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Year for priests: the parish priest during advent days

by Father John T. Myler,
cathedral rector

I was ordained a priest by Bishop John Nicholas Wurm on the last day of a liturgical year (Saturday, November 27, 1982). I offered my First Mass of Thanksgiving the next day (Sunday, November 28), the first day of a new liturgical year -- the First Sunday of Advent.

From the beginning, the season of Advent has spoken to me about priestly life and spirituality. The days of Advent always remind me, as St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote long ago, “We know there are three comings of the Lord.”

1. Christ’s First Coming…
“In the first coming He was seen on earth, dwelling among men … They saw Him … (for) in His first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness.”
A young priest glories in his first assignments. Just as Christ became one of us and entered into our history, the priest enters into the history of his people, his parishioners. The young priest at the pulpit preaches the Word – the Word made Flesh – and, at the altar, invokes the Incarnate One who was born in Bethlehem’s manger to dwell among us now as heavenly Food.
The celebration of Christmas Day will come… Christus natus est!
… but everything that the people of the Old Testament had waited for and longed to see, the priest and his people not only remember, but re-live together in Christ – the promise fulfilled in our very day.
In Faith!

2. Christ’s Invisible Coming…
“It is invisible, while the other two are visible. This intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it only the elect see the Lord (Who) comes in spirit and in power. This coming is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last.”
Once he becomes a Pastor, the priest assumes the responsibility for the sacraments, the prayer, the devotional life of his parish – where Christ “invisible” comes in spirit and in power.
With his people, the Pastor cannot forget in this season (or in any other) the poor, the homeless and the cold, the forgotten and the stranger. Especially among the children of the parish, the Pastor with the other parish ministers teaches that Christ’s “comfort and joy” come each day to those who welcome Him…
With Charity!

This Emmanuel … God among us.
In the life of the parish, we see Him and yet long for Him still.

3. Christ’s Final Coming …
“In the final coming all flesh will see the salvation of our God, and they will look on Him…and He will be seen in glory and majesty.”

As the priest matures, he is joined in a special way to those of his people who are sick and slowed, in hospitals, in nursing homes, or shut in their own homes. Their long nights of pain often mirror these long nights of Advent.
And the priest – who himself suffers infirmities and recognizes in himself and in those closest to him their own mortality -- tends to the dying and to those who mourn, praying for perpetual light and eternal day …
… in Hope!

Day after day, until the day donec venias … Until Christ comes again in glory.
Through it all, through all the years, the Mother of Bethlehem’s Babe, the Mother of Christ -- who is also the Mother of the Church -- becomes for him more and more the Mother of Priests.

Advent days are special for a priest:
Christ who has entered human history has entered the priest’s own history...
Christ who makes His home in human hearts seeks to dwell in the priest’s own heart …
Christ who will come in heavenly glory asks the priest to prepare a people to be His own …
During these Advent days, the priest’s life is a share in the Lord’s own timeless “Adventure”!