9781644135945

The Light of the World
ECCE VENIT, DICIT
DOMINUS
Advent
In the liturgy of Advent the Church distinguishes, without separating them, two comings of
Christ. His first appearance on earth was in His Incarnation, when He was conceived by the
power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of His virgin mother. The same Son of God, who became
man two thousand years ago, will be born again in the Church and in each individual soul this
morning, and every morning, as long as the story of the redemption of man continues. For the
Church and for each soul, every moment of earthly existence is an advent, a time of expectation
and longing, in which Christ seeks to establish Himself in our heart, to fill us with His spirit and
His light. It is a time set aside as a preparation for His second coming.
In His second coming on the last day, Christ will come with power to complete the work
of redemption on earth and to summon the elect on earth to share in the completion of His
work, the enjoyment of eternal life.
The dominating thought of the season of Advent is that of His first coming, that is, of His
appearance in the world two thousand years ago, and of His continued presence in the souls
of men through His redeeming power. This first coming of Christ is likewise a preparation for
and an introduction to His second coming in the eternal Christmas of heaven.
In the liturgy the coming of Christ in grace is an event both of the past and of the present.
In the Mass, Christ comes every day to His Church and to the souls of men. In His birth the
Church sees at the same time His rebirth in the soul through the sacraments. In this sense the
coming of Christ is always of the present. The liturgy leads us to the altar and tells us that here
we shall await, with faith and longing during the Mass of the catechumens, the coming of Christ
in the Consecration and Communion which are to follow. The liturgy seeks to impress on us
the importance of preparing our souls with zeal for the coming of the Lord. During the season
of Advent we are to purify and sanctify our heart that it may become a worthy birthplace for
Him. This we do by self-denial, penance, prayer, and vigilance. We must stir up in our hearts a
longing for light, grace, and sanctification.
The coming of Christ is of the present in so far as He who appeared for the first time at
Christmas and who appears daily in the Mass, continues to live in the entire Church without
interruption. He continues to live and work as the head lives and works in its members, as the
vine continues to nourish the branches. Christ lives in the entire Church in the person of the
pope, the bishop, the priest, and of each member of the Church. We believe that Christ is thus
always mystically near at hand. We thank Him and adore Him for His ever-abiding presence.
We open our hearts and our souls to Him and renounce earthly vanities and follies. We allow
ourselves to be completely possessed by Christ so that He may be born again in our heart and
establish Himself in our soul. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus” (Epistle of the first Sunday of Advent).
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