In Those Days

The Advent Season invites us to adjust the timetables of our lives. The readings have us looking backward and forward at the same time. We could get a bit dislocated in the time continuum as the scriptural readings tell us “in those days.” Are we to look backward, forward, within or outside of ourselves? Where are we in our time and space?

The readings of the final days of the liturgical year had us seemingly looking forward to the final days of the Kingdom. The urgency was to look to the final days, which would obviously be ahead of us, since we are still in the present moment. The metaphors were about the signs of the end times: the darkened moon and sun, the so-called “signs” of the times. The comparison was made to the seasons. The coming of the Kingdom was described as clear as the changes of climate which accompany the turning of one season to another. “Those days” first seem to be in the future. Only later do we get the scriptural insight that the future is now and we search out the actions of God in the present.

Maybe we don’t have to choose between the future and the present. In the liturgical conversation at the end of the worship year, the future and the present dance with each other. They are interchangeable. Theologians, of course, have a word for these realities – “proleptic eschatology.” “Proleptic” implies a jump or a leap forward, while the “eschaton” is the end of history. All this is to say that the believer on the way to the Kingdom can move in either direction of the present or future moment of history.

Advent Imagination
The end of the year readings and the Advent scriptures challenge our imaginations. Depending on how we imagine the future, the present moment is shaped. The reverse is true. Often enough, what we imagine in our present gives shape to our future hopes. For example, the words of disastrous change or judgment in the future may cause us to perceive our present moment in fear.

If, however, the actions of God are brought from the future coming of the Kingdom to something more immediate to our present living, the urgency is not fear producing, but hopeful for the possibility of finding God in our daily living. The urgency is not fear so much as the need to be awake and alert to the things of God. In this view, God is bringing about the Kingdom in our present situation. We need to note with anticipation the time of the reign of God.

The final weeks before Advent and the first two weeks of Advent speak little of Christmas or Epiphany despite the popular view of Advent as preparation for Christmas. There is dual meaning in Advent as the “Coming of Christ.” The prayerful invitation of the season, “Come, Lord Jesus,” can just as readily translate the Greek

“Maranatha” as “The Lord comes.” As we stand prayerfully in the present, we can anticipate seeing the Lord with us and yet waiting for the full accomplishment of the Kingdom. Our Advent vocabulary embraces “Emmanuel” or “God-with-us” today and tomorrow.

The Other Stories
In a seemingly abrupt change, the third and fourth weeks of Advent use other stories and tell us “in those days.” “In those days…” Caesar was the Roman emperor and called for a census of the people… An angel of the Lord came to a Virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph. “When the days came for her to deliver the child…” The so-called Infancy Narratives of Matthew and Luke draw us at first look to the past. Our attention is brought to the Birth of Christ, which we celebrate in our times as Christmas and Epiphany.

The accompanying readings from Isaiah tell us that “you shall call him Emmanuel, God-with-us.” In the first reading of Mass at Midnight, the child has many names: “For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-forever, Prince of peace.” (Isaiah 9) The birthing stories of Jesus summarize his entire life. It is not his birth alone which we celebrate but the saving action of the Father in his life, death, and resurrection. The Christmas praying of the royal psalm tells us “You are my Son, this day I have begotten you.” (Ps2:7) Not only do we celebrate his natural birthing as Son of God and Son of Mary, but we celebrate that he is born from death to life.

The past stories and narratives all come together in Christ at the celebration of Advent and Christmas. Indeed, he is born of Mary within our humanity, but our life in him comes from birthing from death to life. Our hopeful future is our being embraced by the mystery of Jesus’ death to life.

Contemplating the Mystery
These seasons of liturgical prayer, Advent and Christmas, reorient us in our human history. We are embraced by the mystery of Christ happening among us. In him we see and know the fidelity of the Father among his people. We read of this through the prophets and the evangelists. We are embraced in the present moment of God’s faithful love, which invites an urgent change of our own hearts. The faithful love of the Father in the past is seen in the birth of his Son among us and accomplished by his death and rising. Christ becomes our future hope and his coming again in glory transforms our present moment.

Advent has believers within the Church stand looking to the past and to the future. In the present, we stand in Christ, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Advent with its hues of purples and dark blues invites us to wait in the night for the rising of the Sun of Justice.

CDH