The Threefold Advent of the Lord

The season of Advent began with last night’s vespers, and today is the First Sunday of Advent. This is the first day of the new liturgical year, so happy Advent and happy new year!

Behold, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, and His glory fills all the earth.

(Magnificat Antiphon for I Vespers on the First Sunday of Advent, Monastic Diurnal)

We’re running a little behind our usual home decoration. I only pulled the “Advent box” out of the garage this morning, and this afternoon figures to be decorating time, both in our home and in our little chapel. I’ve come to the end of my breviary’s 2023 Ordo, and of course the new one hasn’t arrived yet.

And what exactly is Advent?

Let’s see what that expounder of all things liturgical, the great Dom Guéranger, had to say. (All quotes below from The Liturgical Year, Volume 1: Advent, by Dom Prosper Guérager, O.S.B)

The name Advent is applied, in the Latin Church, to that period of the year, during which the Church requires the faithful to prepare for the celebration of the feast of Christmas, the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. …

We must look upon Advent in two different lights: first, as a time of preparation, properly so called, for the birth of our Saviour, by works of penance: and secondly, as a series of ecclesiastical Offices drawn up for tho same purpose. We find, as far back as the fifth century, the custom of giving exhortations to the people in order to prepare them for the feast of Christmas. …

Now when we say “works of penance” this is primarily our interior preparation for the great mystery of the incarnation, in whatever way we do that. This is not Lent, but we should certainly take this opportunity to look at deepening our prayer life, as well as giving alms to those in need. Particularly here in the colder (and wetter) parts of the northern hemisphere, there are many folks in need to warmth or food or shelter in these days.

In centuries past, there were also prescribed fasts during Advent, but these had all vanished by the 14th century.

But, if the exterior practices of penance which formerly sanctified the season of Advent have been, in the western Church, so gradually relaxed as to have become now quite obsolete except in monasteries, the general character of the liturgy of this holy time has not changed; and it is by their zeal in following its spirit, that the faithful will prove their earnestness in preparing for Christmas.

Indeed, the liturgies of Advent have a quieter character than other times in the year. The great hymn “Glory to God in the Highest” is omitted from Mass, and decorations and music should be much reduced. Our focus must be on the coming of the Lord at Christmas. And the Fathers distinguish His coming in three different ways.

[W]e find that this mystery of the coming, or Advent, of Jesus is at once simple and threefold. It is simple, for it is the one same Son of God that is coming; it is threefold, because He comes at three different times and in three different
ways. …

This, then, is the mystery of Advent. Let us now listen to the explanation of this threefold visit of Christ, given to us by Peter of Blois, in his third Sermon de Adventu:

“There are three comings of our Lord; the first in the flesh, the second in the soul, the third at the judgement .

“The first was at midnight, according to those words of the Gospel: ‘At midnight there was a cry made, Lo tho Bride·
groom cometh!’ But this first coming is long since past, for Christ has been seen on the earth and has conversed among men.

“We are now in the second coming, provided only we are such as that He may thus come to us; for He has said that if we love Him, He will come unto us and will take up His abode with us. So that this second coming is full of uncertainty to us; for who, save the Spirit of God, knows them that arc of God. They that are raised out of themselves by the desire of heavenly things, know indeed when He comes; but whence He cometh, or whither He goeth, they know not.

“As for the third coming, it is most certain that it will be, most uncertain when it will be; for nothing is more sure than death, and nothing less sure than the hour of death. When they shall say, peace and security, says the apostle, then shall sudden destruction come upon them, as the pains upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape.

“So that the first coming was humble and hidden, the second is mysterious and full of love, the third will be majestic and terrible.

“In His first coming, Christ was judged by men unjustly; in His second, He renders us just by His grace; in His third, He will judge all things with justice.

“In His first, a lamb; in His last, a lion; in the one between the two, the tenderest of friends.”

May you all have a fruitful and blessed Advent Season!