Terry’s Take… Jesus is Present in Advent
In a sermon Thomas Aquinas gave during Advent, he distinguished four advents of Christ: His advent in the flesh in the Incarnation; the advent by which he comes into our souls; the advent in which he comes at the death of the just; and the advent in which he comes at the end of time in the final judgment. All four are connected in a single providential plan of salvation.
We look forward to Christ’s Second Coming, but his Second Coming presupposes that there was a first. And while we await Christ’s Second Coming, Christ is not simply absent. He is risen and remains present. And He reveals that continued presence most fully in the Eucharist, when we encounter the risen Christ as intimately as did the Apostles in the upper room.