Welcome to Advent! “Advent” comes from the Latin meaning “to come”. In other words, this whole season is about looking forward at something that is to come—the coming of Christ.

When we say we are preparing for the coming of Christ, most people assume we mean the coming of Jesus into the world as a little child in the arms of Mary and Joseph. And that’s true. But like so many of the things we do as Catholics, it also has a deeper meaning—in preparing for the liturgical remembrance of Christ’s birth into the world on Christmas, we are also preparing for what lies ahead of us—the Second Coming of Christ. Listen closely to the readings this season and you’ll hear this theme over and over.

Advent then is a great example of the “already, but not yet” of our Christian faith. We say our faith is “already,” because Christ has come into the world, God has spoken, and He has saved us. But our faith is also “not yet!” We await the final culmination of history, when Christ will come again in glory to reign triumphantly over heaven and earth. The “already” teaches us about what is to come, and that “not yet” fills us with longing! Christians are always leaning forward and pleading for the coming of God’s kingdom.

The crystallization of this “already, but not yet” is in the liturgy. In the Mass, we celebrate the anamnesis of the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection, which means we remember it in a way that makes it really present to us. But we also are launched forward to the end of time and the celebration of the eternal liturgy of heaven, of which the Mass is a foretaste.

Our faith grounds us in ancient truth, and it compels us towards the end of time when God will be victorious. It is “already, but not yet.” In this season of Advent, we look back to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, and we look forward to His coming again in glory. May Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, ready our hearts for His coming!