Christmas is coming. The end of the school year is coming. Summer is coming. Those all sound good. Those are all advents: adventus just means arrival, it means coming. But what about these: “a storm is coming”, “that doctor’s report is coming”, “the invasion is coming”, “the end of the world is coming.” Those are advents, or arrivals too. Sometimes, advents can be wonderful and joyous and deeply fulfilling. Other times, events can scare the life out of us. The readings today that talk about the great advent, the 2nd coming of Christ, describe it as both. Advents can be scary things because something new breaks in to end, upset, and rearrange the current state of affairs. The gospel reading today accents this negativity. Jesus says: “The coming of the Son of Man will repeat what happened in Noah’s time.” Not very reassuring words because Noah’s time was the time of the great flood, that devastates the earth, that ends life as we know it. But why isn’t the coming of Christ again simply a joyful event? Jesus said that he is the way, the truth, and the life. When he comes again, the life that is opposed to him must give way. When he comes again, false claimants to the truth must cede to him. When he comes again, then ways that don’t lead to Christ must be abandoned. And all of this will hurt. It’s just common sense. If we have to make major changes in our lives, it will be like a revolution, which is always painful. The Son of God will break into our sinful world like a cleansing fire, like a wild storm, like a revolution, like a thief in the night. And what will the outcome be? Let’s look at the first reading. This contains Isaiah’s great vision of what things will be like at the great adventus, the great coming. What’s the mountain of the Lord’s house? That’s Mount Zion, where the Temple was located. In the age of the messiah, the worship of the living God will be the center and summit of all of life. It will be the good above all goods. At the time of the messiah, adoration of the one true God will break out. When we worship the true God, we become ordered, both interiorly and exteriorly. When you adore God, then everything in you falls into proper harmony. Everything finds its place in you. You become ordered on the inside. And when the society adores God, then all the elements that make up the society become themselves properly ordered. That sounds like good news, a very pleasant adventus. Yes and no. How will this play out in a society in which the majority of people have stopped worshipping the true God. In our Catholic Church alone, 70% or more of our brothers and sisters stay away from the worship of the true God on a regular basis. They stay away from the Mass, the source and summit of the Christian life. If you want the Catholic version of Isaiah’s vision, that’s the Mass – all those adoring God aright. What will it feel like to those of us who aren’t worshipping God properly when this worship now becomes central? It will be like a revolution. Some will refuse. “Jesus says Two men will be out in a field. One will be taken, and one will be left.” How will it play in a world in which sex and pleasure and money and power and honor are regularly worshipped? I don’t mean just made part of your life. There’s nothing wrong with these things in themselves in their proper contexts. But when they are worshipped, that’s when spiritual problems arise. Isaiah says, “When the mountain of the Lord’s house is raised above all the hills.” That means we have to change all those false forms of worship that we’ve have been engaging in. And that ain’t gonna be pleasant. That’s not going to be easy. Then, Isaiah says that all the nations of the world will gather together as one great community around the praise of God. That’s good news. Yes and no. We live in sinful world, that, in its sinful way, likes divisions, separations, hatreds. In our dysfunction, in our sin, we like to order things this way. If we didn’t, divisions and separations and hatreds would not have flourished century after century. Ah, but in God’s time, when the messiah comes in the great adventus, then these barriers will be knocked down, these separations will be overcome. Pleasant? It would be a major change in the way we think and feel and move and imagine. I don’t know how happy we’re going to be to lose all that. But it is precisely what God wants at the great advent. Then, Isaiah says we will all receive instruction from God. Good news? Yes. But how will it play in a sinful world? Do you like taking instruction from anyone? Most of us sinners say, “No, I tell myself what to do. I set the tone for my own life. No one tells me what to do, much less God.” But at the time of the great messianic advent, when all nations stream toward the holy mountain, that’s precisely what will happen. All of us will take instruction together from God. But that would require a major revolution. And some will refuse. “Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken, and one will be left.” “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Paradise, right? Why have we had so many wars up and down the centuries? Why do they last so long? It’s one of the signs of our sin. Again, in some strange way, we must like war. If we didn’t we would have avoided it more. But at the coming of the messiah, it’s time to put an end to war. To lay down your sword. How easy will that be to people who are so used to using war to settle disputes, at the national level and at the personal level? Jesus says, turn the other cheek, love your enemies, pray for those who mistreat you, bless those who curse you. Try that on for size while we wait together. All of this is what the coming of the Messiah will mean. Yes, the great advent is a time of great joy. But in our sin, it is also a time of threat. Because it means the end of our old world, an end to the old way of doing things that we’re so used to. Christ is coming. Are you ready? + In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritu Sancto. Amen. +
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