Embracing Advent

One of the most astute observations about the true meaning of the season I have ever read, Carl Olsen's substack article places my sorrow over the loss of my wife into its eschatological context. It is indeed What I Need Now:

We have been saved by the Lamb of God, but we still await the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Advent reminds us that this state of in-between is real and difficult, but also passing and temporary:

The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in our midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father.” (CCC 2816; see 1405, 1682, 2861)

St. John Paul II, in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, his final encyclical, wrote at length about this tension, noting that the “Eucharist is a straining towards the goal, a foretaste of the fullness of joy promised by Christ (cf. John 15:11); it is in some way the anticipation of heaven…” (no. 18). He emphasized

Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits of a future fullness which will embrace man in his totality. For in the Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our bodily resurrection at the end of the world: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54). (no. 18)

The “eschatological tension kindled by the Eucharist,” he noted, “expresses and reinforces our communion with the Church in heaven” (no. 19; emphasis in the original). Foremost among those, of course, is the perfect disciple of our Lord: his blessed Mother, the ever-Virgin Mary, as well as the one who is least among these (cf. Matthew 11:11), his cousin John the Baptist.

The readings during Advent focus on both; they are exemplars in the Faith and true family who have gone before us. The Theotokos bore and loved the Word perfectly; the Baptizer decreased to the point of martyrdom. Their lives were not easy in the least. What we need now is to remember and accept—not with resignation but with supernatural resolve—that Advent is not about easy living, but about eternal life.