He come, (4) Why does
He come, (5) When does he come and (6) The ways in which He comes.
In asking who is coming, consider “how
great a man this is” as St. Paul writes in Hebrews
7: 4. According to the testimony of the Archangel Gabriel he is “the Son of
the Most High, (Luke 1: 32). As the sons of princes are also princes, the
Son of God is also God. We can also ask why it is not the Father nor the Holy
Ghost who comes at Advent, but the Son. We have already noted that Jesus Christ
is the Way, the Truth and the Life, so we can say let the Truth come, that the
lies of Satan may be laid open, that we may know the Truth and it shall make us
free of error. Jesus came out of love
for His creation, Matthew 23: 37, “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered together thy children, as
a hen doth gather her chickens under her wings.” This is Jesus’ declaration of
love for His children.
Now we consider Number 2, where does
he come from, and along with that, where does He go. Jesus comes from the Heart
of God the Father and into the womb of the Virgin Mary. We are changed because
of His presence among us. Psalm 72: 25
describes our feelings towards Him: “Besides thee what do I desire upon earth?
Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever.” The Son
of God descended to earth and even into hell itself, not as one held there in
punishment, but as one “free among the dead” (Psalm 87: 6), and “as a light which shineth in the darkness, and
the darkness did not comprehend it. (John
1: 5) How Jesus comes, Number 3, is another mystery. God became man through
a virgin birth. If we believe Scriptures, the revealed Word of God, and if we
believe that Christ’s Church has authority to teach this mystery, and then we
know the virgin birth is true. We can
only wonder about God’s love for us and ask, along with Psalm 7: 17, “Lord, what is man that thou shouldst magnify him? Or
why does thou set thy heart upon him?” We can also ask: why didn’t we go to Him
rather than He coming to us? It’s not normal for a rich man to come to a poor
man. Two things prevented us from coming to Him: (1) through sin our eyes were
dim and groping, and (2) as St. Paul tells us, “He inhabiteth light
inaccessible” (1 Timothy 6: 16).
Many generations laid in sin and error pining waiting for His Advent.
We can now ask Number 4: Why does He
come, and the answer is simple, to find the sheep that have strayed from the
Fold. He came for our sakes. How wondrous is the dignity of the Lord, who comes
seeking, and how wonderful the dignity of mankind that we are sought for by
God.
Now let us ask Number 5: When does
He come. He did not come at the beginning of time, He came at the end of time.
Even though we children of Adam tend to be ungrateful, the Son of God came when
we were in most need of His mercy. It was when the sunshine of justice was low
and its light and warmth had almost disappeared from the earth, when knowledge
of divine things was at a low point, when sin abounded throughout the world,
and when charity had grown cold, “Then said I,
behold I come,” as Jesus told us through the psalmist in Psalm 39: 8. As St. Paul puts it, “when
the fullness of time was come, God sent His Son.” (Galatians 4: 4)
The
last question to consider is Number 6: the ways in which He comes. We should
know these ways, because it is fitting that we His children go out to meet Him.
He came once to us as a Man visibly. He has returned to His Father in heaven.
Now He comes to us, first of all, in spirit, invisibly, to redeem individual
souls. Jeremias wrote: “The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord, is taken in
our sins,” and so we know this coming is invisible Jeremias continues, “Under
thy shadow we shall live among the Gentiles.” (Lamentations 4: 20) We can hasten to meet God in ourselves. “The
Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.” (Romans 10: 8) Confess Jesus Christ with your mouth, in your prayers
and all your daily living; and these things are said of that Advent where he
illuminates individuals souls with his invisible light.
Now,
to His visible coming. “Behold a virgin
shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” (Matthew 1: 23, Isaiah 7: 14) For 33 years he was with us until His
time had come and He suffered and died for our sins. Even then, he came back
from the dead and promised to be with us always, even to the end of time. Every
day Jesus makes Himself available to us in the Eucharist, Holy Communion. When
we look at the Eucharist we see bread and wine, but we understand that it is
the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He has kept
His promise, He is always with us.
Satan
is now caught in the trap he set. He accused God of lying and of being envious,
but in both cases Satan is proved to be the liar. He is the father of lies (John 8: 44) He told Eve, “No you shall
not die the death.” (Genesis 3: 4)
Of course, Eve died. As to being envious, we can ask: of what fruit of which
tree should God be envious? God gave us even His own sublime Fruit, “For he
that spared not even his own Son, and how hath He not also, with Him, given us
all things?” (Romans 8: 32) In
Christ “Lie hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, (Colossians 2: 3), but in Satan are all the lies and hopelessness
of hell. +++
Next Saturday is the Feast of The Immaculate
Conception,
a Holy Day of Obligation
We Celebrate the
Tridentine Latin Mass
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