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On the first Sunday of Advent, the liturgy looked forward primarily to the second coming of Christ. Today’s liturgy, for the second Sunday of Advent, looks at his first coming, that is, the birth of Christ, which we celebrate on Christmas Day. For this reason the liturgy begins, even today, to anticipate the joy of Christmas. We can find a series of references to this joy in today’s liturgical texts.
The introit speaks of the joy of our heart when the Lord comes. Then, St. Paul says in the first reading, from the letter to the Romans, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people” (15:10), indicating that this joy of the birth of Jesus should extend to all the nations, and is not limited just to Israel. And again, today’s Alleluia, “Laetatus sum”, that is “I was glad” (Ps 121:1), is an obvious reference to the same joy. Then, the offertory and the communion, “Jerusalem, surge” (Bar 5:5) speak of the same thing. In all of these cases, not only the text but also the music of the chants expresses already, in a serene way, the joy of Christmas.
And what is the joy of Christmas? It is joy about the nearness of God. The prophet Isaiah—when he speaks of a birth from a virgin, which one takes as a reference to the birth of Christ—says that the baby will be called Emmanuel, which means “God is with us” (cf. Is 7:14). And this is reasonable, since Jesus is the true Son of God and therefore is God himself. And God is with us, because he has taken to himself our human nature, and has thus become true man.
Yet our joy remains partial, at least for now. As expressed in the liturgy, our joy will not be complete until Christmas. There are two reasons for this incompleteness. First, the liturgy of Advent wants to express the joy of expectation, not yet the full joy of presence, even though ultimately these joys are in the same things, God with us. Secondly, even if in reality Christ has already come, his coming remains, in a certain sense, incomplete. In today’s Gospel passage, the disciples of John the Baptist ask Jesus: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dad are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Mt 11:3-6). Here Jesus expresses his divinity in a hidden way. God is the creator of all things, and so he also has the power to repair all things. In these miraculous healings, therefore, we see a sign of the divine presence. But we can ask ourselves, “If God were present and he performs these miracles, why are only a few healed, and not all?” It’s for this reason that Jesus adds to his answer to John’s disciples the following: “Blessed is he who takes no offense at me!” (Mt 11:6).
Someone might think: “this is not ‘the one who must come’, but we need to wait for another”, because he does not resolve all the problems of the world. But the truth is that God has the intention to do this, but wants to actualize it through a series of steps. The birth of Christ in Bethlehem constitutes the first step, which we celebrate on Christmas; his passion, death, and resurrection constitute another step, which we celebrate at Easter; and in the end, all will be actualized in the second coming. At this point, that is, with the second coming, all problems will be resolved and there will no longer be the possibility of doubt. Thus the book of Revelation says: “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:3-4).
Therefore, let’s spend the time of Advent in this same way, remembering both the first coming of Christ in the flesh and the waiting of his second coming, when all will be fulfilled.