An Advent Meditation: Duane W.H. Arnold,PhD

God is with us.

These are comforting words, and they are meant to comfort, but not only to comfort, for the Incarnation means more than God coming down and becoming man, as wonderful and as awe inspiring as this truth is. This is what St. Paul wrote about it: “But God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ … , and raised us up with Him, and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places … “

In the 14th Chapter of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus says, I “will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” We are to be where the Lord is; through His power and grace, we are raised to be with Him.

You know, the serpent in the Garden of Eden was even more subtle than we usually give him credit for. He told a lie so close to the truth that it’s not surprising that we “fell” for it. In fact, man was created to be “like God;” God made us in His image and after His likeness, but when we turned from Him, we lost the image, the reflection, the semblance of God, and we could not recover it for ourselves. God Himself restored it in Christ. As Christians, we are called to be like Him, to become what God created us to be. So, what is our part in all this?

To listen – for as St. Bernard wrote, “We merit the beatific vision by our constancy in listening … Since the sense of sight is not yet ready, let us rouse up our hearing, let us exercise it and take in the truth … The hearing, if it be loving, alert and faithful, will restore the sight.”

To receive – As St. Augustine has written, “Lord, give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.”

And to say “Yes” and “Amen” to His Word to us. This is what the season of Advent is all about.

During Advent, we look back with great joy and thanksgiving to the birth of our Lord and Savior in Bethlehem; we look ahead with great hope to the coming of Christ in glory at the end of the ages. But Advent is not just a season of commemoration and anticipation; it is a time to remind ourselves that now, right here and now, is the time to pray, “Even so. Come, Lord Jesus! ” knowing, as we pray, that we have already been found by the One we seek.

Thomas Merton wrote, “A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.”

May God help us in the seeking, and in the finding, and in the living.