Читать книгу Teach Us to Number Our Days - Barbara Dee Baumgarten - Страница 13

The Old Testament is filled with longing: longing for God, for justice, for the eternal king. Israel, aware of her corruption, places her hope in God-with-us, the Messiah whose divine presence will conclusively vanquish evil. Advent appeals for salvation and the coming Messiah, echoing the Old Testament longing for God. The weeks of Advent recognize Hebrew ancestors whose hearts burned with messianic longing: Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Daniel and Esther. Advent becomes Christmas Eve with the recollection of Adam and Eve, the opening of human history and the primal longing for God-with-us (see Symbol 55).

This is the season where we relive the story of Israel and its expectations.

—Raymond E. Brown

The coming of God as Messiah, who was and is and is to come, defines Advent. The source for this threefold coming—the past Incarnation, the future coming in glory at the end of time, and the present daily visitation of Christ—is scripture. Because the daily visitation theme historically developed after the themes of Incarnation (see below) and Last Judgment (p. 21), it normally is listed as the third theme. The past Incarnation and future coming of Christ fold seamlessly into the present.