Reflections for Advent

David Martin | The Daily Knight

Advent is a time to look forward to the coming of the Messiah at Christmas that he may dwell among us, signified by the word “Emmanuel” which means “God with us.” It is a time to remind ourselves that the Christ child in the manger was God Himself in Person.

Some erroneously think that Jesus was a holy man possessed by God whereas he was the Creator of all things walking the earth in his own human body. 1 For he is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who is equal in authority to the Father and the Holy Ghost.

In the Bible the Son of God is referred to as “the Word.” St. John says, “There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.” (1 John 5:7) These three “are one” (5:7) with each Divine Person being wholly and entirely God, not one-third of God.

The Word then is the Maker of all things.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.” (St. John 1:1-3)

The Word Was Made Flesh

In the fullness of time the Word became man in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary after the Archangel Gabriel announced to her that she was to be the Mother God (Luke 1:28-35). “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)

That God dwelt among us as man is unfathomable for God is the infinite and all-powerful “I am” while man is as a speck of insignificant dust in the cosmos. As Christ told St. Teresa of Avila, “I am and you are not.”

St. Alphonsus de Ligouri emphasized the “infinite difference between man and God,” which means this difference is not measurable as in the case of two finite beings. The difference between a worm and a man can be measured because the extent of man’s superiority over a worm eventually has a stopping point, whereas God’s infinite superiority extends eternally beyond man with no end making it immeasurable.

Christ Became Man to Save Man

Even so, this infinite Creator chose to become a little child in the manger because his whole design was to save man from his sins. And whereas he could have done this without becoming man part of his infinite perfection was to become man both to undergo his Sacrifice and to provide us with an example of love to follow, for his design from the beginning is that we love God with our entire mind, heart, soul, and strength. Christ did his part on the Cross to save us but we must do our part to “fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ.” (Colossians 1:24) We do our part by doing penance and keeping his commandments. “If you love me, keep my Commandments.” (John 14:15)

With this, we do our part by accepting the Kingdom of God as a child. Childlike docility to Christ’s authority is indispensable for salvation. If the Son of God who had no obligations to any authority nonetheless chose to become a little child for us, how much more obliged are we to humble ourselves as little children before Christ? The image of the Christ child in the manger on Christmas should impel us to do just that.

We indeed must prepare our souls for Christ’s coming. The teaching of Christ is that we “do penance” (Mt. 3:2) and that “penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name.” (Luke 24:47) We must brush and scrub our souls down to prepare ourselves for Christ’s coming at Christmas, which should also remind us of how we must scrub down our souls with penance to prepare for Christ’s Second Coming. At the end of the day this is what it is all about so we should see the season of Advent as an inspirational means of moving in that direction.

1. This is the same Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity that we receive in Holy Communion.