Advent… just around the corner!!!

We are about to celebrate “Advent.” Advent is the sacrament of the PRESENCE of God in His world. His purpose to unify all things together in Christ, begins and continues in the mystery of His Advent (Eph. 1:10). The Presence of Christ in the world as Savior, is the Advent that changed and continues to change the world.We understand that there are three Advents. The first of these is the one in which Christ entered into the world, having received a Human Nature. The third is the Advent which will bring Him into the world at the end of time. In the first He comes to seek and save the lost. The third is that in which He comes to take us to Himself. The first is a promise and the third its fulfillment.We live our lives between these two arms. Embraced by the Father’s ultimate plan for reuniting humanity to himself. Our past and our future are completely in His hands. As we mediate on the mystery of these two ‘Advents’ we are transformed, changed by the overwhelming love of this great embrace.Meditation on the past and future Advents leads us to recognize the present Advent that is taking place at every moment of our lives as we journey through this present life. Every moment is a moment when Christ is walking by; are we aware of His Presence? Will we call out to Him, will we join Him and travel with Him?It is in the hiddenness of the middle (second) Advent where you and I are called to live and to become like Him. It is in our “becoming like Him” that He is revealed to this world. In other words, this second Advent is one in which we are co-laborers with Christ so that others may come to know the Christ.The very mystery of Christ at work through Jesus Christ, continues in and through the Church. The Church, the body of Christ, is the community of those we are reconciled to the Father, in Christ, because they are united with one another in the Holy Spirit, who has shed His Love abroad in our hearts.It is this unity, that makes the Church a sign, an Advent, of God in the world. So the mystery of the Church demands that Christians love one another in a visible and concrete way -- and that they love all men.I am convinced that, Christ will become visible to the world, only in direct proportion as Christians seek peace and unity with one another and with all men. Since conflict seems inevitable, unity will only be maintained in great difficulty, it will require a constant renewal of sacrifice, humility and a readiness to receive forgiveness and to forgive. It would appear that the Christian life is one of perpetual conversion, a life of continual repentance.It appears to me that “Love” is the key to everything. This love will never be understood by rational investigation but only by faithful reception as the gift that it is. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).When we as Christians love one another we become what Paul calls, “God’s workmanship” (Eph. 2:10). Thus the second, middle, or hidden Advent of Christ is made know in our love and forgiveness for one another. It is this community of pardoned people, the body of Christ, the Church through which God is making Christ known during this moment between the first and third Advent of Christ.“To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,...” Eph. 3:10It is within this mystical body of Christ that we see the very power of the Father’s love unite individuals to one another by Mercy and Grace. The Church then is not so much a body of people who are so pure that they never offend, but rather people who in their weakness and frailty, frequently err and offend, but who have received from God the power to forgive one another in His name (John 20). The Holy Spirit himself moves them to do this; and acts in them, to preform this miracle of grace and oneness. In the same proportion that we love and pardon one another we open the whole Church to the action of the Holy Spirit.In the Church this community of pardoned people, we must not refuse to accept the genuine good will of our brother, we must not reject his sincere and open offers of reconciliation, his true friendship. Even our enemy must not be judged, but his need for forgiveness must be recognized. We must not allow our evaluation of a man’s acts stand in the way of the Holy Spirit, who draws us into unity with others.No one of us is complete, self-sufficient, perfectly holy in himself. No one can rest upon his own individual virtues. What is missing in our lives God had given to others.This is the beauty of “Advent,” the Presence of the Christ coming among us as our Savior. In His presence we are forgiven, love and adopted into this Great Family of the Pardoned. Our redemption reunites us not only to God the Father but to one another and it is in that unity that the “fullness of Christ” is made known.I hope these words help us to prepare for “Advent” and to recover the reality of the “Church.” Only then can we receive the “Truth of Christmas.”Bishop Quintin