Mansfield Fox

Law student. Yankees fan. Massive fraggle. Just living the American dream.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

He is Coming.

Today is the first day of Advent, and with it the new liturgical year.

This being the 21st Century, there is an Advent Blog.

Advent is a curious season, a blend of different occasions and remembrances. As the Church year starts, the secular year is drawing to a close. We remember the coming of Christ 2,000 years ago and look forward with renewed zeal to His coming at the end of the world. The month is paired with November (which, technically, we're still in, but...shaddap!) in which we remember and pray for the dead. In these months we think on final things, of death and of the Second Coming and Last Judgment. It is written:
"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
For these reasons we should be always-ready, since we don't know the hour either of our own death or of the Second Coming. And that, Virginia, is the true meaning of Christmas.


(Sorry for the morbid post. Christmas is a festive holiday, etc etc. Must be seasonal affective disorder.)