Wednesday 15 December 2021
Wednesday of the 3rd week of Advent
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Wednesday of the 3rd week of Advent
From the treatise "Against the Heresies" by St Irenaeus
At Christ's coming, God will be visible to man
There is one God, who by the Word and Wisdom created and arranged all things.
But God’s Word is our Lord Jesus Christ, who in these last times was made a man among men, that he might join the end to the beginning: that is, join man to God.
For this reason the prophets, who received the prophetic gift from the same Word, preached his coming in the flesh, by which God and man would be blended and united according to the will of the Father. The Word of God foretold from the beginning that God would be seen by men and live on earth among them, and speak with them; that he should come to the help of what he had created and save it. He would be seen by his creation and would free us from the hands of all that hate us – that is, save it from every spirit of wickedness. He would lead us to serve him in holiness and righteousness through all our days so that man, having embraced the Spirit of God, might pass into the glory of the Father.
The prophets foretold, therefore, that God would be seen by men; as indeed the Lord himself confirmed: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
But at the same time God is great and unspeakably glorious, so that no man shall see God and live, for God can never be completely understood. But God is loving and kind and omnipotent, and so he gives the sight of God, the greatest gift of all, to those who love him. Even this was foretold by the prophets: For those things that are impossible with men, are possible with God.
For man does not see God by his own powers; but God is seen by men when it pleases him that this should be so. He decides by whom he should be seen, and when, and how for God is powerful in all things. He was seen in the past prophetically, through the Spirit, and now as it were by adoption, through the Son; and in the kingdom of heaven he will be seen as a true father. The Spirit prepares mankind for the Son of God, the Son leads it to God, and God gives it the gift of incorruptible eternal life, a life that everyone receives who sees God.
Just as those who see light are within the light and share in its splendour, so those who see God are in God and share his splendour also. But God’s splendour gives life: and so those who see God receive life.
Copyright © 1996-2021 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.