A Coming Christ in Advent

One of Raymond Brown's most enduring and significant works is THE BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH. It is without a doubt the most helpful work for preparing Advent and Christmas homilies as well as Bible studies based on the Advent and Christmas seasons. Though it's filled with great information, it's not quick reading by any stretch of the imagination. A quick reference guide would be more than appreciated by most readers and A COMING CHRIST IN ADVENT and its companion volume AN ADULT CHRIST AT CHRISTMAS, both published by Liturgical Press, serve this purpose. A COMING CHRIST IN ADVENT looks at the major stories in Matthew and Luke associated with Advent: The Annunciation to Mary, the Visitation, and Magnificat; The Annunciation to Zechariah, birth of John the Baptist, and Benedictus; Matthew's genealogy of Jesus Christ and Joseph's encounter with the angel. He treats each story separately and encourages readers to do the same, believing that combining the stories can take away from the overall message. He also warns about worrying too much about historical accuracy, believing that doing so can away from the beauty and message of the texts. Readers familiar with Brown's writings know that when he states this, he's not arguing against a scholarly study of the Infancy Narratives, but rather is encouraging readers not to get so boggled down in details that the message is either missed or ignored. Because it's a slender volume, it's perfect for an Advent Bible Study series or spiritual reading for people who combine scripture study and prayer. At such a busy time of the year, people want substance but often don't have time for lengthier works. This volume is perfect for that purpose. It's also great for preparing a homily, since it has major themes specifically for Advent. It also has footnotes with references for THE BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH which makes it a great beginning for further research.

I found spiritual insight in this slim volume by Fr. Raymond E Brown, S.S. "A COMING CHRIST in ADVENT" is a collection of essays on the gospel narratives preparing for the birth of Jesus. As such, it is a commentary of the first chapters of Matthew and Luke. The subjects include the genealogy of the CHRIST, Jesus, as presented in Matthew, the three Annunciations as well as the Benedictus. The subject is given the characteristic thoroughness Fr Brown applies to his larger works. Two themes which I found intriguing are first, that the Lucan Infacy Narratives contain figures from the Hebrew Scriptures (Zechariah and Elizabeth) and Gospel figures (John, the Baptist) encountering each other in order to bridge the two periods of GOD's salvific action. The second theme which was presented in a new light for me is the role of Mary as a disciple of the CHRIST. Fr Brown writes, "In all of this Luke has anticipated a christological terminology that is appropriate to Jesus' ministry and beyond." Jesus defines 'family' in terms of accepting his gospel about the LORD (Mark 3:35; Luke 8:21). Mary's answer in the Annunciation is "Let it be done to me according to your word." Again, from Fr Brown, "The evangelist is descrbing not only one who is consenting to be the physical mother of Jesus but also and very importantly one who meets Jesus' criterion for his family of disciples -- indeed the first one." If you are interested in understanding the Gospel message in the Infancy Narratives, this book will be interesting to you.

Raymond E. Brown is best known for his large The Birth of the Messiah and the two volumes on the death of Christ. Those are readable texts aimed at a more scholarly crowd. A Coming of Christ in Advent is one of a group of slim volumes that collect his essays for magazines. In these essays he shows the same skill for scholarly work and equal skill at making it meaningful to today's Christian - not as Biblical study but as meaningful to one's life.My favorite section in this particular volume is the study of the genealogy in Matthew's Gospel - the points regarding the women mentioned as all being "outsiders" was one of several provocative points. I'm sure other readers would pick out different highlights depending upon the conditions under which they read the book - there are many possible highlights to chose between.