The "Advent Situation"
December 2, 2007

Readings for the First Sunday of Advent

Reading 1: Is. 2:1–5

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 122: 1–2, 3–4, 4–5, 6–7, 8–9

Reading 2: Rom. 13:11–14

Gospel: Mt. 24:37–44

Link to Readings

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

“Advent” means “coming,” and the season focuses on the coming of Jesus Christ. Logically, and chronologically, we expect the Church to focus first on Our Lord’s coming to earth in the Incarnation, and then to focus on His Second Coming. In fact, in her liturgy the Church reverses this order. The Church begins the observance of Advent by focusing on the end of history.

When we read a book for entertainment, we don’t want to know in advance how the story will turn out. However, I recall that my father would never read a book until he had read the last chapter or two. He always declared he had to learn how the story ended in order to learn whether it would be worthwhile to read the book.

Does that sound strange? Well, that’s how it is with the history of salvation. You and I need to know how history—our history—is going to turn out in order to know whether life is worth living.

Begin at the End

Today’s second reading sets the tone of Advent. It is chock-full with the language of the end-times: “sleep” and “wake,” “night” and “day,” “darkness” and “light,” “hour” and “full time.”

There is a deep and necessary tension in our lives in Christ. On the one hand, we live in this present age, but on the other, we determine our lives in light of the age that is to come. As one writer observed, “The Christian stands in the dark with his face lit by the coming dawn.” It follows, then, that as our second reading tells us, we can live “as in the day” of the end of time, even though we’re still in the night of this age.

And so not only in the Advent season, but throughout our lives, we are called to live what we may call the “Advent situation.” That is, we live in the present age, and give it the best we’ve got, but our lives are focused on the age to come.

The New Testament frequently echoes this glad strain. The book of Hebrews calls the roll of great Old Testament figures: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah. Then in 11:13–16 we read: “These all died in faith, . . . having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. [Not the land from which they had gone out] . . . .But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one.” Again in Hebrews (13:14), “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.”

Twice the first epistle of Peter warns us: “. . . you must be scrupulously careful as long as you are living away from your home” (1:17). And again, “I urge you, my dear people while you are visitors and pilgrims, to keep yourselves free from the selfish passions that attack the soul” (2:11, Jerusalem Bible, emphasis added).

The Second Vatican Council characterizes the Church of Jesus Christ as a “pilgrim church.” On their journey, pilgrims certainly have to watch the road they’re traveling. But true pilgrims have their hearts and minds focused on the goal of their journey. And so must we.

Baptism: The Most Important Event of Your Life

In our second reading we hear God’s summons to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ. . . .” (Rom. 13:14) And how do we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”? First of all, through receiving the Sacrament of Baptism. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).

We tend to take far too lightly the momentous event in our lives we call “baptism.” Too seldom do we stop to think why the day of our baptism is the most important day in our whole lives. So for a few moments let’s think about our baptism.

What has Jesus Christ done for us in our baptism?

At the moment of our baptism, we were joined in union with Christ. The celebrant poured the cleansing water over our heads and spoke those purifying words: “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” At that moment, the life of Jesus Christ permeated our souls.

From that moment on, we possess the life of Jesus Christ Himself. Henceforth, He lives in us and we live in Him. At that moment God the Father adopts us as His children. He thereby makes us joint-heirs with His Son in the kingdom of heaven.

Because the wondrous gift of baptism makes us one with Christ, His crucifixion becomes our crucifixion! His death on the Cross becomes our death! St. Paul speaks for all of us, and about all of us, as he declares, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. . . .” (Gal 2:20)

St. Paul seems almost to chide the Christians in Rome for neglecting this fact:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Rom. 6:3-4).

By his very nature Jesus Christ has full right to everlasting life with the Father, with the Holy Spirit, with all the redeemed. By virtue of our baptism, that right becomes our right to that same everlasting life.

Sharers in Christ’s Atonement

At the moment of our baptism we became sharers in Christ’s atonement, just as if we had ourselves died an atoning death on the cross at Calvary. Here’s the reason. The grace of God that filled Christ on the Cross was given to Him not only as an individual, but also as head of the Church. The infinite grace of God the Father flows through the Son to all His members—to all parts of His Mystical Body—including you and me. Our baptism makes us parts of Christ’s Mystical Body. Therefore, whatever Christ does is ours, as though we had done it!

Because of our baptismal oneness with Christ, He has atoned not only for our original sin but also for our personal sins. Christ continues to atone for all our repented sins by re-presenting His atoning death and Resurrection. That re-presentation takes place in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice.

We too can share in atoning for our repented sins and those of others by offering ourselves to Christ in the Eucharist. We can also share in atonement for our sins and those of others by consistently offering our words and deeds and thoughts to Christ. It all boils down to this: our baptism enables us to be, with Jesus Christ, a co-redeemer of the human race.

Partake in the Divine Nature!

Or look at the whole matter this way.

When Christ offered Himself on the cross, He was in Himself not only Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, making atonement. By virtue of His Incarnation—His total identification with the human race—He was also mankind making atonement. On the cross, Jesus Christ was you and I making atonement.

Again, in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice, Jesus Christ is you and I making atonement, giving glory, praise, and thanksgiving to the Father.

Jesus Christ is able to sanctify us in Himself because our baptism has mystically united us to Christ as members of His Mystical Body. And never forget, we are “members” of the Mystical Body in the same sense in which an arm or a hand is a “member” of one’s body—an integral part, in other words.

Though we can never fully comprehend the meaning of our baptism, these thoughts at least should point us in the right direction.

A homiletics professor in one of the Protestant seminaries I attended told our class that every sermon should have three points: (1) “Why bring that up?”; (2). “Oh, yeah?”; and (3) “So what?” I think we have reached the “So what?” stage.

It’s this: God expects us to realize and live the dignity of our baptism.

Christ has partaken of our human nature, and through our baptism enables us, as 2 Peter 1:4 tells us, to “become partakers of the divine nature.” Though you and I are only human, yet because of our baptism the eternal triune God dwells in each one of us. Though you and I are mortal, through our baptism we have already begun to share in eternal life. Before we were baptized, we were living only a natural life. Now, because of our baptism, we are living a supernatural life.

Make no mistake about it: There’s nothing automatic about our supernatural life: it has to be nourished, or it will die. Our supernatural life has to be nourished through the sacraments—above all, the Eucharist—and through prayer and through doing the will of the Father.

So what does it mean to live the dignity of our baptism?

We can and must start by living the implicit challenge each one of us receives in the sacrament of baptism:

You have been redeemed by Jesus Christ: Now act like it!

You are now living a supernatural life—indeed, an eternal life: Now act like it!

You have even begun to share in the joy and wonder of heaven: Now act like it!

By God’s grace, day by day, more and more, become what you are!

Father Ray Ryland is CUF's spiritual advisor.

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