Welcoming Christ in Our Lives, Families and Communities

We are at the beginning of yet another liturgical year, as we celebrate Advent and
Christmas of 2021/2022. These two closely linked liturgical seasons have one feature in
common: in them we celebrate the coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and we
dedicate ourselves, with all our strength, to welcoming him into our hearts and into our lives
as individuals, as families and as communities. This is the time in which we call to mind, in a
special way, the three comings of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

As St. Bernard wrote in a text that the Church uses in the Office of Readings of the
first Wednesday of Advent, “we have come to know a threefold coming of the Lord. ... In the
first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men in the days when, as he himself
bears witness, they saw him and hated him. In his last coming ‘all flesh shall see the salvation
of our God,’ and ‘they shall look on him whom they have pierced.’ The other coming is
hidden. In it, only the chosen see him within themselves and their souls are saved. In brief,
his first coming was in the flesh and in weakness, this intermediary coming is in the spirit and
in power, the last coming will be in glory and majesty. This intermediary coming is like a
road leading from the first to the last coming. In the first coming Christ was our redemption,
in the last he will appear as our life, in this intermediary coming he is our rest and
consolation” (St. Bernard, Sermon 5 on Advent).

Jesus himself told us that one day, at an hour which “no one knows, neither the angels
of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mt 24:36), he will come from heaven to judge
the living and the dead, to reward those who have obeyed him and to punish the disobedient.
Those who die before this last coming of Jesus already undergo their particular judgment at
death, and their souls are admitted into the company of Jesus’ friends in heaven (if they are
not completely purified before death, they first undergo purification in purgatory) or cast into
the eternal fire of hell. On the last day they will rise again with their bodies, so that they may
receive their eternal reward, or punishment, in their bodies also.

In view of this last coming of Jesus Christ, our most important task at present is to
welcome him in his intermediary coming, so that we may be able to receive the supernatural
fruits that he brought us in his first coming, and thus be adequately prepared to receive him at
his last coming. He himself admonishes us: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed
down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not

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catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the
whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these
things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Lk 21:34-36). For this
reason, the Church prays, in the collect of the first Sunday of Advent: “Grant, almighty
Father, that when Christ comes again we may go out to meet him, bearing the harvest of good
works achieved by your grace.” It is in order to help us in this task that the Church, under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, has instituted these holy seasons of Advent and Christmas.

In a sermon in 1947, Msgr. Ronald Knox explained the attitude that should
characterise our earthly existence, as we prepare for Christ’s second coming, and which the
Church wishes to particularly awaken in these seasons of Advent and Christmas. “Everybody
knows,” he wrote, “even those of us who have lived most unadventurously, what it is to plod
on for miles, it seems, eagerly straining your eyes towards the lights that somehow mean
home. How difficult it is, when you are doing that to judge distances! In pitch darkness, it
might be a couple of miles to your destination; it might be a few hundred yards. So it was, I
think, with the Hebrew prophets, as they looked forward to the redemption of their people.
They could not have told you within a hundred years, within 500 years, when it was [that] the
deliverance would come. They only knew that some time, the stock of David would burgeon
anew; some time, a key would be found to fit the door of their prison house; some time the
light that only showed now, like a will-o’-the wisp on the horizon would broaden out, at last,
into perfect day. This attitude of expectation is one which the Church wants to encourage in
us, her children, permanently. She sees it as an essential part of our Christian drill that we
should still be looking forward; getting on for 2,000 years, now, since the first Christmas Day
came and went, and we must still be looking forward. So she encourages us, during Advent,
to take the shepherd-folk for our guides, and imagine ourselves travelling with them, at dead
of night, straining our eyes towards that chink of light which streams out, we know, from the
cave at Bethlehem” (R. A. Knox, Sermon on Advent, Dec. 21, 1947).

St. John has written for us a very clear and concise description of what took place the
first time that Jesus came into this world, after God had been preparing the Jewish people for
two thousand years through the prophets: “He came to what was his own, and his own people
did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to
become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will
of man, but of God” (Jn 1:11-13). Many people failed to recognise the Saviour at his first

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coming, because they had not heeded the prophet’s repeated calls to repent and to prepare for
the Lord’s coming. Failing to recognise him, they rejected and crucified him, as St. Paul
explains: “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8). Those who heeded the prophets’ calls, instead,
managed to recognise the Saviour, and they welcomed him into their lives. Among them were
the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles and other people
who welcomed him and became his disciples.

We do not want to be among those who fail to prepare ourselves adequately for Jesus’
return in glory and thus, end up failing to welcome him and to enter into his everlasting glory.
We want, rather, like Mary our Mother, and like the others who welcomed him at his first
coming, to welcome him in his intermediary coming, so that we may be able to receive him
and to receive a share in his everlasting glory when we comes to judge the living and the dead
at the end of time. For this reason, we need to recognise the various ways of his intermediary
coming. These include the Word of God; the sacraments; the gift of prayer; our ordinary
duties in the Church and in society, depending on our state of life (i.e., whether we are
married people, children, religious, single people, priests, widows, etc) and our professional
occupation; the abundant opportunities to practice charity towards our neighbour, and even
learning to unite and offer up our sufferings and challenges with those of Christ. If we strive
to take advantage of all these opportunities to love God with all our hearts, and to spend
ourselves in serving our neighbour, then we shall, indeed, be welcoming Christ in our lives
and preparing ourselves to stand with confidence before him at his second coming. To
welcome Jesus consists, briefly, in striving to be saints by living faithfully our ordinary lives,
which is what the love of God asks of us. As St. Josemaría wrote, “heaven and earth seem to
merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts,
when you sanctify your everyday lives” (St. Josemaría Escrivá, Homily Passionately Loving
the World, 8th October 1967).

In order for this decision to welcome Jesus into our lives, families and communities
not to remain a vague and ineffective idea, we need to come up with concrete resolutions,
which will depend on the particular circumstances of each one of us. They should, certainly,
be few but profound and strong, so that they can be truly helpful. Jesus himself has told us to
“Be alert at all times, praying ...” (Lk 21:36): how is our prayer life as individuals and in our
families? Do we pray together when we get out of bed in the morning, and before going to

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bed at night? Do we pray before and after meals? Do we pray the Rosary as a family every
day? Do we go together to Church on Sundays? We need to root our families in prayer, if we
want Jesus to reign in them. As individuals, too, we need to ensure a strong prayer and
sacramental life. The frequent (if possible, daily) reception of Holy Communion, and a
frequent (e.g., monthly) reception of the sacrament of Penance would be highly
recommended. We should also look into our fulfilment of our daily duties, and of our
attention to the poor and those in need. The most important thing is for us to strive to live
always in the friendship of God and to love him always as best we can. He himself assures
us: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come
to them and make our home with them” (Jn 14:23).

As we kneel with Mother Mary and St. Joseph before Baby Jesus this Christmas, let
us pray that by God’s grace “we may share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to
share in our humanity” (Collect for Mass during the day on 25 th December) and that as we
joyfully welcome him “as our Redeemer we may also merit to look upon him confidently
when he comes again as our Judge” (Collect for the Vigil Mass of 25th December). Let us also
pray, with Pope Francis, that the Child of Bethlehem may help us “to be generous, supportive
and helpful, especially towards those who are vulnerable, the sick, those unemployed or
experiencing hardship” (Pope Francis, “Urbi et Orbe” Message on Christmas Day 2020). In
this way, we shall be welcoming him into our lives and preparing ourselves for his final
coming in glory.