Preparing for Advent
November 18, 2007

Readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading 1: Mal. 3:19–20

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 98:5–6, 7–8, 9

Reading 2: 2 Thes. 3:7–12

Gospel: Lk. 21:5–19

Link to Readings

By Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D.

A vivid memory of my Protestant years is my first sharing in a Christmas Eve celebration of Holy Communion in an Episcopal church. Before the final blessing, all the lights in the large church were darkened. Only the altar was lighted with candles. As the congregation began to sing “Silent Night,” the crucifer knelt in front of the altar and held the cross high. The shadow of the cross seemed to brood over the altar.

At first this sight disturbed me. “Why put that cross there to detract from our great joy of the birth of Jesus?” I asked myself. But on reflection, I began to realize how appropriate it was. The Cross brooded over the manger that holy night, and over Our Lord throughout His earthly life. The Cross was itself the purpose of His life.

In the last Sundays of the liturgical year, the Church brings to our attention gospels having to do with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This should be part of our preparation for welcoming and celebrating the season of Advent in a couple of weeks.

By preparation for Advent, I mean simply this. If we think only of Our Lord’s coming to earth at Christmas, there’s always the temptation to become somewhat sentimental. There’s the temptation, in other words, to focus on the baby Jesus and put aside thoughts that this baby Jesus is going to be our Judge.

Standing Before God

Perhaps you’ve heard the story about the cardinal who rushed into Pope Benedict’s apartment and blurted out, “Holy Father, I have some good news and some bad news!” Always positive in his outlook, the pope said calmly, “Let’s start with the good news.” The Cardinal almost shouted, “Jesus Christ has come again!”

Immediately the Holy Father bowed his head and poured out his heart in thanksgiving. Then he looked up at the cardinal and asked, “After that, what could be bad news? How do you know Our Lord has come again?” The cardinal said, “How I know is the bad news. He just phoned from Salt Lake City!”

Only God knows when His Son will come again to ring down the curtain on history. But long before the Final Judgment, you and I will face another judgment at the end of our lives. The Church calls it the Particular Judgment.

Here’s what the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us:

Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven—through a purification or immediately,—or immediate and everlasting damnation. (no. 1022)

Sometimes we use the term “judgment” to mean “punishment.” Take the case of a person who has lived a very disordered life and who is undergoing tribulation. We might say the terrible things happening to him seem to be a judgment on him for all that he has done.

“Proclaimed Upon the Housetops”

However, the term “judgment” in the context of the Particular Judgment, is more properly understood in terms of “verdict.” When at the moment of death we face Christ in the Particular Judgment, He will render the perfect verdict on each one of us. He will reveal to each one of us exactly what we have become by the choices we have made in this life.

Scripture seems to say that Our Lord’s pronouncement of the perfect verdict on our lives will not be confidential. “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops” (Lk. 12:2–3).

Commenting on this passage, C. S. Lewis wrote,

. . . it will be infallible judgment. . . . We shall not only believe, we shall know, know beyond doubt in every fibre of our appalled or delighted being, that as the Judge has said, so we are: neither more nor less nor other. We shall perhaps even realize that in some dim fashion we could have known it all along. We shall know and all creation will know too: our ancestors, our parents, our wives or husbands, our children. The unanswerable and (by then) self-evident truth about each will be known to all. (The World’s Last Night, 113. Emphasis added.)

So we know Jesus is coming again; we know each of us will stand before Him in the Particular Judgment. Our concern, then, must be to prepare for his coming. Indeed, that’s the whole point and purpose of our lives: to prepare to meet Our Lord at our Particular Judgment.

We prepare for the Particular Judgment by our response to Jesus Christ now.

God Speaks in Every Moment

Jesus Christ comes to each of us, moment by moment: Are we aware of His coming? His coming to us in the sacraments, above all through the Eucharist? His coming to us in our prayers? His coming to us through our meditative reading of Scripture?

God ordinarily speaks to us with a particular purpose. Throughout Scripture, we see that when God speaks to a person, He always gives a command: something to be done. Throughout Scripture we see God coming with an order: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joseph, Saul—I’ve got a job for you!

God continually tries to speak to us in similar terms. Can you hear Him say, “You’ve got to stop doing that!”? Or “Why aren’t you doing this?”?

Christ continually comes to us in the guise of persons in need. Recall that frightening parable about the Particular Judgment in Matthew 25:31–46. Our Lord said that to refuse aid to those whom we can help is to refuse help for Him. Any time you and I confront a real need in another person, we are confronting Jesus Christ.

He tells us, in this parable, if you want to meet me, look for someone in need—material, emotional, spiritual—look for someone in need, and I’ll be there. And, He says, in effect, “I’ll be there to meet you.” He says, “I’ll come to you with my hands out, expecting you to respond to the needs of this person. Not just material needs, though those are important. Emotional needs, too: the need of a kind word; a bit of encouragement; even a friendly smile; some undivided attention for a while.”

Yes, and there will be spiritual needs, too. Someone’s need to hear us witness to the power and love of Jesus Christ. Someone’s need to be led into personal relationship with Him. Someone’s need to be guided into an ever-deepening love for Him.

Jesus Comes, Day in and Day out

Jesus Christ also comes to us in our daily responsibilities. He comes to us throughout the day in each duty, in each choice we have to make. Every single task has eternal significance, if we do it in response to Jesus’ summons to love Him and serve Him. Once we recognize that fact, there is no place in our lives for monotony or boredom.

Literally, in each moment and in every situation, Jesus is there, seeking in everything to draw us to Himself. That’s why Jean-Pierre de Caussade, an 18th-century spiritual writer, emphasizes “the sacrament of the present moment”: each moment can give us Christ.

Remember Our Lord’s final resurrection appearance, by the Sea of Tiberias. It was John, the beloved apostle, who first recognized Our Lord and exclaimed, “It is the Lord!” (Jn. 21:7). You and I must always be on the lookout—in every event, in every duty, in every encounter—learning to recognize the presence of Jesus: “It is the Lord!”

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Every day, every hour, every moment, we are shaping that verdict which Christ will render on us when we meet Him at death.

We must train ourselves to ask more and more often this question: How will the things I am saying or doing or thinking or failing to do—how will they look when the irresistible light of Christ shines on them? How will they look when they stand revealed before the whole creation?

Father Ray Ryland is CUF's spiritual advisor.

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