The Three Comings of the Lord

Gospel of the First Sunday of Advent

I – The Two Comings of Christ

The carefree attitude with which a child lives and plays is largely due to his trust in the support of his father or mother, which he considers infallible. This healthy assurance is undoubtedly one of the explanations for the evident and contagious joy that children radiate.

A relationship similar to that of children and parents, in the natural order, can also be observed between man and God, in the spiritual order. Scripture poetically expresses this: “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul” (Ps 131:2).

God is much more than an earthly father

God, like an incomparable Father, truly and unconditionally loves us, and is always pleased when we seek His help, regardless of the situation. Yet, unlike the child who never forgets his parents, we tend to lead our daily lives without reflecting on our great dependence on the constant care of Divine Providence. And this tendency to self-sufficiency would be even greater if our weakness, limitations and misfortunes did not frequently remind us of our need for divine aid.

God is much more than an earthly father for us, because our dependence on Him is absolute, essential and unequalled. First, He created us; we owe our existence to Him. Furthermore, He maintains us; He sustains our being, which is something that no earthly father can do for his child. If God were to, so to speak, momentarily stop thinking of us, we would cease to exist; we would return to nothing. In relation to Him, our dependence is total.

Additionally—oh mystery of love!—God became incarnate to redeem us. And the price paid for this Redemption was death on the Cross and the shedding of His last drop of Blood for us. Truly, He could not have done more for humanity.

It is within the perspective of the Goodness of God, who loves us as a Father and has redeemed us, that we should begin Advent today. And it is with this same spirit that we commemorate, in this Sunday’s Liturgy, the two comings of Our Lord.

One coming in humility and the other in glory

In the first coming, which has already occurred, the Child Jesus presented himself as poor and humble, without the least manifestation of grandeur: “When He humbled Himself to come among us as a human being, He fulfilled the plan You formed long ago and opened for us the way to salvation.”¹ The second coming will be quite different, when, at the end of time, Our Lord will come to judge both the living and the dead: “Now we watch for the day, hoping that the salvation promised us will be ours when Christ Our Lord will come again in His glory.”²

The great Bossuet shows that God desired to assume human nature in the most modest conditions, humbling Himself to an inconceivable degree: “He fell, as it were, from the bosom of His Father, to that of a mortal woman, and from there to a stable, and from there He descended by successively lower degrees, to the infamy of the Cross, to the darkness of the tomb. I see that it was not possible to go any lower.”³

However, St. Gregory affirms that Jesus’ second coming will be as glorious as His birth was humble: “For in power and majesty will men see Him, whom in lowly stations they refused to hear, that so much the more acutely they may feel His power, as they are now the less willing to bow the necks of their hearts to His sufferings.”⁴

Regarding this sharp contrast, Fr. Dehaut exclaims: “What a difference between this second coming of Jesus and the first! In the first, He presented Himself to men with the weakness of a child, in poverty and indigence, fleeing to escape the emissaries of a bloodthirsty tyrant. In the second, He will descend surrounded by glory and majesty, as King of the Universe.”⁵

The four weeks of Advent

Advent spans four weeks, representing the centuries and millennia during which mankind awaited the coming of the Redeemer. During Advent, the Liturgy is clothed in austerity—the Gloria is omitted, purple vestments are used, and the church is devoid of flowers—to remind us of “our state as pilgrims, still firmly rooted in hope,” affirms famous liturgist, Manuel Garrido.⁶

Maurice Landrieux, Bishop of Dijon, explains the dedication of the first Sunday of Advent to the second coming of Our Lord: “The Church speaks to us of the end of the world, that is, of the four last things, to remind us of the meaning of life, to detach us from sin and encourage us to practice virtue. God created us for eternal life. We do not have a permanent home on this earth: we are here in passing, heading for Heaven.”⁷

For this reason, the Church offers this prayer at the beginning of the Eucharistic celebration: “Grant to Your faithful people the ardent desire to obtain the heavenly Kingdom, so that going out with our good works to meet Christ who comes, we will one day be gathered together with all the faithful at His right hand.”

Thus, there are two preparations in this opening of the liturgical year: one to worthily commemorate Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem; the other, for the solemn act of the closing of human history, which is the Final Judgement. Because “the remembrance of the final coming of Our Lord, inspires in us a salutary fear that keeps us from sin and leads us along the path of justice, preparing us also to piously celebrate the first coming.”⁸

In the second and third weeks, aspects of the Precursor are considered; and in the last week, the Liturgy provides a more direct preparation for the birth of the Redeemer, considering the hopes and prayers of Our Lady, the patriarchs, and the prophets as factors that hastened the coming of the Messiah.

