Advent with the Four Johns
Reverend Chris Doig, one of the stars of the BBC Priest School, and RCDA seminarian is taking us on a special journey through Advent. I hope you get much from it.
We are just at the beginning of Advent which means a flurry of activity for our Priests and no doubt many of you are receiving umpteen emails from those you follow offering Advent resources. We are no different, but they don’t have Rev Chris Doig! He plans to help us see Advent through the spirituality of four rather significant Johns.
Week 1: St John the Evangelist
Week 2: St John the Baptist
Week 3: St John Damascene
Week 4: St John Paul II
Each week would be based on the thought and spirituality of the saint while considering the meaning of Advent and the tradition and practices of the season.
For this reason we will focus entirely on the Advent reflection and leave off our other normal features (for the most part). I hope you enjoy!
Whenever we embark upon a journey we should always do so with the final destination in mind, and so as we journey through Advent we should start with the end in sight, that is the Incarnation of the Lord. The best place to start, then, in this series of Advent reflections is with St. John’s prologue which we will hear on Christmas Day. St. John has no need to retell the Christmas accounts as found in Matthew or Luke, but rather sums it up quite simply in one line, “The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us (Jn 1:14).” It is beautifully wrapped in the solemnity of a hymn about the battle between light and darkness, and provides us with a cosmic view of salvation and a profound insight into the life of God.
There is a deep theological background behind these words. If we consider the Greek text, then we will come across the verb ἐσκήνωσεν at which point a whole new view comes into sight. The substantive of this verb means tent or tabernacle. St. John wants us to look back to the Book of Exodus and the journey through the desert, where God commands Moses to make a tabernacle with all the furnishings. This was to be a portable sanctuary that would move from one encampment to the other and would be a sign of God’s presence among the people. Another name for the tabernacle is the “tent of meeting,” – the place of encounter with the Lord.
I think if St John were to give some Advent meditations he would very likely refer back to this book because it prefigures the Incarnation in the presence of God to his people in the desert, and what is our life but a long journey through the desert during which the Lord comes down to meet us? The Tent of Meeting is no longer made of material things but is living flesh; the new temple is Christ’s own body (Jn 2:21). It is in seeing this living flesh that we “come to believe in him (Jn 2:11).” The verb to see is very important for John and is almost synonymous with the verb to believe or to know. The whole point of Christmas, the Incarnation, is that God came to reveal Himself to man, that man may come to know Him through his senses.
If the Word of God became flesh and set up his tent among men, why don’t we try to set up our own little tabernacle or tent with all its furnishings in the desert and wait for the Lord to visit us? If the tabernacle or tent is our own body, what are the furnishings but the practice of the virtues and prayer?
Similar to Lent, Advent is also a penitential season. It is not for no reason that the first gospel we will hear this Advent is “stay awake and be on your guard for you do not know when the hour is coming (Mk 13:33)”. This vigilance is the call to pray, fast and make alms – the age-old practices of the Church which dispose the body and soul to receive “grace upon grace (Jn 1:16).”
It is through these practices and love for the Word that St. John wants to lead us to the contemplation of God in himself, so that we might fully come to know Him and participate in His life. He doesn’t provide us with milk but with real solid food (Heb 5:14) for survival in the desert: the Word of God itself, which is “sharper than any double edged sword (Heb 4:12) and “living water (Jn 4:14) for us who thirst.
The closer we are to the Word, the more we will be like the Word who was with God - ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν – and not just be with him but we will also see him, and like the disciples who saw his glory revealed at the Wedding Feast of Cana, we will also “come to believe in him. (Jn 2:11).
Reverend Chris Doig | Rome
St Andrew, Feast Day 30th November
Click here for an excerpt of a homily by St John Chrysostom from the Gospel of St John on our national Saint, St Andrew.
To find out how St Andrew came to be our national Saint, St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh has a handy summary. Click here.
Apologises for the lateness - God bless from Eric and the Team,