The Earliest Testimonies of Advent

Meditation on the revealed Word, reflection on the events of salvation, and the effort at doctrinal penetration have often centered on the mystery of the Incarnation. In this the celebrative fact of Advent proved decisive: most of the patristic and theological output in this regard was born of the liturgy. It is often homiletics that gives us the most living material, still relevant today.

The patristic lectionary, in its search for a substantial spirituality, in this period of greater intensity and light, develops various themes as a whole. We can identify and group them, thus penetrating the density of the earliest testimonies about Advent.

The eschatological nature of Advent

Prophetic preaching, announcing the Advent of the kingdom of the Messiah, presented the elements of the ‘two comings or manifestations’: the first event is the beginning of the fulfillment of the promises, the second is the conclusion, at the end of history.

A first series of readings has an eschatological tone. In reality, the Fathers of the Church already looked to the later return of Christ in glory and, concomitantly, to the establishment of His kingdom at the end of time. The pilgrim Church awaits with great joy the return of Christ, her Lord and Savior. At the same time, the fathers of Christian doctrine place in the foreground the mystery of God’s love, and this is the theme of the patristic readings of the days immediately preceding Christmas in the Office of Readings.

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202) states that there are three stages for seeing God.

1. In the first, God is scrutinized in the Spirit through prophecy.

2. In the second, He is seen in the Son.

3. In the third, He is contemplated in His fatherhood.

This third stage is eternal life. Advent is at once the actualization of the first stage, the experience of the second, and the anticipation, in faith and hope, of the final stage (Adversus haereses IV, 20, 4-5).

The early Church saw the reality of the kingdom already present in the coming of Christ into the world and in His insertion into history. The Christian already lives in the last days: Christ has come and will come again. In every age, the kingdom of God encompasses the Christian between two historical events. He will turn with joyful expectation and firm hope toward the coming of Christ. The present of the messianic age is a period of continuous progress whose final outcome will be the fulfillment of the kingdom of Christ and the glorification of His body, the Church.

Illuminating the meaning and the content of Advent are two texts that we report for their great importance. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386), who states: “We proclaim Christ who is to come. In fact, His coming is not one only, but there is a second, which will be far more glorious than the former. The first, in fact, bore the seal of suffering; the other will wear a crown of divine kingship. It may be said that almost always in our Lord Jesus Christ every event is twofold. The generation is twofold, one from God the Father, before time, and the other, the human birth, from a Virgin in the fullness of time. Twofold also are His descents into history. The first time He came in an obscure and silent manner, like rain upon the earth (cf. Ps 71:6). The second time He will come in the future in splendor and clarity before the eyes of all. At the first coming He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a stable, at the second He will be clothed with light as with a garment (Ps 103:2). At the first He accepted the cross without refusing the dishonor (Heb 2:12), at the other He will advance escorted by the hosts of the angels and will be filled with glory. Therefore, let us not limit ourselves to meditating only on the first coming, but let us live in expectation of the second. The Savior will come not to be judged again, but to judge those who condemned Him” (Catechesis 15:1-3).

Saint Bernard (d. 1153) distinguishes still more precisely: “We know that a threefold coming of the Lord, a hidden coming, in fact stands between the other two which are manifest. In the first, the Word was seen on earth and conversed with men, when, as He Himself says, they saw Him and hated Him. In the last coming all shall see the salvation of God (Lk 3:6) and they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced (Zech 12:10). Hidden, then, is the intermediate coming, in which only the elect see Him within themselves, and their souls are saved. In the first coming, therefore, He came in the weakness of the flesh; in this intermediate coming He comes in the power of the Spirit; in the last He will come in the majesty of glory. Therefore this intermediate coming is, as it were, a road that joins the first to the last: in the first Christ was our redemption, in the last He will be manifested as our life, in this one He is our rest and our consolation” (Advent Sermon V, 1-3).

The Incarnation in the mystery of salvation

The Incarnation of the Word is inscribed within the breadth of the eschatological theme that embraces the whole history of salvation.

This takes place from various points of view:

God’s love for men

Saint Peter Chrysologus (d. 450) reminds us that sin has brought about not only man’s estrangement from God, but has also engendered fear of God. Where there is fear, there can be no love. But God went ahead first: His love, made concrete in the events of the history of salvation, is a testimony that drives out the old fear, engenders in him a desire, and invites us to return. The new civilization will be built upon love: only thus will it preserve the goods of salvation (Sermon 147).

