This is Advent. And if we reflect on all the things that we, like Job conversing with God, would have to say, we realize with complete urgency to what extent even today, even for us, this is Advent. I think we should simply and before all else accept this. Advent is a reality also for the Church. God did not divide history into two halves, one bright and the other dark. He did not separate men into those he has redeemed and those he has forgotten. There is but one indivisible history, which as a whole is marked by man’s weakness and wretchedness and which as a whole stands under God’s merciful love that increasingly envelops and sustains this history. Our century compels us to learn anew the truth of Advent: the truth, namely, that Advent always has been and yet still is; that all of mankind is one in God’s eyes; that all of mankind stands in darkness; and yet that all of mankind is also illuminated by God’s light. But if it is true that Advent has always been and is still perduring, then this means also that no era in history could look on God as in a sense pertaining only to the past, a past we have left behind and in which everything has already been accomplished. God is rather for us all the origin from whence we come but also the future toward which we are ever on the way.
From: Vom Sinn des Christseins, p. 30
