Letter of December 5, 2006

Another Year of Grace
The Most Reverend Carl F. Mengeling, Bishop of Lansing

We have just ended another Church year on November 26 and began a NEW Church year on December 4. These two milestone events in our journey of faith as followers of Jesus in his Church are strikingly similar. Both present the final goal of our life journey of faith, hope and love - the eternal Kingdom of God. They center on Christ, the New Adam who redeems us and brings us back to our Father and into an eternal family of God as brothers and sisters in the Community of Saints.

We fittingly completed our journey in the footsteps of our Savior on November 26 celebrating the triumph and glory of Christ the King. We began the new Church year on December 4 with our minds and hearts fixed on the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the world, the final judgement and the establishment of the eternal Kingdom.

Our final destiny, happiness and glory in Christ’s Kingdom is placed before our eyes. St. Paul encourages us “Keep your eyes fixed on Christ”. It is the goal of all our life journey on this earth as time rushes on.

It responds to our supreme needs; our hunger that is never sated and our thirst never quenched. We must never lose sight of our destiny to which our journey with Christ and his members takes us. These two events at the end and start of the Church year tell us where the journey is heading. The early Fathers of the Church describe the Church in time as a ship of passengers moving on the waters of history to its final port, the Kingdom of Heaven, our HOME.

Advent means ‘arrival’. We celebrate the arrival of the New Adam, Christ our Savior born of the Virgin Mary and our redemption in Him. He remains with humanity on our journey in time and through the centuries in word and sacrament and in his members, the Church. The arrival continues until the final arrival of these end and start of the Church year Gospels - his final arrival.

Father Karl Rohner (+1984) says: “Isn’t our life still Advent; faith, hope, expectation, patience and longing and not yet visible? Do we not have to build on what is hoped for and believed in? If we really want to be Christians, do we not have to sacrifice the bird in the hand here on earth, for the sake of the two in the heavenly bush all for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven? Such is Advent. The Church itself is still an advent Church for we are still waiting for Him who is to come in the unveiled radiance of Godhead in the eternal Kingdom.”

Better than Rohner are the inspired words of St. Paul. Here’s a few of an immense number: “We have our citizenship in heaven; it is from there that we eagerly await the coming of our Savior. He will give a new for to this lovely body of ours and remake it according to the pattern of his glorified body” (Phil 3,20). “Since you have been raised up in company with Christ, set your heart on what pertains to higher realms where Christ is at God’s right hand” (Col 3,1). “The lives of all of us are to be revealed before the tribunal of Christ so that each one may receive recompense, good or bad, according to life in the body” (2 Cor 5,10).

The Advent, arrivals of Christ are different, though the same Christ. The arrival of the New Adam, Jesus in history and his continuous arrival in each generation and now with us in marked by intense love, mercy and infinite patience. He gently persuades us to come to him. The child in the manger is gentle and loving and the Christ on the cross is gentle and loving. He is the Shepherd who provides for the sheep and lays down his life. St. Therese of the Child Jesus (+1897), knew this. She writes: “I cannot fear a God who made himself so small for me. I love him. He is love and mercy”. Yes in his unceasing arrival among us he is so approachable that we easily encounter him. He makes it so easy for us. How can we fear Christ on the cross in his total love for us? Christ on the cross is still the gentle child of Bethlehem for us.

Charles Peguy, who was killed in the trenches in 1914 knew this too: “A Christ ology without Christmas. A Sermon on the Mount without the child in the manger produces a false adult religion”.

His constant ‘arrival’ for us in the Eucharist and the sacraments is loving, welcoming and merciful. How can we resist the Lord who makes divine life, love and happiness so available in so simple ways? The Lord of Glory comes to us under signs of life - BREAD and WINE to bring us life. His arrival will be inviting, gentle, loving and merciful as long as TIME continues.

The final arrival proclaimed in the Gospel for the start and end of each Church year is different. Time has ceased. He comes as Judge to claim his own. The final arrival that the end and start of the Church year Gospels relate is altogether different - Time is gone. He comes as Judge of all.

Yet Jesus’ words about the end of the world and the Last Judgement conclude with advice for us still living in time: “Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to stand before the Son of Man”.
Advent has good advice: “Keep your eyes on the finish line”.

Jesus concludes his teaching about the end of the world and time with urgent advice for us still living in time, while his gentle arrival continues with us and for us.
“Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to stand before the Son of Man”.
In our parlance: “Keep your eyes on the finish line”.