The Coming of the Lord
The most common word we hear during the Advent Season is “the coming of the Lord.” For example: And they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30)
This phrase needs clarification. Since Jesus, the Son of Man, is God, we cannot speak of him as leaving point A (heaven) to get to point B (wherever we happen to be). As God, he is everywhere at the same time, in heaven, in the Blessed Sacrament, in his Word, in our hearts, near and far, everywhere, without exception. For this simple reason, bound by time and space, unable to be in two places at the same time, we speak of coming although it would be more accurate to speak of awareness of his divine presence. Thus, we are called, especially during the holy season of Advent, to become aware that the Lord is present to us for his direct, loving concern for our condition.
The Bible offers us countless instances of his promise to be close to us with his forgiveness, guidance, comfort, power and care. This awareness is designed to generate in us hope that all his promises will be fulfilled.
Secondly, as the first reading for the Second Sunday of Advent indicates, God orders us to take off our robe of mourning and misery and put on the splendor of glory. (Baruch 5:1) If we fail to do so even in the worst possible scenarios, we will show lack of awareness of his coming to redress the wrongs brought about by our poor choices.
Thirdly, we are naturally familiar with his coming to us in Holy Communion. Our faith will sustain us more and more if we receive him with renewed devotion and gratitude. However, even this awareness can wear out quickly as the many things with which we fill our days and nights occupy us.
We are less aware of his soothing, guiding, comforting presence in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and in his Word, although, from time to time, these two types of awareness can be very powerful and moving.
And, of course, there is his coming in the flesh. That is what we think of around this time of the year with Christmas and all its seasonal pageantry. However, with predictable regularity, we manage to miss out almost entirely on the significance of his coming “in the flesh.” Our awareness stops at Bethlehem, at the manger, at his charming first days among us as a newborn baby.
However, today, we are to become aware that now, his flesh is, instead, challenging and unsettling. So challenging and unsettling that we will be judged worthy of becoming like him, for all eternity, based solely on our ability to recognize him in his flesh whenever that flesh is hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, pained, incarcerated, ill.
But there are other ways of his coming among us. Some of them, alas, we consider “minor,” “less moving,” “ordinary.” Such is the case of his coming whenever we gather as a community—as Church; whenever we pray individually and as a group; and whenever we become aware that someone, within his Body, is in pain and in need. Well, currently, perhaps we begin to realize how often, and with what ease, we squander awareness of his “comings” by sheer aloofness, self-absorption and/or worldly distractions. We might realize also what a precious, irrecoverable gift the time allotted to us truly is. Once it is gone, it cannot be recovered; it is lost forever. It is all meant to be used by us, daily, to cooperate with God’s Spirit to bring about in us, and around us, the perfection of love which is required to become like him: which is the biblical definition of heaven.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
Hence, heaven is the “final coming of Christ.” It is the full, complete perfection of love reached by all members of his Body to match, at long last, Christ’s perfection of love. For this to happen, we must undergo a Baptism of Repentance, as John the Baptist suggests. It entails a totally new outlook on life and an all-encompassing awareness of God’s presence in us and around us.
Through figures of speech, John mentions some of the requirements. (Luke 3:4-6)
It is up to us to muster courage, honesty and resolve in identifying and in filling the valleys of what is wanting in our loving.
It is up to us to muster courage, honesty and resolve in lowering the mountains of our often-concealed arrogance;
It is up to us to muster courage, honesty and resolve in straitening the crooked ways of our duplicity and hypocrisy
It is up to us to muster courage, honesty and resolve in smoothening the roughness of our desire to control and to manipulate.
This would be a good start.
Let’s face it: we have put it off for too long. Hence, we have glazed our Advents and Christmases with a lot of useless pursuits, engagements in trivial matters and wasted opportunities for goodness. Yet, these very readings assure us that it is not too late to shake off the lukewarmness that makes us spiritually sluggish.
And it would be unwise to let this grace-filled time pass us by without becoming aware of God’s multifaceted comings into our life.
