"O people of Sion, behold, the Lord will come to save the nations, and the Lord will make the glory of his voice heard in the joy of your heart." - Introductory Antiphon for the Second Sunday of Advent
The Liturgy for the Second Sunday of Advent is all about the announcement of the coming of the Savior! Again and again, we are told the Savior is coming. Indeed, as we look at the Introductory Antiphon for the Mass we see these are the very first words of the Mass. We are the people of Sion, the New Jerusalem, and we are told the Lord is coming to save not only us, but all mankind!
Due to the fact this Sunday is all about the announcement of the Messiah's approach, the Gospel for it is always the preaching of John the Baptist. In the various Gospel accounts there are the phrases such as:
"Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight . . . . Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father . . . .' Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire . . . . His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:3, 8-9, 10, 12)."
Then, in Luke we have John saying:
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God . . . . He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise (Luke 3:4-6, 11)."
It is well to note the two themes present here. The Lord is coming to save us, but we are also called to repentance and conversion of heart. Indeed it is in our hearts themselves that the Lord will make His salvation to us known! Notice that the glory of the Lord is not being made to us in the normal course of nature, for in that case His glory would be present to our eyes and we would hear His voice with our ears. This is the manner in which it will take place at the end of time, when the Savior comes again in glory. "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up (2 Peter 3:10)." There will indeed be mighty works in nature, "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all his angels with him," and He sits, "on His glorious throne (Matthew 25:31)," but if that was the manner in which He came to us now, we would fear Him, and not love Him as He desires. Thus, He comes to us in love, to appeal to our hearts.
How then, do we turn our hearts to the Messiah, Who came, Who comes, and Who is coming? The first thing we must do is to repent of our sins. No matter how much we advance along the path of holiness, we shall never have completed the course in this life. There will always be more purification we can undergo; there will always be faults which must be purged away. This brings us to a great danger in the spiritual life and which was addressed by St. John the Baptist in his preaching; there is always the fear we will grow presumptuous of our salvation and believe ourselves to have achieved perfection. Granted, this is rarely explicit in those who have advanced far in the spiritual life. That idea is much more a sign the person is just beginning. However, it is not uncommon for one to believe oneself to have gone far enough and to be doing very well as they advance in the spiritual life. However, this is a great danger!
St. Augustine wisely said, "Pray as if your salvation depends entirely on God, work as if your salvation depends entirely on you." This is the balance we must ever maintain in the spiritual life. We must always remember that our salvation is a completely gratuitous gift of God, and therefore we never deserve it, but God has called us to work to grow in His love, i.e. His salvation, which requires us to seek our perfection. We cannot grow slothful in the spiritual life and simply believe God will save us purely because He loves us regardless of what we do, nor can we go so far even to say that God will save us out of love as long as we do not break His laws. We must recall that the New Covenant in Christ, and even the Old Covenant of the Law were not simply prohibitions. They are and were also a series of commands, things that must be done. But it goes even further still. The Law and the Covenant in Christ were both not only external, but they are and were also internal.
This is the part in which the Pharisees failed. They were faithful to the prohibitions of the Law. They did not eat the forbidden animals or make graven images of God. They were even faithful to the commands. They followed the appointed fasts and sacrifices to the perfect letter of the law. But their observance was only external. The Law also applied to the heart. Isaiah, who speaks to us so often in Advent, spoke of this when he spoke on behalf of God saying:
"'What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?' says the LORD; 'I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts . . . . Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. . . . Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:11, 13, 16-17).'"
The external observance of the Law meant nothing to God if it did not open the hearts of His people to Him. The Law was meant to ensure they did not fall into the way of their neighbors and make their relationship with God a cosmic chess game. God does not require sacrifice, nor does he require us to observe certain fasts and ritual washings, as the pagans believed the gods literally needed from them. Instead, God appointed these things to be observed so that we may remember Him and open our hearts to His salvation so that He could enter into them and cleanse them.
This is what we are called to in an even higher way in Christ Jesus. He has fulfilled the Law in that we do not follow the Mosaic Law any longer, but we still follow the principles that were behind those laws, but we do so now in spirit and in truth. We may ask how this plays out, and Christ has told us. Right after He speaks of His coming in glory with the angels, he says:
"Then the King [Jesus] will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' . . . 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me (Matthew 25:34-36, 40).'"
As we know, this is followed by the opposite being said of the reprobate, they did not do those things. Their sin was one of omission. Our love and devotion to the Lord manifests itself in charity, which is the heart of repentance. In fact, when a man possesses charity, he possesses the joy of the Lord in his heart and the glory of God, who is Love (1 John 4:8), will speak to Him there, as the Introductory antiphon says.
Let us, lastly, consider the means through which the Lord comes to us. We know He comes to us in our hearts, but how does He enter in there? The answer is in many ways, for He comes to us whenever we do an action that gives grace, but this means that the preeminent way in which He comes to us is through the Sacraments, which are the main channels of grace in the Christian Life.
In this season of Advent, then, let us further develop a devotion to the Sacraments of the Church, especially the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the highest means through which Christ comes to dwell in us and conform us to Him. As the antiphon, O Sacrum Convivium of St. Thomas Aquinas says of the Blessed Sacrament, "Mens impletur gratia: et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur. - The mind is filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given to us."
However, we cannot neglect the Sacrament of Confession, for it is the Sacrament through which we are more properly disposed to receive Christ in the Eucharist and are given further strength to resist temptation and to further our resolve to avoid sin and grow in our repentance. But it is also another means in which Christ comes to us. And He comes, not as the Just Judge, or even as little babe, but as the God Who is Love and as our Brother. In the words of Pope Francis, "Every time we go to Confession, God embraces us."
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