The 3 Comings of Jesus: Advent - Bishop Ronald Gilmore One of our penitential rites sets before us the “Three Comings.” He “did come,” it says. He “does come,” it says. He “will come,” it says. This is the time to warm to that sacred pattern, to allow it to shape your pre-Christmas days.
This is the time to accustom yourselves to remembering His Incarnatiom, for He did break into our world; to looking for His sacramental and his providential comings, for He does break into our world each day; and to longing for His final coming at the end of days, for He will break into our world bringing it to conclusion. Somehow, they all run together, these comings, they are all connected. Each is a preparation for the other in our human time. Each builds on the other in our human time.
We can never have one of these without the other, because God’s own time has slipped into our human time. The mingling of your life with His is such a personal thing, for Him, and for you. There is no one-size-fits all in these matters. There are only individual ways, only particular cases.
We do not move on an assembly line, you and me. He guides each one through ‘pathless regions.’ “By paths unknown” he guides them, Isaiah said. The overlapping of the human and the divine creates a ‘complexity’ that might, in our weaker moments, almost be taken for a ‘confusion.’
But it is not ‘confusion.’ Advent is an overflowing treasure of beauty: all the ancient prophecies, with their ever-new relevance; all the subtle harmony of the Old and the New Testaments; all the lasting appeal of the Antiphons, of the Hymns, and of the Carols. This is a season of Hope and of Wonder. It is so full, so filled, so flowing over that it seems too much for sober adults, even a ‘confusion,’ perhaps. But it is not so for a child, it is never so for one with eager, and sparkling eyes.