Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Luc Thuku, OHC
Advent 1 C - Sunday, November 28, 2021
Right from about the 4th Century AD, Christians have had this special time of preparation towards Christmas. Just like in Lent, traditionally the season of Advent was observed as a time of fasting and prayer, a time of spiritual renewal or cleansing of hearts to be able to receive the Lord.
As we begin to prepare for the liturgical and social celebration of Christmas, already commercially begun in stores, the liturgical celebrations of the coming weeks invite us to prepare for the end of time and second coming of Jesus, a theme that has been very clear in our readings during the office of Martins for several weeks before the end of the liturgical year B, just concluded.
In the Gospel passage we just heard this morning from Luke, we hear the statement “They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”(Luke 21:27) We know the term Son of Man refers to Jesus Christ but what does the coming of Jesus Christ really mean?
The coming of Jesus can be understood in three ways. The first coming is plain enough and took place at a certain moment in history when the second person of the Trinity took human flesh and was born on earth, now going to almost two thousand and twenty years, as Jesus of Nazareth. This we call the mystery of the incarnation.
The second understanding of the coming of Christ is of something we await in hope. This is when Christ will return in glory at the end of time, a future event. Though a core belief of Christianity, it is a difficult subject to comprehend partly because of the trauma emanating from some misguided preaching of the event which makes it sound like an event I would rather not experience. It is stuff that has been a source of nightmares for me personally and of untold mental anguish to alot of people. On the other hand, the negligence of some preachers especially in many of our main stream and liturgical churches in the West, that do not want to hear of Judgement and eternal damnation of sinners, leave people not adequately prepared for the event through repentance. However, our liturgy especially the creed and the prayers of the Eucharist remind us constantly that it is an event that we should await with joy and hope!
There is also a third understanding of the coming of Jesus. This coming of Jesus is not a past event that is kept alive in our memories nor is it a mere expectation or imagination of a future event. By the power of the Spirit of the risen Lord, the coming of Jesus is continually being enacted even as we speak. Jesus comes in our midst as the word is proclaimed, as the sacraments are celebrated. He comes when Christian community and fellowship is practised, when the sick are being healed and prayed for, when the poor are fed and cared for, when peace is promoted and strived for, when the hopeless are encouraged, and so on, in short, when the good news that Christ lived and proclaimed in his first coming is lived by us his followers in our daily lives!
The solemn feast of the Nativity that Advent helps prepare for, and that we look forward to, should focus us to all the above three comings of Christ. It recalls the historical birth of Jesus the Nazarene even though the exact date of birth is unkown and there is plenty of controversy sorrounding the adoption of the date of the Roman feast of the birth of the Sun God to celebrate the birth of the Light of the World. I will not act as an apologist for the date of the feast nor as an opposer of having it celebrated on a so called pagan festival, although I have plenty of arguments for both sides of the debate. I will simply state the fact that a man, Jesus of Nazareth was born and his birth is rightly or wrongfully celebrated on an adopted date. However, the world was never the same again after his birth!
In the first reading we heard today, the first coming of Jesus is foretold by the Prophecy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah builds a certain expectation among the people about the coming of the Messiah who will be the son of David. “Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall fulfil the promise of happiness I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 33: 14). Jeremiah was writing to a city that was in imminent danger of attack but even though the worst has not yet happened, he speaks of restoration not simply of daily life, which is very important, but also of restoration of the Davidic line which is one of the major signs of God’s favor for Israel. To a people devasted by loss, Jeremiah’s prophecy offers hope.
Like in the days of Jeremiah, our world today needs a promise of and fulfillment of happiness! We have suffered a devastating pandemic for the last two years and there is no much of an end in sight. We have lost relatives and friends, children have been orphaned, old people left with no one to care for them and all of us are feeling the weight of isolation. Even when there is a glimmer of normalcy, our conscience keeps telling us to be careful and in being careful we are robbed of joy. We have suffered racism, sexism, violence of all sorts, bad governance. We have been used for profit by companies as our governments turn a blind eye to the exploiters…we need hapiness. Our world has been brought to its knees through corruption, People have lost jobs and livelihoods. Even animals and all of creation is yearning for relief, for joy, for happiness and therefore the promise of the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, is good news indeed!
Our Lord and Savior Jesus loves us so much to let something as sigificant as a remembrance of his birth pass without us being reminded of the second coming also translated into Latin by Jerome as adventus from what the Greeks call the Parousia. As verse 28 of our Gospel passage this morning reminds us, “we will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”(Luke 21:28) This is the advent of faith, this is the advent of hope.
The second reading from the First letter of Paul to the Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 9-13 tells us that we must prepare ourselves for this second coming of Jesus, not so much by doing anything other than by just being open to the grace of God. The last verse 13 says… “and may he so confirm your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and father when our Lord Jesus comes with all the holy ones”.
When first Thessalonians was being written around AD 50, a good number of the Apostles and immediate followers of Jesus were still alive and they strongly belived Christ will return in their own life time and hence the strong sense of the immediacy of the parousia. The first letter should therefore be read with reference to the second letter which urges the believers to “go on working quietly and earning the food they eat and never to become tired of doing what is right”(2 Thessalonians 3:12) for Christ will come at his own time and as for the coming, He will surely come (2 Thessalonians2:1-8). The immediacy of the first letter is however not diminished but put into perspective!
As we continue to wait in hope for this second coming, we continue to be supported by the word and sacraments and by our living of the gospel message and calling, which invites us to be ‘other Christs’. Jesus comes to us in a real, experiencial and tangible manner and if we open ourselves to his grace, he will support us in holiness as we await the second coming. This will reduce our anxieties and fears that are mainly associated with this coming because he constantly keeps reminding us that holiness, a word that scares many is simply LOVE.
Spiritual Masters keep reminding us that the only moment we are assured of is the present because yesterday is gone and tomorrow…who knows? I humbly suggest then, that we make a deliberate choice of this continous, real and tangible coming of Jesus in his Word and Sacraments because it is the most important aspect to celebrate. Yes, Jesus comes to us when we are fully alive, when we are caring in love for our brothers and sisters in this global village that we live in, where my good act impacts everyone on earth and where one irresponsible act in one corner of the world affects the entire world as covid-19 and the effects of global warming are loudly shouting in our ears!
May this Season of Advent offer us yet another chance, another opportunity to appreciate the Jesus who comes. Let us contemplate this as we prepare ourselves to recognise Jesus when he comes!
Amen
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