Welcome back to James Popery. I'm Joe Heschmire. Last week I mentioned that Advent has this twofold character.

It's both about Christ's first coming, his first Advent at Christmas. It's also about his final Advent at the end of time.

But the reality is there's kind of a threefold character to Advent that is both about Christ's first coming, his last coming, but also the middle coming of Christ. Now, I'm not just making this up, and don't worry, there's not going to be like a fourth coming of Christ next week that I bring up. No, I'm building off of something that St. Bernard of Clairvaux points out that's rooted very much in Scripture. Now, if you're not familiar with Bernard, he's the founder of the Cistercian order. He's an abbot from the early 12th century and was massively influential in the time

period in which he lived. And he has this beautiful sermon on Advent that's quoted in the office

of readings in the liturgy of the hours. And he says, we know that there are three comings of the Lord.

The third lies between the other two. It is invisible while the other two are visible. Okay,

so what is he talking about here? Well, he says, okay, the first coming is when Christ was

seen on earth, dwelling among men. He himself testifies that they saw him and hated him.

In the final coming, all flesh will see the salvation of our God, and they will look on him whom they've pierced.

So that's easy enough. The first coming, of course, is at Christmas.

The final coming is when Christ returns in glory to judged living in the dead.

But what's this middle coming that he's talking about? As he puts

it, he says, the intermediate coming is a hidden one. In it, only the elects see the Lord within

their own selves, and they are saved. That is, the whole world could see Jesus in his first coming.

The whole world will see Jesus in his final coming. But this middle coming, this kind of third advent, as it

were, is an interior recognition of the presence of God within your own heart. He recaps by saying,

and his first coming, our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness. In this middle coming,

he comes in spirit and in power, and the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty.

Now you might say, okay, but why use the language of Advent or the coming of Christ?

Because, you know, we have a pretty firmly established language that the second coming refers to Christ's final coming in glory.

And I don't want to upset that. I don't think Bernard would want to upset that.

But rather, it is worth realizing that the way he's talking about this is thoroughly biblical. I mean,

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