The two comings of the Lord
"Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say: Rejoice !" (Phil 4,4). A double joy motivated by a double blessing: the first and the second coming. We should rejoice because, at his first coming, the Lord brought riches and glory to us. We should rejoice again because, at his second coming, he will give us “length of days forever and ever†(Ps 20[21],5). As the Book of Proverbs says: "Long life is in her right hand, in her left are riches and honor" (Ps 20[21],5). The left hand is the first coming with its splendid riches: humility and poverty, patience and obedience. The right hand is the second coming with eternal life.
Isaiah speaks about the first coming in these words: "Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the days of old, in ages long ago. Was it not you who crushed Rahab, you who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?" (51,9-10). The arm of the Lord is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, through whom and in whom God created all things… O arm of the Lord, O Son of god, awake! Come to us from the Father’s glory, assuming our flesh. Clothe yourself with the strength of divinity to do battle against the "prince of this world" (Jn 12,31) and "to cast out the strong one", you who are "stronger than he" (Lk 11,21-22). Awake to redeem humankind as in days of old you delivered the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt... You dried up the Red Sea; what you did then you will do again . . . ,as you made the way in the depths of hell for the redeemed to pass through.
Lectio Divina: 1st Sunday of Advent, Year C <
Roman Rite
Jer 33.14-16; Ps 25; 1 Thes 3.12 to 4.2; Lk 21, 25-28.34-36
Ambrosian Rite
Is 45.1-8; Ps 125; Rom 9, 1-5; Lk 7.18-28
Third Sunday of Advent
Fulfilled prophecies
1) Wait for a visit
The season of Advent has been chosen by the Church to prepare us to celebrate the incarnation of the Word of God. It is a waiting time that does not last long - four weeks in the Roman rite and six in the Ambrosian Rite - ending with the joy of Christmas, a day that celebrates the birth of Jesus among the songs of the angels: "Glory in heaven and peace to those whom God loves " and the joy of the just (see Antiphon to the Magnificat - Second Vespers of Christmas Day).
Advent is the time that prepares the birth of Jesus. It is the time for Mary waiting for the birth. It is for us the time to educate our heart to a waiting that is real, daily, in constant tension toward the presence of the One who became man for us and saved our lives. But we don’t wait only for the birth of Jesus, we wait for his final return.
This is why the first Sunday of Advent projects us towards the second coming of Christ, when he comes in glory. This is the most important advent, the one to which we must all prepare.
This is why, in the Gospel of the First Sunday of Advent, Jesus tells us not to lose heart and not to burden it with fears and disappointments. "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down" (Lk 21: 34) then "Be vigilant at all times and pray, that you may have strength to escape all that is about to happen and to stand before the Son of Man" (Lk 21, 36).
In fact, it is simplistic to speak only of the Advent as a period of waiting for Christmas, because this liturgical season is also proposed to prepare us to appear before Christ and to meet the Lord that becomes our neighbor. The Christian walk is all aimed to welcome the newness of God that become our neighbor full of love and mercy. God is the Child who tends his arms full of tenderness, the Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep to bring it safe into the pen, the Father who runs to meet his lost son returning, the Samaritan who bends over the injured man, Jesus who died for us on the cross, dramatic cradle chosen to return to the heavenly Life.
For this reason we need to know how to live "waiting for him", not only in the sense of waiting for God's coming, but in the sense of tending toward God that bends towards us by sending His Son to visit us.
In fact the expression "advent" includes that of "visitatio (= visitation)" which means "visit". In this case it is a visit from God". He enters into our life and wants to come to us†(see Benedict XVI). The coming-visit of the Lord implies vigilance. We must be vigil as Christ says today "Be careful ..." (see Lk 21, 34 and 36). Many times he has repeated it in parables, because the Lord comes like a thief in the night or as a Lord returning to see what happened to his assets entrusted to the servants.
2) Waiting for an encounter.
It is true that Advent means first of all waiting, but it is not a waiting vague, general and purely sentimental. It is the waiting for the personal encounter of light. An encounter that is especially clear in the day of the remembrance of His coming, but that can brighten every day and every moment of our lives. Advent is, therefore, the time when we must renew the decision to throw open the window of our heart and our mind to the Savior to enlighten us and illuminate all that we are.
How do we need to prepare for this meeting beside the fact that we keep vigilant our being stretched to Christ?
First of all, by trying to enrich our knowledge (which does not mean only knowledge but taste) of Christ, with honesty and humility. In fact, how can we recognize him when he comes, love him if we do not know him and know him if we do not “taste him"?
Second, by praying asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and support us in our search for the face of the Lord.
This time, therefore, educates the heart and the mind of everyone to a waiting that is real, daily and in constant tension to the presence of the One who became man for us and saved our lives: "The solemnities of the Church certainly recall events of the past, but are also present and alive realization because what happened once in history must be a continuously event in the life of the believer. Then the Lord came for all, but he must come again and again for each one of us "(Benedict XVI).
The three Gospels of St. Mark, St. Matthew and St. Luke speak of this coming just before the story of the Passion of Christ. It is his last preaching. The style is apocalyptic (as I have a briefly explained last Sunday): wars, devastation, natural disasters, destruction of the world. Let these dramatic descriptions not scare us. It is a style particularly used in the East to remind us that in front of Christ everything takes on a new meaning and even the world, which seems stable and eternal, will have an end when the Lord comes to give a new order to all things. So also in the Gospel of St. Luke, that we are going to read in the Year C, the Messiah uses apocalyptic words taking the opportunity from the praise that some were doing of the Temple of Jerusalem, but stating that this temple would be destroyed (Lk 21, 5 - 7) . There would have been warning signs, such as wars of one people against another, persecution of Christ's disciples (Luke 21, 8-19) and the siege and the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 21,20 - 24). After the suffering caused by men, Jesus in today's passage speaks of cosmic events and of his coming in glory. The holy fear that can come from listening to these words helps us to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ not only in a sentimental way, but aware that this is a decisive meeting for our existence.
In this the Virgin Mary can be of example. She is a role model in this waiting because Mary is "a simple country girl, who carries in his heart all hope of God" (Pope Francis). With her "yes", with her "fiat", the hope of Israel and the whole world became flesh. The season of Advent, which we begin today, gives us the horizon of hope, a hope that does not disappoint because is founded on the Word of God ... It is a hope that does not disappoint simply because the Lord never disappoints! He is faithful! "(Pope Francis.).
Virginity is the means chosen by God to give a new start to the world. As in the first creation, even now God creates "out of nothing", that is from the void of human possibilities, without any help and any support. This "nothing", this emptiness, this lack of explanation and of natural causes is precisely the virginity of Mary.
In this Advent let's contemplate Mary's virginity for a meditation on the perfect chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven.
St. Cyprian wrote to the first Christian virgins "You have begun to be what we all one day will be" (Virgins, 22, PL 4, 475). Such a prophecy, far from being against the married, is instead primarily for them, for their benefit. It reminds them that marriage is holy, beautiful, created by God and redeemed by Christ and the image of the marriage between Christ and the Church, but that's not all. Christ is everything.
With their "yes" without reserve to God, with their life humble, simple, poor, obedient, and faithful like the one of Mary also in trials and hardships, they make Christ visible. With the gift of their life they hasten the coming of Christ and His Kingdom. With consecration the consecrated women become for all people sign of the love of God and of the eternal blessings that He gives us.