“Let us see your face, and we shall be saved,” was our Psalm response this week. “Come, Lord Jesus!” is our prayer for Advent, as we prepare to celebrate for his first coming and look forward to his coming again.
Searching the Scriptures
Our Gospel sets our face toward that second coming when it says, “You do not know when the lord of the house is coming . . . . May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.” Those are the words of Jesus, who has already come, and tells us to look forward to his coming again.
So too in our first reading, from the beginning of First Corinthians: “as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” First Corinthians was written to a community already established by the revelation of Jesus Christ, else they couldn’t even use his name. But they look forward. In fact, “He” – that is, Jesus Christ himself, who already came, and already is at work in us; “he” of whom Paul has just said, “the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus” – “He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christ who has come prepares us for Christ who will come again.
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We enter into this mystery through the first reading – of course, as every Sunday in Advent, from the prophet Isaiah. The reading begins and ends, “You, LORD, are our father.” At the end it explains: “We are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.” We are what we are because God makes us. That’s why in the reading from Corinthians Paul says, “I give thanks to my God always on your account” – because of “the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus.” He makes us.
This appreciation of grace takes a startling turn when Isaiah says, “Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways.” He believes so firmly that God alone makes us righteous that he can even blame God for not making us righteous. And so he begs, “Return.” And so we beg, “Come, Lord Jesus,” “let us see your face and we shall be saved,” “Lord, make us turn to you.”
Isaiah begs, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down” – and we beg, “Come, Lord Jesus,” “I believe that he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” Be our king! Reign! Make the world righteous at last!
Isaiah would like to say that we are righteously awaiting, but he cannot: “all of us have become like unclean people,” even “all our good deeds are like polluted rags. . . . There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you,” says the Prophet who is calling on the name of the LORD, but knows he does it so poorly.
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Mary sees
Things are the same and different for St. Paul. “In Christ Jesus,” he says, “. . . you were enriched in every way, with all logos and gnosis . . . so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.” Because we know him, we are enriched by him.
And so now, too, after Christ has come, we long for his coming. And now too we know that we cannot make ourselves ready for that coming, for that reign of true righteousness. But “God is faithful,” and so “He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Before Christ, Isaiah sees nothing but polluted rags. After Christ, Paul knows that the power already at work in us through faith in the revelation of Jesus Christ can make us holy, irreproachable as we await the perfect reign of Christ.
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In our reading from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Be watchful! Be alert!” Or “Look, and stay awake!” Keep your eye on him, on the revelation of Christ who has come and will come again.
“It is like a man traveling abroad,” he says. “He places his servants in charge, each with his own work.” We each have a work to do, a way to prepare, a way that he wants to work in us as we await the revelation of his perfect kingdom.
“He orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.” The gatekeeper is a specific work, not the work of all the servants. And yet his work gives the ultimate meaning to all our other works. “Watch, therefore.” Be prepared at every moment, by living the vocation, the work that he has given you, and that he works in you.
To prepare for Christ is not to sleep, but to let him who has already come work in us. If we are to be ready for his perfect reign, we must make sure we are not like the people in Isaiah’s time, when Christ had never come, and they were unclean and no one called on his name. Rather we must be like St. Paul, enriched with every good gift for every good work, by our knowledge of him who has already come to begin his work in us
How is Christ trying to make you turn to him, to prepare your place in his kingdom?
