Walk soberly

Seasons Tracts No. 1: Advent, By Harold Riley

Fr Harold Riley (1903-2003) was a monk of the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield before ordination, serving thereafter in parish ministry and as General Secretary of the Church Union. Here, he explains the twofold “waitings” of Advent, for Christmas and for the Second Coming, in terms of hope and responsibility, balanced by awe and confidence. The balance is important. There is a danger in stressing either of these aspects of the Christian life at the expense of the other. Evelyn Underhill remarked as early as 1933 that the church was at risk of prioritising service to our fellow man over the worship of God, and that this kind of religion would not last: unheeded words which have proven all too true. Yet the same caveat applies to the sort of church which is so concerned for lace and cloth of gold that it ignores the plight of the poor and sick. God worshipped truly cannot but drive us to our knees in awe, but that awe must drive us lower still, to the very dust if needed, in loving service. Start from the dust, though, and we will never reach the sky. Let us choose first the better part: worship of Christ in cratch and crust. — T.P.

The Message of Advent
Harold Riley

There are two great lessons that ought to be impressed on our minds during Advent—that of hope, as we look forward to the celebration of our Lord's first coming, as our Saviour; and that of responsibility, as we think of his second Coming to be our Judge. Through long ages, Israel looked forward in hope for the coming of the Messiah; in the days before the first Christmas, Mary looked forward in longing for the Birth of her Son. In Advent, we put ourselves as it were in those days, and look forward ourselves to that Birth, as though it were yet to be, as we also look forward with joy to receiving our Lord in his eucharistic presence in our Christmas Communions.

Apart from the Incarnation, and the knowledge of our Lord, we should be indeed "without hope in this present world," but the Coming of Christ, and our knowledge of God's character and purpose gained from him, themselves create new responsibilities for us. In the day of judgment, we must give account of the use we have made of the talents of which we have been made stewards, and none of them is greater than the gift of the knowledge of God in Christ. We must indeed therefore "walk soberly, as in the day."

The two Advents are however not unrelated; as the first was "for us men and for our salvation" and yet constituted a judgment on all human life, so the second is for our judgment, and yet will be the coming of our merciful Redeemer. The Christian is not without awe before the Babe of Bethlehem, nor without confidence before the Judge of quick and dead. At the beginning of the Christian year, he begins again to ponder on the great things God has done for him in the past, and to resolve to use the time that God gives him now in accordance with the will of his Creator, in fulfilment of the purposes of his Redeemer, and as living under the eye of his final Judge.