II – Jesus Announces His Second Coming

St. John Chrysostom reflects on these verses, stating that Our Lord here indicates a series of signs foretelling the end of the world, while in other passages He affirms that this will happen unexpectedly (cf. Mt 24:42).⁹

To explain this apparent contradiction, Chrysostom raises the hypothesis that there will be wars and persecutions in the end days, but that at a certain moment, everything will become apparently tranquil amid the disorder of sin. The good will be reduced to helplessly witnessing every form of abomination. However, when the general and definitive triumph of evil seems apparent, giving the impression that God does not exist, the Supreme Judge will unexpectedly appear to judge the living and the dead.¹⁰

For his part, St. Augustine comments that the phenomena of nature described in these verses “may be better understood to apply to the Church. For the Church is the sun, the moon, and the stars, to whom it was said, fair as the moon, elect as the sun. And she will then not be seen for the unbounded rage of the persecutors.”¹¹

Let us examine the beautiful connection that Fr. Julien Thiriet draws between this verse and the Lord’s first coming: “they will see the Son of Man coming in great power and majesty. That is, with invincible strength, to confound and chastise His enemies, but also with resplendent glory and divine majesty to reward and crown His elect. Thus, after having appeared under a humble and mean form in His first coming—‘emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men’ (Phil 2:7)—, He will appear in the final coming as powerful King and sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth. All men will see in His Body the glorious marks of His wounds, and the sinners, according to the prophet Zechariah, will recognize Him whom they have pierced.”¹²

Christ’s coming upon a cloud is ascribed by the same author to the day of His Ascension: “The clouds that served as a triumphal carriage upon which He ascended to Heaven, says Origen, will serve Him as a throne when He comes down to judge the earth.”¹³

St. Augustine considers two possible interpretations with even greater detail:

“But the words, coming in the clouds, may be taken in two ways. Either coming in His Church as it were in a cloud, as He now ceases not to come, as Scripture says: ‘Hereafter you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven’ (Mt 26:64). But then it shall be with great power and majesty, for far greater will His power and might appear to His saints, to whom He will give great virtue, that they may not be overcome in such a fearful persecution. Or in His body in which He sits at His Father’s right hand He must rightly be supposed to come, and not only in His body, but also in a cloud, for He will come even as He went away as is written in the Acts of the Apostles: ‘And when He had said this… He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him from their sight.’ And the angels then said to them that He ‘will come in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven’ (Acts 1:9,11). Therefore, we have reason to believe that He will come, not only in His body, but also upon a cloud; He will come as He left, and in leaving, a cloud took Him from their sight. It is difficult to know which is the better interpretation.”¹⁴

Jesus’ words in this verse are a call to courage and confidence, for, along with the foretold chastisement, the moment of liberation is also announced for those who have remained faithful. Thus, St. Gregory the Great affirms: “When the buffetings of the world multiply, lift up your heads, that is, rejoice your hearts, for when the world closes, whose friends you are not, the redemption is near which you seek.”¹⁵

That we might raise our hopes and lift our hearts to Heaven at this moment, Dom Maurice Landrieux also urges: “If the day of the Final Judgement will be terrible for the reprobates, it will be, on the contrary, consoling for the elect; those who will enter, body and soul, into the consummate glory so desired. Therefore, when these things begin to happen, while the sinners will wilt in fear and be overwhelmed by despair, you, My friends and servants, lift up your heads and look; fortify your faith and your hope, turn your mind and heart from earthly things and raise them to Heaven; rejoice, because your liberation is at hand. This liberation or redemption will be for the elect the absolute end of all evils, the complete satisfaction of both soul and body, the incomparable joy of eternal beatitude.”¹⁶

He concludes with this exclamation: “A day of horror and despair for the impious, for sinners: dies irae, dies illa! But one of unspeakable hope for the just ones of God, for the little ones and for the humble unknown, for all the disdained, rejected, execrated, exploited, abused and oppressed of this world.”¹⁷

If God’s chastisements of the evildoers at the end of time will mean the liberation of the good, leading St. Augustine to declare that “the coming of the Son of Man will only instil fear in unbelievers,”¹⁸ we can easily draw a conclusion for our times: Although the afflictions and apprehensions of our days oppress the good, they should not fear, because God never abandons those who confide in Him.

