Advent and Christmas

The Coming of Christ

In the course of Advent, the readings from the Old Testament trace the expectation throughout the history of Israel of someone who was to come in the future.  This ‘someone’ is something of a shadowy figure who appears in various guises.  The New Testament readings of the season take up these traces and show the ways in which those readings find their fulfillment in Jesus. 

However, in the course of Israel’s history some people latched on to one image of ‘the One to come’ and left aside or ignored others.  So, the vital images in the prophet Isaiah of a suffering Messiah (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:12-53:12) were often left aside.  As a result, so many found Jesus hard to recognise as the One who was expected.  The way of his coming was unexpected.

But when God does something, he does not withdraw from what he has done.  So, the Christ who came among us human beings two centuries ago is still coming but his coming is different again.  The first Christians thought that this meant that he would return very very soon in his glory.  Experience taught them that that was not so.  Time passed and they realised that that coming was not going to be soon; they began to realise that they were going to have to live out their faith in Christ in the living out of everyday life.  And so, we continue to do.

The Christ continues to come.  How?  Well, there are the obvious ways.  When we listen to his words, he keeps coming to us as he did to those who first heard those words.  We take those words as said to us now.  He comes and gives himself to us in the Eucharist.  He comes to us in the faith of our fellow believers. 

He also comes to us and is with us in the events of our lives, especially those events and moments when our life takes significant turns and transitions.  In all those moments he stands at the door knocking (Apocalypse 3:20), waiting for us to let him in to those crucial moments of our lives.  He is always seeking to find ways to come into our lives and world.

He will complete his coming as he comes to us in our deaths, our passovers to him.  And he will complete his coming in a future about which we really know nothing yet.

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin

Published: 6 December 2024