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Office Of Readings | Advent Wednesday Week 1 | A Reading From A Sermon By Saint Bernard | The Word Of God Will Come Within Us
‘The word of God will come within us.’
Saint Bernard returns us to the core Advent mystery: Christ comes to us not only in history and at the end of time, but also now—quietly, inwardly, transforming the heart. Bernard’s teaching is characteristically clear and architectural: three comings, three modes of divine presence, three points along the path of Christian life. Yet the emphasis is unwaveringly experiential. Bernard is not giving us a speculative map but a description of how grace actually works in the soul.
Bernard begins by naming the three comings: the first in the flesh at Bethlehem, the final in glory at the consummation of all things, and the ‘middle coming’ which lies hidden and discerned only by the elect. This third coming is the true subject of his reflection. For Bernard, Advent is not merely a remembrance of the past nor a preparation for the future, but a present reality in which Christ seeks entry into the depths of one’s life. The invisible coming is real, active, and decisive. It is the Lord’s approach to those who ‘keep his word’—that is, those who have allowed the gospel to penetrate the interior sanctuary where choices are made and desires are shaped.
Here Bernard introduces a deeply biblical reading of the heart as the dwelling place of God’s Word. Citing the psalmist, he insists that the Word must be ‘hidden’ in the heart—not concealed from others, but lodged deeply enough to become the governing principle of life. When the Word is kept in this way, it acts upon the soul. It enters desire, reshapes habits, nourishes the will, strengthens the affections. For Bernard, this is not metaphorical language; it is the concrete way grace operates. We ‘feed on goodness’ because the Word becomes food, sustenance, inner vitality. The heart that refuses such nourishment ‘withers’—Bernard’s description of the spiritual famine that comes from neglecting prayer, Scripture, and fidelity.
The middle coming thus becomes a road, a pathway linking Bethlehem to the Last Day. Bernard’s imagery here is striking: Christ is our redemption in the first coming, our life in the final coming, and our ‘rest and consolation’ in the present one. Advent, then, is not simply an anticipation but a journey in which Christ accompanies and steadies the pilgrim soul. It is the time in which the Lord’s quiet visitation produces the interior renewal that prepares us for glory.
Finally, Bernard widens the horizon. Just as the sin of Adam spread universally, so Christ intends to take possession of all humanity, renewing creation from within. The middle coming is the beginning of this reclamation. It is the moment Christ enters the individual heart so that, in the end, he may glorify the whole of redeemed humanity. Bernard’s vision is profoundly hopeful: the quiet entrance of Christ now anticipates the universal transfiguration to come. The hidden arrival in the believer is the seed of the world’s final restoration.
In this way, Bernard’s teaching gives Advent its proper shape: a season of attentiveness, receptivity, and inner hospitality. The Lord who once came and will come again desires to come now—into the heart that listens, welcomes, and keeps his word.
A Reading From A Sermon By Saint Bernard | The Word Of God Will Come Within Us
We know that there are three comings of the Lord. The third lies between the other two. It is invisible, while the other two are visible. In the first coming he was seen on earth, dwelling among men; he himself testifies that they saw him and hated him. In the final coming all flesh will see the salvation of our God, and they will look on him whom they pierced. The intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it only the elect see the Lord within their own selves, and they are saved. In his first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and in power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty.
In case someone should think that what we say about this middle coming is sheer invention, listen to what our Lord himself ways: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him. There is another passage of Scripture which reads: He who fears God will do good, but something further has been said about the one who loves, that is, that he will keep God’s word. Where is God’s word to be kept? Obviously in the heart, as the prophet says: I have hidden your words in my heart, so that I may not sin against you.
Keep God’s word in this way. Let it enter into your very being, let it take possession of your desires and your whole way of life. Feed on goodness, and your soul will delight in its richness. Remember to eat your bread, or your heart will wither away. Fill your soul with richness and strength.
Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation.
If you keep the word of God in this way, it will also keep you. The Son with the Father will come to you. The great Prophet who will build the new Jerusalem will come, the one who makes all things new. This coming will fulfil what is written: As we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly man. Just as Adam’s sin spread through all mankind and took hold of all, so Christ, who created and redeemed all, will glorify all, once he takes possession of all.