This is affirmed by St. Cyprian: “Whoever hopes for the divine reward should know that we can have absolutely no fear, nor wavering, when faced with life’s tempests, because the Lord foresaw this and taught us that this would happen, exhorting, instructing, preparing and strengthening the faithful of His Church in order that they might endure the things to come.”¹⁹

III – Preparation of Hearts

“But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down!” In this second part of the Gospel which the Church selects for this Sunday, the Divine Master refers to those souls that, while not formally denying the Faith, are no longer uplifted or stirred by beautiful doctrines, ceremonies or events, being unable to recognize in them the voice or presence of the Saviour.

The terrible day of Final Judgment will come upon the inhabitants of the earth “Like a snare.” We must be vigilant so as not to be taken off guard and to prevent our hearts from becoming numbed by vice and concern with the passing things of this life.

Dissipation, drunkenness and the cares of this life

Jesus refers to dissipation first, or, according to some translations, gluttony. This sin can also be considered in the opposite sense in our days—exaggerated concern with weight control. The balance lies in consuming what is necessary for our well-being and for facing the hardships of life.

However, there is also dissipation of the eyes, which consists in excessive curiosity, or that of the ears, which is the unbalanced desire to speak and to hear the latest news. To avoid prolonging the list of vices associated with dissipation we mention just one more, and it is one of the most harmful: the desire to be the centre of attention.

Regarding drunkenness, Origen notes that it produces profound degradation, since it simultaneously affects body and soul. “In other instances, the soul might be strengthened while the body is weakened, as the Apostle says (cf. II Cor 12:10); and when ‘our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day’ (II Cor 4:16). But in the infirmity of drunkenness, the body and soul deteriorate at the same time; the spirit is corrupted just like the flesh. The feet and the hands are debilitated, the tongue is encumbered, the eyes are shrouded in darkness, and the mind recalls nothing, so that the man has neither knowledge nor feeling.”²⁰

In our day, this vice can be understood as inebriation with material things such as cars, computers, cell phones, the Internet and the many gadgets that are useful and even necessary, but, when their use is not controlled by the virtue of temperance, they deaden the heart to supernatural realities.

An eloquent metaphor of Origen highlights the need for reflection on the warning of the Divine Master in this Sunday’s Gospel: “Imagine that an experienced and wise physician gave such advice as this, recommending, for example: ‘Beware of taking too much of the juice of such and such a plant, as this can cause sudden death.’ I do not doubt that everyone would follow this warning to preserve their health. Yet, He who is the physician of souls and bodies, the Lord, directs us to beware of drunkenness and debauchery, as well as worldly affairs as the deadly juice we must avoid.”²¹

Thus, not only those who let themselves be degraded by vices such as gluttony and drunkenness, but also whoever is overly concerned with earthly goods, will have a numbed and heavy heart, incapable of being raised to God. Origen, once again, offers enlightening commentary: “The final warning of Jesus, at the moment, touches upon the care we should take with those things in life which—while not considered grave sins, but rather apparently indifferent activities—nevertheless cloud our conscience with regard to His imminent return and the sudden arrival of the end of the world.”²²

St. Basil also offers a prudent word: “While they may not seem harmful, curiosity and the cares of this life should be avoided when they do not in some way contribute to the service of God.”²³ And the learned Titus cautions: “Beware lest the eyes of your mind wax heavy. For the cares of this life, and surfeiting, and drunkenness, scare away prudence, shatter and make shipwreck of faith.”²⁴

Dom Landrieux adds: “Pay careful attention so as to not allow your heart to become attached to the world through the crude pleasures of the senses, the immoderate fruition of earthly goods, or excessive concern for your situation, which would expose you to being caught by surprise by death: et superveniat in vos repentina dies illa. On the contrary, watch and pray, be prudent, have recourse to supernatural means so that the hand of God will sustain you during these trials and you will remain standing on the day of Judgement: stare ante filium hominis.” ²⁵

Vigilance and prayer

The professors of Salamanca rightly note that St. Luke does not include parables in his narration, as do the other synoptic evangelists, but merely gives a general exhortation. “As compensation, he clearly expresses the sense of this vigilance in purity of life and prayer.”²⁶

Being on watch implies constant readiness for the encounter with Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Lady, keeping not only the bodily eyes open, but especially those of the soul, by which the Lord’s nearness is discerned. To achieve this we must live in a state of prayer, even while carrying out daily duties. Only in this way can we be prepared for the great events which Jesus announces, and present ourselves “to stand before the Son of Man,” that is, to stand, honest, upright, and virtuous. In short, we must remain in the state of grace.

