Fr. Michael Williams

The Church begins her new liturgical year today with the beginning of Advent. Advent is an ideal opportunity for us to “stay awake”, as we await the coming of the Lord into our lives. Advent prepares us for the coming of Christ into our lives. The coming of the Lord into our lives has a threefold element to it.

Firstly, Advent encourages us to ponder the Lord’s First Coming. Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of the Christ child into the world. The Lord’s First Coming was hidden from most people’s eyes. The only immediate witnesses to it were Mary, Joseph, a few shepherds and a few wise men. It was an event that was hidden from most people’s eyes.

Secondly, Advent encourages us to look forward to the Lord’s Second Coming. As Christians we tend not think too much about the Lord’s Second Coming. But it is an article of faith, that one day Christ will return in glory. We say in the Creed each week: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead”. Advent is an opportunity for us to think about our final meeting with Christ.

Many of the first generation of Christians were very aware that Christ would return because He had told them so. But as the centuries have passed by, and Christ has not yet returned, many Christians pay little attention to this doctrine of our Faith, which says: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead”.

So the season of Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of Christ. We are to prepare for the coming of the baby Jesus in the manger, but also we are to prepare for the coming of Jesus in glory - which will be inescapable and known to everyone. St Augustine has said, “The first coming of Christ the Lord…was in obscurity; the second will be in sight of the whole world”.

The third element of Christ’s coming which we think ponder during Advent is the coming of Christ through grace. In between the first coming of Christ and His final coming, Jesus comes to us through grace. Christ comes to us in the Sacraments, in the Scriptures, in prayer, and in sick and poor.

Jesus tells us in St Mark’s gospel, “[to] Stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming”. We “stay awake” by giving time to God when we raise our minds and our hearts to Him in prayer. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus had told his disciples, “Stay awake and pray not to be put to the test”. Through our prayer we deepen our relationship with God, and become friends of God.

We also stay awake by doing the Lord’s work.

Let us pray this Advent will be a time to reflect on the coming of Christ into our lives. Let us “stay awake” in prayer, so that when we encounter the Lord it will be a time of deep joy and lasting peace.