Hope in the Two Comings

"To you, I lift up my soul, O my God. In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame. Nor let my enemies exult over me; and let none who hope in you be put to shame."
Introductory Antiphon for Mass of the First Sunday of Advent

With these words the first Mass of the this new Year of Grace, the 2015th Year of our Lord, begin, and how appropriate they are. It speaks of all that has gone before in our lives, and all that we look forward to, both in this life and in the next, with all of the focus on the Lord.

It would be well to look at the original Latin of this text in the Liturgy. The first words are, "Ad te levavi," which translates to, "To you, I lift up." This preposition "ad" in Latin implies movement in the subject. There is a movement "into" the destination. We may think of it in the sense that there is a mixing between the subject and the object of the preposition. How incredibly then the use of this preposition "ad" applies to God then! When our souls are lifted up to Him, it does not possess Him only through an intellectual knowledge, but our souls rest in Him.

The very first words of our Introductory Antiphon, then, point us in the direction the Liturgy will always tend us towards throughout this new Liturgical Year; we are called to lift our souls to God, through the Liturgy, so that they may rest in Him and be refreshed.

Through our participation in the Liturgical Prayers of the Church we lift up our souls to God, for by their very nature they are meant to lift up the mind and heart to God, which in turn assists us in lifting our soul to Him, assuming our souls are properly disposed to do so. If they are not so properly disposed, however, then the Liturgy once again by nature will call us back to Him, when celebrated reverently and participated in with one's spirit.

As long as we keep God as our aim we are sure to dwell securely in this world, at least spiritually. Although this world, the devil, and our rebellious passions will attempt to disturb our peace of soul, if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, as the very center of both the Liturgy and our lives, we shall not fall into distress, but shall dwell securely in hope.

Let us call to mind the teaching presented us in the Gospels. When Jesus bade Peter to walk across the water to Him in the midst of the storm, Peter was able to do so until He focused on the wind, instead of keeping his eyes and soul firmly fixed on the Lord (Matthew 14:22-33). Jesus says to Peter, in this event, "'O man of little faith, why did you doubt (31)?'" We may draw a parallel between this Gospel passage and the Psalm verse used as our Introductory Antiphon.

As stated, there are many things which attempt to disturb us and cause us great anxiety while on this earth. There are the many temptations which threaten to ultimately destroy the Divine life within us. The demons do everything within their power to cause us to fall from grace so that we will be condemned to eternal misery with them. Indeed, our very bodies themselves are attracted inordinately to so many things in this world which distract us from God. Nevertheless, we should allow none of these things to disturb us, for we have lifted our souls up to God, Who is above the world, and the devils, and us. When our souls rest in Him, therefore, nothing can touch them. However, when we turn our attention from Him, thus losing trust in Him, and instead worry about all the various things which can harm us, we risk being destroyed by those very things which up until then had no power to hurt us in the end.

Our faith in Jesus Christ, must be great then! We should know from both teaching and personal experience that by God's grace we can overcome all things. For this reason, we have no excuse not to say, "Jesus, I trust in you." Rather, we should be able, with full confidence to say the lines of the Introductory Antiphon, "In you have I trusted." This statement is a firm affirmation of our belief in a provident God, a truth often denied in our day and age. But this idea of a disinterested God is not a new idea, for it has been ever pervasive in society as a whole since the mechanistic worldview proposed by Isaac Newton. Those who wish to fully subscribe to his theories were forced to relegate God to basically, the father who gives his children a push on their swing, but from there they are able to keep going on their own.

Yet how untrue this idea is! We are wholly dependent upon God for every action. The very reading of these words depends on the grace of our gracious Lord, for in this moment He is causing you to exist and to be able to read. God is involved in every action of our lives. For this reason, then, we can most profoundly say the next words of the Introductory Antiphon, "let me not be put to shame."

As a provident Father, God is watching over us, He has created us and He sustains us every day of our lives. Let us recall the words of our Lord, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; . . . . Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's will. But even the hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows (Matthew 10:28-31)." God has promised us that we will not be defeated by these many things, if only we hope in Him. Our enemies of the world, the flesh, and the devil will not be able to rejoice in the end, if we keep our hope and faith in God, for they instead will be put to shame!

And it is this virtue of hope which is so central to the season of Advent which we have just begun. We place our hope in Jesus Christ, Who became man once for us and died for our sins. However, we continue to place our hope in Him because our salvation is not yet complete. St. Paul writes, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12)." Through the Sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross, He defeated the power of sin and death; nevertheless, this salvation brought about through the Cross has yet to be completed in us, and this is the deep focus of Advent.

Advent is about waiting for the coming of the Lord, both at Christmas, where we remember how He became man to save us, and at the end of time, when He will come to inaugurate His visible reign over Heaven and earth. Through the first, we hope in the second. Through the first we have been taught what we must do to inherit salvation. Through the first we have been offered the means to salvation. This salvation, however, will not be completed in us until the Second Coming of Christ, when we our bodies will be raised from the sleep of death and reunited to our souls so that we may share fully in the Kingdom of God. This may only come about though if we are faithful to the first coming of Christ.

For this reason, we hope in God, for we realize it is only through His grace that we are able to attain salvation, for it is only through His grace that we can do any good. Without a firm trust in Him, we will undoubtably fall back into the former darkness of sin. Our Baptism, however, has given us a sure source of hope, for it was the first means whereby the Spirit imparted the supernatural gift of hope into our hearts. Our purification from sin in Baptism allows us to hope, for from that moment it was possible for us to enter Heaven, and to the greater or lesser degree that we allow God to work within us, we either grow or decrease in that original hope.

This Advent, then, let us give ourselves wholeheartedly to God. Let us commit ourselves fully to Him. Let us follow all the dictates of His first coming among men, but more especially let us love Him, for He came to us as a child so that we might love Him. By this means, we will be perfect in hope that on the day of the Lord's Parousia, we will be numbered at His right hand and enter into the eternal glory of life!