In earthly life, it is much more important to remain in the grace of God than to care for health, money or any other good. Therefore, we must avoid offending God at all cost. But, if we have the disgrace of falling into sin, we must immediately seek to be reconciled with Him, through the sacrament of Confession. St. Gregory the Great exhorts: “Amend yourself, change your ways, overcome temptations and punish with tears the sins committed, for one day you will behold the coming of the eternal Judge with a confidence proportional to the fear with which you have prepared for His severity.”²⁷

IV – The “three comings”

The Liturgy for the first Sunday of Advent is placed within the perspective of commemorating Our Lord’s first coming—His birth in the grotto of Bethlehem—and preparation for His second coming, in which He will come to judge all of humanity at the end of the world.

Yet, according to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, there are three comings of Our Lord: “The first, when He came through His Incarnation; the second is daily, when He comes to each one of us, by His grace; and the third, when He will come to judge the world.”²⁸ In another passage, the Mellifluous Doctor specifies that the second coming of Christ is hidden and “only the elect see it within themselves, and by it are saved.” He continually comes to us to be “our rest and consolation.”²⁹

We are called, then, to a continual encounter with Jesus. This becomes possible especially with the Eucharist, but also, for example, in meditating upon this Gospel for the first Sunday of Advent or hearing the inspired preaching of a minister of God. Our lives should truly revolve around an enduring Christmas, from awakening in the morning to sleeping at night, because our dependence on God’s grace is total. We continually rely on His help.

Let us be watchful and profit from these precious promptings of grace and stand in readiness to receive—not with terror and despair, but jubilation—the just Judge who will descend from Heaven with pomp and majesty and say to those who confided in His mercy and fulfilled His Commandments on this earth: “Come, O blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34). Whoever keeps this end in mind will find redoubled courage to practice virtue and to advance fearlessly toward the definitive meeting with Our Lord.

Let us prepare ourselves, then, for He will come when we least expect Him! ◊

 

Notes

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¹ Preface for Advent, I.

² Idem.

³ BOSSUET. Oeuvres choisies. Versailles: Lebel, 1822, p. 156.

⁴ ST. GREGORY THE GREAT. Obras de San Gregorio Magno. Madrid: BAC, 1958, p. 538.

⁵ DEHAUT, Fr. Pierre Auguste Teóphile. L’Évangile expliqué, défendu, médité. Paris : P. Lethielleux, 1868, vol. 4, p. 405.

⁶ GARRIDO, Manuel. Iniciación a la Liturgia de la Iglesia. Pelicano, p. 275.

⁷ LANDRIEUX, Msgr. Maurice. Courtes gloses sur les Evangiles du dimanche. Paris: G. Beauchesne, 1918, p. 2-3.

⁸ THIRIET, Fr. Julien. Explication des Evangiles du dimanche. Hong-Kong: Société des Missions Étrangères, 1920, p. 2.

⁹ See also I Ts 5:2; II Pet 3:10; Rev 16:15.

¹⁰ Cf. ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. Homilias sobre el Evangelio de San Mateo, 76 e 77.

¹¹ Apud AQUINAS, St. Thomas. Catena Aurea.

¹² THIRIET, Op. cit., p. 5.

¹³ Idem.

¹⁴ ST. AUGUSTINE, Carta 199, 41-45. In Comentarios de San Agustin, Valladolid: Estudio Agustiniano, 1986, p. 52-53.

¹⁵ Apud AQUINAS, St. Thomas. Catena Aurea.

¹⁶ THIRIET, Op. cit., p. 6.

¹⁷ LANDRIEUX, Op. cit. p. 7

¹⁸ Apud ODEN, Thomas C.; JUST, Arthur A. La biblia comentada por los Padres de la Iglesia. Madrid: Ciudad Nueva, 2000, p. 431.

¹⁹ ST. CYPRIAN. Sobre la mortalidad, 2 apud ODEN-JUST, Op. cit., p. 434.

²⁰ Homilías sobre el Levítico, 7, 1-2³⁷. Apud ODEN-JUST, Op. cit., p. 434-435.

²¹ Idem.

²² Apud ODEN-JUST, Op. cit., p. 432.

²³ Apud AQUINAS, St. Thomas. Catena Aurea.

²⁴ Apud Idem.

²⁵ LANDRIEUX, Op. cit. p. 8-9.

²⁶ TUYA, OP, Pe. Manuel de. Biblia comentada. Madrid: BAC, 1964, p. 904.

²⁷ ST. GREGORY THE GREAT, Op.cit. p. 541.

²⁸ Cf. THIRIET, Op. cit., p. 2.

²⁹ ST. BERNARD DE CLAIRVAUX. In Obras completas de San Bernardo. Madrid: BAC, 1953, p. 177.