fr will's advent message

The Three Advents of Jesus

The Three Meanings of Advent

Its an amusing irony that as we move into the season of Advent, we will be inundated not only with cultural exhortations to slake our existential thirst on the waters of commercialism (obviously not the will of Christ), but we will also be urged from many different perspectives to contemplate the “true meaning” of the Season. When people refer to the “true meaning” of Christmas, very often they mean something vague about the importance of generosity and giving.

A spirit of generosity and gift-giving are certainly in keeping with the will of Christ, but even this is not precisely the core of what Christians commemorate during Advent.

The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word “adventus” which means “an arrival.” The word has two parts: ad + venire. “Venire” means “to come”. The word “ad” is a preposition meaning “to” or “towards” or “near”. “Adventus” is therefore the commemoration of the “coming near” of something, or its “coming to” us, or its “arrival”. The Church’s utterance of this word each year is charged with mystery. The Prologue to the Gospel of John (the first chapter of John) expresses this mystery in the most beautiful way – though in a way that leaves the Mystery intact: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father.”

One could spend many lifetimes unraveling the meaning of this beautiful passage. Why does John call Jesus “the Word” of God? What does it mean that he was both “with God” and yet “was God”? And the most profound mystery of all: how is it that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”? This is the very core of Christianity, and ultimately its meaning is beyond expressing. It is trans-rational, a reality in front of which every created being must fall silent, which beckons us to fall to our knees in adoration and wonder, as in fact we do during the Angelus at the words “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” and during the Creed at the words “…he became incarnate [enfleshed] from the Virgin Mary and was made man.”

And this is but one of several “advents” of the Christ. We tend to think of Advent in terms of this historical “arrival” some two thousand years ago, in Bethlehem. But also consider Christ’s no-less real advent in the present: consider that Christ comes to you, now. He knocks at the door of your heart and seeks to come to you there, now. He also comes to you, in the present, in the sacraments of the Catholic Church, particularly in the Eucharist. Lastly, we should recall that Christ has promised a final advent, in the future, when “he will come to” (Latin = “adveniet”) us in power and great glory to judge the living and the dead.

I pray that a spirit of generosity and giving will be renewed in you this Advent. But more than that, I pray that Christ will renew in you a devotion to his advent in Bethlehem, that you will accept his offer to come to you now – and that your acceptance of this offer will be manifested in frequent recourse to his advent in the sacraments – and that you will live increasingly in the expectation of his final advent at the consummation of all things.