SALVATION FROM ON HIGH

Second Sunday in Advent, Year C. Baruch 5:1-9; Phil. 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6.

AIM: To explain the three “comings” of Christ which Advent celebrates. 

          About this time each year young children grow excited at the approach of Christmas. Their mood of expectancy grows each time they see a package brought into the house, to be put away until the Great Day. Expectancy is the mood of all three readings today. They also have a common theme: the great event to which the writers look forward will be the result not of human effort or of historical development, but of God’s intervention. 

          Our first reading opens on a note expectation: “Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever.”  Addressing the holy city, the prophet tells Jerusalem to rejoice because its exiled inhabitants are about to return. Their captivity was a purely natural event, the result of military defeat. Their liberation, on the other hand, will be more than human.  “Led away on foot by their enemies they left you: but God will bring them back to you.”

          We hear this same note of expectation in the gospel. John the Baptist proclaims that God’s decisive intervention in the life of his people, so long predicted by the prophets, is now at hand: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. ... The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”  

          The second reading is quieter in tone. But it too looks forward to a bright future. Paul sees this future, however, not as the result of human effort, but of God’s faithfulness. “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

          The mood of expectancy common to all these readings is the mood of Advent, a word which means “coming.” Advent celebrates the coming of Christ at Bethlehem. But it also celebrates two further comings: Christ’s final coming at the end of time; and between these two, Advent celebrates an intermediate coming here and how.

          None of these three comings of Jesus Christ is the result of anything that we do. They are the result of what God does. Jesus’ first coming at Bethlehem was the result of God’s intervention not only in history, but also in biology. Jesus did not come like all other human children, through the God-given process of human procreation. Jesus came not from within humanity, like all of us. He came from outside humanity. He took his human nature from his mother. But he had God for his Father.

          Christ’s final coming at the end of time will be similar. It will not come about through human development or historical evolution. It will be the termination of history, God’s final intervention from without, as surely as Christ’s birth at Bethlehem was God’s intervention from without. 

          The encouragement these readings give us to expect God’s decisive intervention from without is important for us Americans. Since the first settlers came to these shores almost four centuries ago, we Americans have thought of ourselves as a “can do” people. We call our country “the land of unbounded opportunity.” For millions it has been just that. That is wonderful, cause for deep gratitude.

          Today, however, we are painfully conscious of the limitations on our opportunities. Beginning with the Vietnam war, we have suffered a series of painful humiliations at the hands of smaller and weaker nations. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11^th, 2001, the pain and humiliation have come not from nations but from small groups of deeply embittered, hate-filled individuals. The United States is still the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. Yet only a starry eyed optimist could claim that we are today in all respects the masters of our fate of the captains of our national destiny. 

          Discovering the limitations on our opportunities and independence has been painful for us Americans. It might have been less painful if we had paid more attention to Holy Scripture. In the Bible salvation is never the result of human effort alone. Scripture tells us that salvation is God’s free gift.  

          Though Jesus speaks repeatedly in the gospels about the reign of God, or God’s kingdom, nowhere does he suggest that God’s kingdom will come through our own efforts alone. God’s kingdom is something that breaks in on us from outside human history, the result of God’s intervention in the historical process. 

          God’s kingdom, and our salvation, will not come without our effort. But they will not be the result of our effort. The Bible teaches that all our efforts to serve God are a response to what God has already done for us. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” Paul writes in his letter to the Romans (5:8).  Every effort we make to keep God’s commandments in an attempt to thank God for the gift he has given us in his Son. 

          Advent looks forward expectantly to the celebration at Christmas of Christ’s first coming at Bethlehem. That was a coming in weakness (as every baby is weak), and in obscurity: the only people who showed up to celebrate were some shepherds and three crackpot astrologers from God knows where. Advent also looks forward to Christ’s final coming at the end of time. That will be a coming in power and in glory. 

          Between these two comings of Christ, however, there is an intermediate coming, here and now. Like Christ’s first coming at Bethlehem, this intermediate coming is hidden and obscure. Yet like Christ’s final coming, his present intermediate coming is a thing of power. Jesus spoke of this intermediate coming when he said: “Anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my Father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (Jn 14:23). 

          This interior coming of the Lord in the hearts and minds of those who love him is inconspicuous. It is not something we can measure or observe. Most of the time we cannot feel it. Yet it is a coming in power, for it is nothing less than the presence within us of God’s Holy Spirit.

          It is so that his presence within us may be renewed that we are here: to receive again the Spirit promised by Jesus Christ to all who love him. In obscurity and weakness he came first at Bethlehem. In power and great glory he will come at the end of time. Inconspicuously, quietly, but with great power he wants to come right now – to you.