In Advent, we can consider the comings - plural - of Jesus Christ.
We obviously are celebrating the birth of Christ. In Christmas, we faithfully confront the awesomeness of the Great Miracle, as CS Lewis calls it. God became man, taking on the flesh and life of a human being in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Nothing greater has happened in the history of man, and in fact, this is the pinnacle of salvation history. This is the decisive moment in the span of God's interaction with humanity in order to gather His people to Himself.
Additionally, we reflect upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our faith is full of beautiful pairings in which two wonderful gifts from God work together to nourish us. The most obvious and regularly realized one is the Mass, in which we feast on the Word of God as well as the Sacrament, the Eucharist, or Word Made Flesh. Here, too, our Advent reflection can call upon an awesome partnership in the apparent bookends of the Incarnation and Resurrection. Not only did God become man, live and preach, undertake His Passion, and die on the cross for all of our sins; God then rose from the dead, having torn the veil of the sanctuary to offer conclusive forgiveness of sins and eternal life to anyone who comes to God through Him.
However, these are not bookends. The story of salvation history does not end or gear down after Jesus' Resurrection. Jesus walks the earth in a glorified state, ascends to heaven, and commissions his friends-followers to be the leaders of the Church behind Peter, to forgive sins, to baptize in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to go make of all disciples. Our Church is the Body of Christ on earth; Christ ascended to heaven, yet we endure as His hands and feet, sharing His love in the world. And in the Lord's Prayer, "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" tells us that we glimpse heaven when we do God's will. Our Church and its members as One Body anticipate, enflesh, and prefigure the eternal Kingdom of Heaven when by doing Jesus' will. We are an eschatological Church, looking forward to our fulfillment in Christ's return, when He comes at the end of time to gather His people to Himself forever and ever. Then, our longings become reality; our glimpses become vision.
A dear friend of mine, with near epiphanic enthusiasm, once gave me a great reflection on the theological virtues. St. Paul writes to us, "When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:11-13)."
Faith is the belief in things unseen or unproven; hope is the longing for something yet to come, namely, Heaven; and love is manifesting the care of God in our actions. My friend explained to me that St. Paul was prophesying the afterlife to us. These three virtues are the highest callings for Christians, and they are perfected in our salvation:
- Faith is realized when we meet God; we no longer believe in something unseen but rather know it with intimacy and experience it eternally in stark reality.
- Hope is fulfilled; the Heaven we desired through our belief in Jesus and our efforts to live in Him is now our home forever.
- What remains? Love. Faith and hope are actualized, leaving only the greatest gift: Love. God is Love. And that is Heaven. Eternal union with God.
So, what does this have to do with Advent? I believe we can unite our reflection on Jesus' comings with Paul's insights on virtue.
Our faith as Christians ultimately rests on the person of Christ. Everything we believe relies on the real historicity of Jesus Christ and the mystery that He was God-become-man, taking on the flesh through birth of the Virgin Mary. The Incarnation, the Christmas celebration, this first coming of Christ, is the genesis of our faith.
Our hope is ultimately and primarily for Heaven, eternal life with God. From where can we dare to have such hope? Resurrection. Christ took all of our sins onto His innocent self so that we might be viewed worthy by God, redeemed by the One who was sinless in the sinners' stead. Christians can practice such hope because Christ justified us to be worthy of salvation and union with His Father.
Our love should be the greatest practice of our Christianity. It should shine through in our lives of faith. When we love as God would have us to love, we glimpse heaven, and the decisive coming of Christ, the time when Jesus will perfect our Church to be the Kingdom of Heaven that it has always longed to become.
As we draw our hearts into the depths of mystery surrounding Christ's coming, let us take consolation this Advent in the grace of Paul's words that point the way toward our salvation in God through Christ: So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Our hope is ultimately and primarily for Heaven, eternal life with God. From where can we dare to have such hope? Resurrection. Christ took all of our sins onto His innocent self so that we might be viewed worthy by God, redeemed by the One who was sinless in the sinners' stead. Christians can practice such hope because Christ justified us to be worthy of salvation and union with His Father.
Our love should be the greatest practice of our Christianity. It should shine through in our lives of faith. When we love as God would have us to love, we glimpse heaven, and the decisive coming of Christ, the time when Jesus will perfect our Church to be the Kingdom of Heaven that it has always longed to become.
As we draw our hearts into the depths of mystery surrounding Christ's coming, let us take consolation this Advent in the grace of Paul's words that point the way toward our salvation in God through Christ: So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
