Advent and Resurrection
Rediscovering Christian Embodied Hope
Advent’s Dual Focus: Christmas and the Second Coming
As we journey through Advent, the liturgy invites us to reflect on the mystery of Christ's birth. Associating this liturgical season with the Resurrection may then look like a mistake. Is it not Lent that prepares us to celebrate the Resurrection?
Actually, the Advent season, especially in its first part, also holds a profound and often overlooked theme: the Second Coming or parousia. At the start of Advent and the close of each liturgical year, the Church directs our attention to this ultimate event in salvation history—when Christ will return to judge the living and the dead and inaugurate a kingdom that will have no end. Then, finally, the resurrection of the flesh will take place also for us as it already happened for Jesus.
However, nowadays, this aspect of Christian hope often seems distant, even irrelevant to many believers.
Challenging Dualism: The True Scope of Salvation
Many Christians profess belief in the resurrection of the flesh each Sunday in the Creed, but do we truly grasp its meaning? Often, eternal life is imagined as a disembodied state — maybe playing harps on clouds, detached from our earthly existence. Yet this image falls far short of biblical teaching and early Christian belief. Salvation is not an escape from creation but its fulfillment. It is not merely about the soul's ascent to heaven, but about the redemption and restoration of the body and the cosmos at the end of times.
Christianity is rooted in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—a tangible affirmation of the goodness of creation—and His bodily resurrection. How, then, could salvation exclude the physical world or the body? Dualist ideas, which view the body and material creation as inferior or irrelevant to salvation, contradict the Christian vision. This dualist temptation has reappeared in various forms throughout history, from various forms of spiritualism to modern reinterpretations of eschatology. Saint Irenaeus already fought against this kind of wrongheaded conception in the II century, slightly more than a hundred years after Christ’s earthly ministry.
Yet, the resurrection of Jesus grounds our hope in a renewed creation, where body and soul are united in glory.
The Cosmic Dimension of Christian Hope
How did the Church’s eschatological vision become obscured? Several cultural and theological shifts have contributed to this confusion. A certain kind of spiritual imagination, with an excessive focus on the afterlife as a merely spiritual realm, the Enlightenment's rationalism, and contemporary theological trends emphasizing "resurrection in death" have all diluted the cosmic scope of Christian hope. This shift risks reducing salvation to an individual, spiritual experience, neglecting the biblical promise of a transformed creation.
St. Paul offers a stunning vision of the interconnected destiny of humanity and creation:
"The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved" (Romans 8:21-24a).
This passage reminds us that salvation is not only about humanity but the renewal of all creation. Far from being discarded, the world will share in the glory of God's Kingdom. This hope underscores the importance of human attentive stewardship over the universe. If creation itself is destined for redemption, how can we neglect its care?
Acts of Love: Building for the Kingdom
The hope in the resurrection of the flesh and the renewal of creation – far from prompting us to escape worldly affairs – pushes us to engage with passion and generosity in the care for all of humanity and creation in general.
Accordingly, when in this life we give to those who can’t repay us, we’re not just doing something good in order to get into heaven with our souls. We’re actually building up the Kingdom of God here and now— that “world to come” (as we say again in the Creed) where loving will be like breathing: natural, effortless, endlessly life-giving; the new world where there will be no the limit to the kindness we shall will be able to show to each other and to the care we shall have for all that surrounds us.
Now, each act of love in this life is like planting a seed for this future Kingdom that God will finally bring about. When we reach out to the poor, the lonely, and those who can’t repay us, we’re showing a love that is radical and in many ways counterintuitive - even pointless – for the mentality of this world. But every one of these acts matters; as theologian N.T. Wright says, all the good we do in the present “will last into God’s future”. Nothing is lost.
Think of the marks on the resurrected body of Jesus—the wounds from His love on the cross. These weren’t erased after His resurrection but glorified. Likewise, the love that we give in this life, even when it’s hard or unnoticed, will not be forgotten. It will be part of the new creation.
Embodied Hope: Living for the Resurrection
Christian hope, then, is not abstract or detached from daily life. It calls us to embody love here and now, building a foretaste of the world where justice, mercy, and compassion reign. As we care for the poor, the marginalized, and the earth itself, we align ourselves with God's ultimate plan—a Kingdom where all creation finds its rightful place in glory.
The Second Coming and the resurrection of the flesh are not relics of an outdated theology. They are vital truths that shape how we live and love today. As Advent reminds us of these promises, let us embrace the full scope of salvation—a hope that is both cosmic and personal, spiritual and physical.
By recovering this vision, we can live in the present with purpose, planting seeds of love that will flourish in God's eternal Kingdom, where every tear will be wiped away and creation will rejoice in its freedom. Let this season of waiting inspire us to act with renewed conviction, knowing that the love we give today will endure into eternity.
Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay