Advent is a time for preparations. For many of us those preparations have much to do with parties and packages and greetings cards and cookies. All of these things are good and they are a concrete expression of our love and gratitude for one another; this season has a special way of drawing upon our tenderness and affection. But there is always the risk during Advent that we give more time to commercial and material preparations for Christmas than we do to the spiritual preparation that this season invites us to make. The most important preparation is our preparation for the coming of Christ. But Jesus already came at Christmas, so how do we prepare for something that has already happened? In fact, preparing for Christ’s birth is only one part of our Advent season. Beginning on December 17th, our prayerful focus turns more directly towards the sacred memory of the Nativity of Jesus and the eager expectation of the prophets and saints of old to see Him appear, but the primary focus of our prayer during the first few weeks of Advent is a preparation for the Second Coming of the Lord. “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present [the] ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for His second coming” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 524). This is why Advent’s refrain is “Veni!” – “come!” In our prayer we are imploring the Lord to come, not just in the memory of His birth 2000 years ago, but at the end of time, when He will return and take His faithful to dwell forever in His kingdom.
One of the most powerful, yet seldom sung Advent Hymns captures this spirit of the season. The hymn Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending, is a beautiful hymn based upon the Book of Revelation, which expresses the End of Time and Christ returning to earth to reign. We will be singing it a couple of times this Advent, and the text of the hymn is as follows:
Lo! He comes with clouds descending, once for our salvation slain; Thousand, thousand saints attending, swell the triumph of His train: Alleluia! Christ, our God, returns to reign.
Every eye shall now behold Him, robed in dreadful majesty. Those who set at naught and sold Him, pierced and nailed Him to the tree, deeply wailing, shall the true Messiah see.
Those dear tokens of His passion still His dazzling body bears; cause of endless exultation to His ransomed worshipers; With what rapture, gaze we on those glorious scars!
Yea, Amen! Let all adore Thee, high on Thy eternal throne. Savior, take the power and glory, claim the kingdom for Thine own. Alleluia! Thou shalt reign, and Thou alone.
At first glance, the words don’t seem to be very “Adventy”; It sounds more like an Easter hymn. We aren’t generally accustomed in Advent to references to His wounds, His passion, the cross, power or glory – but these are very much the things upon which this season invites us to meditate. We remember that Christ’s birth was the beginning of the final stage of our salvation, which reached its summit on Calvary and will be fully and completely realized at the End of Time, when the Savior returns to “take the power and glory” and to “claim the kingdom for His own.” At that time, He will reign, and He alone. So how do we prepare properly for this coming? By striving every day to live more and more as citizens of His Kingdom, which is found in His Church. Through prayer, through the practice of our faith, by persevering in overcoming sin and temptation, by fostering and nourishing the virtuous life, living our Catholic faith with integrity and zeal, we become more and more faithful, loving subjects of our King, so that when He comes – either at the end of all time or simply at the end of my time – we will be ready, because all along we were eager and waiting to meet Him when He returns. This preparation for His Second Coming is sustained by a very special “coming” of the Lord that takes place every day, when He comes to us in the Eucharist. He comes to us in the Eucharist to give us a way of encountering Him here and now, to sustain us and guide us as we await the fulfilment of His reign. The extent to which we are prepared to meet Him in the Blessed Sacrament is the extent to which we will be prepared to meet Him in the end. On that day, those who are not prepared will wail deeply when they see the true Messiah come, but if we, His ransomed worshippers, persevere in honoring Him and serving Him, allowing Him to reign more perfectly each day in every aspect of our lives, when He returns in majesty we will gaze with rapture upon those glorious scars, the cause of our endless exultation. May God bless you in the week ahead, and may Mother Mary lead you more deeply into the Sacred and Merciful Heart of Jesus. I remain,
Affectionately yours in Christ,
Fr. Hess
