If we understand Advent as a season of waiting, a season of anticipation for the arrival of the Lord, then it’s worth noting that this waiting/anticipation is really the essence of Old Testament salvation history. It’s not just we today who are waiting/anticipating, but the Advent spirit of all the righteous in the Old Testament. But what was mankind itself even waiting for all of those years, centuries, millenia. To understand this, we have to first go back to the beginning, to Genesis 3, wherein we see that this was the start of a problem that man needed God to do something about, which we were waiting in history for God to do.
In Genesis 3, we see the sad episode of Original Sin. And while there are a number of consequences to this that we could discuss, the ultimate problem with sin is that it puts us in debt, so to speak, to God. We already owe God everything that we are for His simply having created us. But now, we have additionally committed, in Adam, an offense against God by rejecting His law and, therefore, His supernatural life within us by grace. This leaves us in debt to Him, owing Him. Which is how the Scriptures speak of sin: as a debt to be paid. However, we cannot satisfy this debt, we cannot pay it off, because it exists in the supernatural order, an order that exceeds our natural capacities. We have a debt to pay, but we cannot pay it off ourselves because it is paid to God, Whom we cannot adequately compensate. For a mere creature cannot satisfy the infinite justice of the Creator. Which is why sin is such a bad thing and why we need a savior, as we can’t help ourselves out of this mess of sin. Rather, we need God Himself to “fix” the problem of sin.
Which is precisely what humanity was waiting for all of those years, centuries, millenia in the Old Testament – for God to fix this problem of sin. Salvation history is basically one really, really, really long Advent! Because believe it or not, there is hope in all of this…the hope of the Messiah to come! Which brings us to Genesis 3:15, with God speaking to the ancient serpent – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
- The “you” here is satan.
- The “woman” is the Blessed Virgin Mary
- “Your seed” is all of the evil one’s minions
- “Her seed” is Jesus Christ
- To bruise the heel is then to inflict a certain pain upon somebody. This happens, of course, in the Passion of Christ.
- But, to attack the head in ancient cultures when Moses wrote Genesis is an authoritative and definitive victor. If you attack somebody’s head, then you are going after their very life.
Bring all of this together, and we see that the infinite mercy of God is astounding. For right after this sin, God preaches Christ crucified and the Blessed Mother. There is redemption to be had!
This is what we sing in anticipation of in the carol “O come, O come, Emmanuel” – “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.” Thankfully, we have the paschal mystery of Christ crucified and risen, the heart of man’s redemption. And this all begins with the humble birth of the Christ child in the cave. The crib and cross being the two great manifestations of God’s saving love for man. The crib representing God’s coming to redeem man – at long last, Genesis 3:15 is here! The cross representing that God has actually redeemed man. Thus we prepare well for the coming of Christ during Advent – Advent is the preparation for God’s redemption of man from sin, waited for for countless years, centuries, millenia.
