Throughout this season of Advent, in the songs and prayers, we ask Jesus to “come.”
But how can Jesus come when He has already come? The promise made to David,
recalled by Jeremiah in the first reading today (Jer 33:14-16), has been fulfilled. Jesus,
the just shoot, has come and He has acted rightly and justly. We celebrate this coming
at the end of Advent, on Christmas. Are we trying to put ourselves in the position of
those who waited for His first coming?
The early Church expected Jesus to come soon. The second reading today,
Thessalonians 3:12-4:2, speaks of the “coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.”
The Gospel, Luke 21:25-28, 34-36, vividly describes “the Son of Man coming in a cloud
with great power and glory.” Luke’s description is frightening: the sun, the moon and the
stars will be shaken, the waves of the oceans will be tumultuous. Many will die of fright.
Nevertheless, Jesus’ followers are instructed to “pray constantly for strength to stand
secure before the Son of Man” and to “stand up straight and raise your heads.”
How does He come in this time between His return to the Father in His Ascension, and
His final coming? He comes most especially in the Eucharist. There are many other
ways.
How does He come when He is already with us? St. Thomas speaks of Jesus “present
in a new way in anyone or is possessed in time by anyone.” Thomas states that “This is
not a change in the divine person, but in the creature…” (1a. 43, 2, ad 2). We are
changed by Jesus being present in a new way in us.
The comings of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are described by Thomas as “invisible
missions.” They are “based on an increase in grace when someone advances to a new
act or new stage of grace…” (1a. 43, 5, ad 2). The Son and the Spirit come to us
through increased grace or new stages of grace.
The Gospel is correct that we should not be “bloated with self-indulgence, drunkenness
and worldly cares.” We should watch, that is, be attentive to Jesus’ comings.
When we ask Jesus to “come,” we are asking Him to come in new ways, bringing us to
a new stage of grace by an increase of grace.
In today’s passage from First Thessalonians, Paul prays that the Lord may increase and
make the Christians overflow with love for one another and for all people. He prays that
the Lord may strengthen their hearts to make them blameless and holy.
These sentences are significant because the First Letter to the Thessalonians is the first
letter that Paul wrote and the very first writing of the New Testament. The sentence that
preceded this prays: May our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus direct our
way to you” (1 Thess 3:11). The petition asks that Jesus, who is joined with the Father,
may act with the Father on their behalf. The first sentence of today’s reading states:

“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and to all. May He
strengthen your hearts, making them blameless and holy …” (1 Thess 3:12).
In this sentence, Jesus is invoked for the first time in the New Testament. Jesus is
asked to increase love and strengthen hearts. For the first time, we have the Christians
pray that Jesus may act, Jesus may increase our love and strengthen us. These
invocations expect Jesus to act in the lives of the Christians.
Paul prays that their love for one another and for all may overflow. St. Thomas asserts
that “loving not only one’s friends and acquaintances but also strangers and even his
enemies, as Augustine says this is a mark of the perfect children of God” (2a2ae. 184,
2, ad 3).
According to Thomas, “Primarily and essentially the perfection of the Christian life
consists in charity, principally as to the love of God, secondarily as to the love of our
neighbor, both of which are the matter of the chief commandments of the Divine law”
(2a2ae. 184, 3).
Thomas acknowledges that we may not always be consciously loving God or our
neighbor: “As the conditions of the present life do not allow of a man always tending
actually to God, so neither does it allow of his tending actually to each individual
neighbor; but it suffices for him to tend to all in common and collectively, and to each
individual habitually and according to the preparedness of his mind” (2a2ae. 184, 2, ad
3).
Paul asks that their love may keep progressing “more and more.” In praying to Christ to
increase our love, we are, as the Gospel declares, praying constantly for the strength to
stand secure before the Son of Man. St. John tells us: “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 Jn
4:18).
Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.
References to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas give the part of the
Summa, the question and the article. If the passage is found in a response to an
objection that Thomas has introduced in the first part of the article, the Latin word “ad,”
meaning “to,” is added with the number of the objection.