William of Saint Thierry (d. 1148) states in this sense that God loved us first: this is the great lesson we draw from it. The Son loved us even to dying on the cross. And He did this not because He needed to be loved in return, but simply because loving us is the only way for us to be what He wanted us to be (On the Contemplation of God 9-11).

“For our part, Lord, we love You with the strength and the will to love that You have given us. Indeed, You created our souls and the good affections that dwell in them. Your goodness and Your love are the same, O God, they are Your Holy Spirit”.

God prepares the Incarnation

At the very moment when man distances himself from God, God begins the economy of salvation. This term means the plan of salvation for humanity, which is revealed through creation and above all through the redemption accomplished in Jesus (Eph 1:10).

Saint Augustine (d. 430) states that this work requires an entire journey. God

“fixed the exact times for His promises and for their fulfillment”, (Commentary on the Psalms 109)

which over the course of the centuries were distinguished and showed their progressive development. The time of the promise runs from the prophets to John the Baptist. And that of fulfillment from the Baptist to the parousia. In the fullness of time, the Father sent His Son as Savior. At the appointed hour He will return as judge.

It is said in the Letter to Diognetus, written in the year 120 (c. 8, 5-9), that God conceived an eternal design to save humanity in the Son, throughout history. In it He created the present time of grace. When our sins and injustice reached their peak, the appointed hour came to reveal His power, goodness, mercy, and compassion. There is an abyss between God and man. An exchange between the two, if possible easily acceptable to human beings. Patristic thought, especially the Greek, made this effort of investigation and penetration and derived from it that God becomes man so that man may become God. Along these same lines we find Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 130) when he describes that Christ first became as we are so that we might become as He is (Adversus haereses l. V).

More profoundly, Saint Athanasius (d. 373) explains that the Incarnation is presented as the restoration of the image of God in man, as it was in the beginning (On the Incarnation of the Word 3:3-4). Therefore Advent is basically a transformation of man. This model of regeneration is the foundation of Christian life.

Closing prayer, Advent

Mary awaits Him,
in His becoming, He already exists. In His coming, He already offers Himself.
And He gives His Mother the certainty of her own mission, and in this certainty lies the sure knowledge of the redemption of the world.
And this gift does not end in Her. Through Her it reaches the Church, until it comes to us.
We have a part in this gift.
When Mary meets those she knows in her surroundings, she looks at them from the point of view of redemption.
They too are among those to whom the grace of bearing Her Son will be given.
And the circle expands to include strangers, those she meets by chance, those who are far away and whom she will never see again, whom she does not know at all.
But all need the same redemption and therefore she has something to give to all: Her Son.
And so she will rejoice in all, because she will be able to give this gift to all.
Rarely will it be a visible and tangible task; almost always it will remain a task accomplished solely within her great abandonment to God.
Therefore, in Her mission there is something that could not possibly have been foreseen at the moment of Her yes and that now becomes visible: the inclusion of all the others. The coexistence of all in the expectation of the Redeemer.
Even those who as yet know nothing about it, who will not be able to know.
The fulfillment is found with God.
But it is also in the vocation of the Mother, in her making herself available, in her readiness, in her perseverance in this attitude.
And therefore it is also in the invitation she addresses to all to be present and to let themselves be drawn in, to share with Her this participation so that all may take part in the feast that the Son prepares for His Mother, undiminished through the ages, so that it may be Christmas for all.
In this confluence of all times in the time of Advent there lies, hidden in the depths, the mystery of Mary: her bowing down, her following, understanding, obeying, loving.
As guests, we are allowed to share with Her Her hope, which has as its foundation Her mission and, through it, the mission of every person who participates in faith.
Perhaps there is no better preparation for Christmas than to know that we are included in the prayer of the Mother, in Her serene certainty that, by the grace of the Son, on the day when He comes to us, we will be offered the possibility of corresponding to His expectations.

To go deeper into the presence of Mary in the earliest liturgical testimonies of Advent, consult the apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus by Paul VI, on Mary and the liturgical year.

Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian apparitions and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.