Oracle-Advent issue 1

Advent by Fr Marlon Beharry

In everyday language, when we talk about the advent of something, we mean the arrival of something on the scene which dramatically changes the course of history. In my lifetime, I have seen the advent of the World Wide Web and the advent of cell phones. These sure have changed the way I go about my life’s daily routine! Perhaps you can think of others. As Catholics, when we talk about ‘Advent’ with a capital ‘A,’ we mean the coming of a very special person – Our Lord Jesus Christ – who has changed the course of humanity. The purpose of his Advent is to change not just our daily life, but also our eternal destination, if we allow him.

In the liturgical season of Advent, the Church wants us to focus on two specific ‘comings’ of Christ. Firstly, we direct our minds and hearts on his Second Coming. This is when “he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” Secondly, we remember his coming as a baby in Bethlehem. This was when “for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” From the first

Sunday of Advent until the 16th of December, we focus more on his Second Coming, and from the 17th to 24th December, the Church’s prayers at Mass begin to explicitly prepare us to celebrate his birth. When we meditate on these two comings of Christ into the world, we allow him to come ever more fully into our hearts.

The Advent season is filled with beautiful, familiar traditions that point us to these two comings of our Lord – the colour purple, the Advent wreath, the pink colour candle and vestments of Gaudete Sunday, beautiful hymns like O Come Emmanuel and O Come Divine Messiah and many others. One of my favourites is the set of O Antiphons. They are the seven verses before the Gospel on weekday Masses from the seventeenth to the twenty-third of December. They are ancient – the Church has been using these in the liturgy since at least the eighth century. They are biblical titles of the Messiah – O Wisdom, O Lord and Ruler, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Dayspring / Rising Sun, O King of Nations, O Emmanuel.

These titles express the longing of the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah before the birth of Our Lord. And they express the longing that Christians in this world have for his Second Coming today. They beautifully sum up the spirit of Advent. Perhaps this Advent we can get a copy of these O Antiphons and meditate on them at home each day. Or perhaps we can make the effort to attend the weekday Masses from the seventeenth to twenty-third to pray them at Mass. How do each of them describe my heart’s longing for the coming of Jesus?