St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) set aside a wealthy future for love of God.

Despite initial family resistance, he decided to enter the new Cistercian Abbey of Notre Dame in Citeaux, France. His siblings and widowed father eventually followed suit in choosing a spiritual yet religious life.

Young Bernard’s training in the verbal arts rose to the top with the sacred page. This he treated as more than an academic subject: you might call it “theology on one’s knees.” He went on to write many letters and sermons, including one that serves us well in this liturgical season of Advent.

The last two “Sundays after Pentecost” overlap with the first two weeks of Advent by sharpening our focus on the Second Coming. The Scripture readings in those weeks are apocalyptic (from the Greek “apo,” meaning “from” and “kaluptein,” to veil), literally revealing God’s ultimate victory.

The Catholic Church’s official daily extension of the Mass, the “Liturgy of the Hours,” reveals through one of Bernard’s sermons a third coming of Christ, beyond the two that Advent (Latin for “coming”) overtly promotes. Indeed, Bernard said the first two are visible: the first in flesh as a baby in Bethlehem, and the second in glory at the end of time.

In the third, more covert coming, “only the chosen see Him, and they see Him within themselves; and so their souls are saved.” As for who exactly is “chosen,” we had better tend to love everyone and let God sort it out. Everyone traverses the human road that “leads from the first coming to the last,” where Jesus serves as “rest and consolation” for those who desire Him.

In support of this meanwhile Advent, Bernard cited Jesus Himself: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words, and the Father will love him, and We will come to him” (John 14:23). He further quoted the Psalmist: “I have hidden Your sayings in my heart, so that I do not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11).

Not only to avoid sin, but to clarify our likeness to God, should we allow His holy Word to “penetrate deep into the core of your soul and then flow out again in your feelings and the way you behave.” To this end, my parish is beginning a Saturday morning Bible Study that is more of a “Lectio Divina,” a prayerful engagement with the weekly prescribed Bible readings.

The Second Vatican Council’s document on the Sacred Liturgy mentioned the Scriptures among several modes of Christ’s presence. He visits our corporate worship as we gather for it in word and song. He comes in the person of the minister ordained for divine service, and especially in the Eucharistic species, where Christ is “veiled” under the appearances of bread and wine.

That same Council affirmed Christ as no less present in all the Sacraments, by which human beings enjoy His healing mercy and serve Him in each other. He speaks in “His people, the sheep of His flock” (Psalm 100:3), even if we hide that speech with our unkindness, untruth, and impurity, or if our judgments rest upon conditions external and unrelated to Christ’s presence.

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), where the original Greek rendered “within” suggests both personal and interpersonal inhabitation. Search, therefore, within others and within yourself, and let that search bring you around to those most reliable revelations of His glory, word and sacrament.