Preface of Praise: 1st Advent Preface

There are two prefaces used for the four Sundays of Advent; the great solemnity of Christmas has three prefaces.  Neither of the Advent prefaces are assigned to a particular Sunday, so I assume it's up to the presider as to which he uses.

The preface has the usual beginning:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.

...but that shouldn't mean we gloss over it.  We have a duty to give thanks to God, given how HUGE of a gift He gave us.  We may feel that this an odd way of thinking--like the Church is saying that we're forced to have such an attitude.  Doesn't that fly in the face of our God-given free will?  It's understandable to have that thought, but it's missing an important element: the magnitude of God's gift to humanity.  Eternal life!  The promise of infinite love!  Can we really thank God enough??  In light of that, is it really that much of a stretch to say that we have a duty to offer temporal, finite thanks for an eternal, awesome gift?

For He assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh,
and so fulfilled the design You formed long ago,
and opened for us the way to eternal salvation,
that, when He comes again in glory and majesty,
and all is at last made manifest,
we who watch for that day
may inherit the great promise in which now we dare to hope.
And so, with Angels and Archangels...

The first two lines harken back to Eden.  Lest we forget, sin wasn't part of what God wanted for humanity.  It was humanity that chose sin, and thereby ushered suffering into the world.  God wasn't content to leave us to our own devices--through Jesus, the way, the Truth, and the life, the "way for eternal salvation" was shown to us.

One big theme in this preface appears twice: Jesus' coming, the literal meaning of the word "advent.  The missionary impetus of the Catholic Church grew out of Jesus' command at the end of His first coming (go to the final few verses of Matthew's gospel) and anticipated His second coming.  We just finished up a couple weeks of second coming/end of the world readings at Mass and it's a subject of which the Church reminds us.  Remember: look ahead to the life to come.  Take care of your soul, for we never know when the Lord will call us home.

What awaits us is "the great promise" of our Lord, the author and deepest desire of our hearts!