Thought for the Day – 3 December – The Announcement of His Coming

Thought for the Day – 3 December – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)

Meditations for Advent
From “The Devout Year”
By Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)

The Announcement of His Coming

“+1. For a short time after their creation our first parents lived in perfect peace and happiness in the Garden of Eden. If they had continued obedient to the authority of their Creator, during
their whole time of probation, there would have been no need for the advent of the Son of God as their Redeemer from sin, for sin there would have been none.
It was their deliberate rebellion which was the occasion that determined the visit of the Word to this world of ours. No
wonder that the Church sings, O felix culpa! O happy transgression which earned a Redeemer such as this!
Admire God’s wonderful Providence in thus bringing good out of evil and advantage to man for his very sin!

+2. The promise made was couched in words which gave no immediate prospect of the crushing of the serpent’s head and the destruction of his power. It left the curse of sin upon the earth and its inhabitants and announced the sorrows which would accompany them through their time of sojourn here. This law still holds. Christ came to abolish sin but not its temporal consequences.
He who sins shall suffer, is a law which Christ fulfilled and in no way destroyed.

+3. Yet, the promise of a Redeemer rekindled the light of hope in the souls of Adam and Eve. They and all their children, were ever looking and praying for His Coming. God’s intention was to keep them in expectancy. So too, with His Second Coming. There has always been a tradition of expectation. “Blessed is the man whom his Lord , when He cometh, shall find watching.”
Hence, learn to watch and pray.
Come quickly , O Lord Jesus!”