The Lord, before His incarnation, let mankind experience all the bitterness of sin, all their powerlessness to eradicate it; and when all longed for a Deliverer, then He appeared — the most wise, all-powerful Physician and Helper. When men hungered and thirsted after righteousness as it grew weaker, then the Everlasting Righteousness came.

– St. John of Kronstadt, “My Life in Christ”

Worth considering, as we look back on another of the Church’s many hundreds of Advent seasons. I think we all remember that Advent is a two-for-one, right? We commemorate the First Advent, and we anticipate the Second Advent — not with all the speculation and pointless guesswork that we love so much, but with faith, discernment and a little sobriety.

“When men hungered and thirsted after righteousness as it grew weaker, then the Everlasting Righteousness came.”

I think the world does hunger and thirst now, though it no longer has enough sense to even figure out what it’s yearning for. The worst and most sordid elements of our society seem to crave a kind of cleanliness, order, purpose, peace and simplicity while running further and further away from anything that might actually secure those good things. (Did you ever wonder why so many jaded and cynical types live their lives looking for anything — ANYTHING — to get them “back to the Garden”?)

When Christ came to Israel, the spiritual leaders didn’t recognize Him. Even the disciples mistook His mission, asking Him after the resurrection if He was going to restore Israel (i.e. if He was going to be Moses 2.0). We think we’re ready now. We think the world has gotten bad enough, so it must be time.

There’s so much we don’t know, but how much of that is because we don’t want to know?