Christian Prayer With Jesus
Lord Jesus Christ,
You who came in humility, who will come in glory,
and who now come quietly to the hearts that long for You—
grant us grace to receive Your Word with reverence and love.
Make our hearts a dwelling-place for Your presence.
Let Your truth take root in us,
guiding our desires, strengthening our weakness,
and bringing rest to our restless spirits.
May this holy season prepare us for Your final appearing,
that we who welcome You now in faith
may rejoice to behold You in glory.
Come to us, Lord, and make all things new.
Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Advent – The liturgical season of waiting and preparation for the coming of Christ: historically in his birth, spiritually in the present, and fully at the end of time.
Redemption – Christ’s saving work by which humanity is freed from sin and restored to right relationship with God.
Glory – The manifested splendour of God’s presence; in the final coming, the radiance of Christ revealed to all creation.
Elect – Those who respond to God’s grace and, through fidelity, perceive and welcome his hidden work within the heart.
Incarnation – The mystery of the Son of God taking on human flesh and becoming man for our salvation.
The Word (Logos) – A title for Christ, especially in his eternal divine identity as the Word spoken by the Father.
Sanctification – The process by which God makes the believer holy, inwardly transformed by grace.
Final Coming (Parousia) – Christ’s return at the end of time, when he will judge the world and bring his kingdom to fulfillment.
The Heart – In biblical and monastic theology, the inner centre of the person: the seat of thought, desire, intention, and encounter with God.
Consolation – Spiritual comfort or strengthening given by God, particularly in times of trial or struggle.
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Most of the signs Christ describes to his listeners in the eschatological discourse had already been realized by the time Luke’s first audience would have heard his Gospel. There had been, and were, wars, persecutions, family conflict, and Jerusalem with the Temple had been destroyed. The Christians of Luke’s time listening to these Gospel verses, of today and since Tuesday, could then have been encouraged to know that they were very close to Christ’s full revelation, his apocalypse, and so have courage to bear persecutions and other great challenges of the early Church [ … ]
We process. Glass exhibition cases, old reliquaries. A forearm here; here a nun’s fingertip. In chapel, at a glance, there are the usual faces. But they all stand to attention. Jonathan breaks from the procession to – fire the organ with oomph and dignity: Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice. When we’ve done the readings, the Arch holds that tree in his hands to deliver the homily. He rocks quietly on his feet, some few seconds, as if balance defeated it. A way you might affect as the Spirit moves… Copying. Then he says: ‘Our palm fronds may seem to us today rather dry. I mean this not in a literal sense, but by the standards of those who originally lined the roadways in order to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, as they proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, who would be clambering up and ripping their palm branches fresh from off the trees. 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When I was a boy, there was a May Day festival, and there was a May pole on the field, with the people dancing, like Morris dancers might be one way of visualizing this if you’ve never seen it, with their ribbons tied onto the top of the May pole, and they would weave around each other, dressing the pole, which is what we called it. It was like a dance with red and white and blue ribbons all hung off of the top of the May pole, which stood there all year, only like a telegraph pole, but it was concreted in, and then there was a slide, and swings – one baby-swing and two you could have a go at – terrible health and safety but that’s what it was in those days. ‘There was a round-a-bout – we used to run it round and round to try to get it off its central axis. It were rusty as anything and creaked like mad – on concrete. And climb up where it was all greased up at the top. Ruth, who was big as the next four of us, used to sit there sucking on the lollipops we nicked for her from Raddies, and she’d direct matters. We were trying to destroy it, and get it to dislodge from its central axis, and fly away – roll off into that farmer’s field, which he only ever kept for silage, but we never succeeded. There was a car someone had left there so we spent forever smashing that up, until someone who lived in one of the houses there took exception to our doing that, so he put thick grease under the door handles and gave us a right talking to. ‘It would only be a few stands, hot-dogs and things like that. The man selling the hot dogs would have his records on full blast. There’d be a couple of set-up stalls. Air-rifles – that sort of thing. But we all had them, and we all went shooting, of course, if not with twelve bores then with smaller gauge. 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