4th
Sunday of Advent (Year C)
First
Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14 Second
Reading: Romans 1:1-7 Gospel
Reading: Matthew 1:18-24
“BEHOLD, THE
VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL NAME HIM
EMMANUEL.”
Three
days were left for Christmas. Getting up early in the morning, the
wife said to her husband, “Honey! Last night I had a dream and
in the dream you gave me a beautiful golden necklace as present for
Christmas. What could that mean?” The husband smiled and said,
“Wait and see.”
Next
morning as soon as she woke up the wife again said to her husband,
“Honey! Last night again I had the same dream and in the dream
you gave me a beautiful golden necklace as present for Christmas.
What could that mean?” And again the husband smiled and said,
“Wait and see.”
On
the third morning the wife said to her husband the same thing and the
husband also gave her the same reply.
Finally,
the Christmas Day arrived and the wife saw her Christmas present
wrapped in a beautiful package and kept on her table. Excited as she
was, thinking that her tricks worked, immediately she opened it
expecting a beautiful golden necklace. But unfortunately to her great
disappointment she found a book instead. And the title of the book
was – “THE MEANINGS OF DREAMS”.
In the Gospel Reading of today we come across a
man – St. Joseph, to whom the angel of God always spoke in his
dreams and always he listened to them and in obedience of faith acted
as he was told. He was a righteous man and he played an important part
in God's plan of salvation of mankind. Actually, he was the hope of
the prophesy of the Prophet Isaiah.
Today
is the 4th Sunday of Advent - the last Sunday prior to the feast of Christmas. We are at the threshold of Christmas. The
birth of Jesus is now imminent. In a few days’ time we will be
celebrating the memory of that great event. Throughout Advent, we
have heard of God’s promise to send a Liberator - a Savior into the
world; today, we catch a glimpse of how that is to be accomplished
and
to some extent, we can associate with the greatest joy of the Blessed
Virgin Mary who awaited the coming of Baby Jesus into the world.
In
the First Reading of today from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah,
Isaiah asks Ahaz, the king of Judah, to put his trust in God and God
will offer him any sign he wishes. When the king refuses, God himself
gives him the sign of a Savior to be born. In the Second Reading
from his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul sums up his good news to the
early Christians by telling them that Christ is a descendent of David
and the Son of God. In the Gospel Reading from St. Matthew, we are
told about the events surrounding the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
St. Joseph, who is specially chosen by God to be His instrument, is
informed in a dream that his wife Mary is with child by the Holy
Spirit. This way, St. Joseph also enters fully into the mystery of
the Divine plan of Salvation and becomes a part of it by being the
father(foster) of Jesus to give him the throne of
David.
“THE
VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE AND BEAR A SON, AND SHALL NAME HIM EMMANUEL.”
In
the First Reading of today, we have the 'Emmanuel-prophesy'
of the Prophet Isaiah. He speaks of the promise of a Messiah and a
Messianic era. As a background for this: The
kingdoms of Syria and Israel had already invaded Judah but failed to
capture Jerusalem. To save his kingdom and the Davidic dynasty, Ahaz,
the king of Judah, decides to align with the Assyrians who did not
have the faith culture that the Hebrews had. Ahaz had already
forsaken God, and was living a bad life, sacrificing to idols and
even had murdered his own son as a sacrifice to pagan idols. The
prophet Isaiah, an adviser to King Ahaz, can only see trouble from a
political alliance with the Assyrians. So he opposes the plan arguing
that the dynasty of King David is not going to be preserved by his
playing politics but by putting his trust in God. It is God's power
which will save him and his kingdom from his enemies. But Ahaz is not
able to place his trust in God; he would rather trust human aid to
accomplish what he needed. But Isaiah will not relent and he asks the
king to ask God for a sign. Ahaz is afraid and he refuses to ask for
the sign. Just the same Isaiah reveals the sign, "Therefore
the Lord himself will give you this sign: the
virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel."
The name 'Emmanuel' comes
from a grouping of Hebrew words and means 'God
is with us.'
We see St. Matthew
quoting this 'Emmanuel-prophesy'
of Isaiah in today's Gospel passage, to show that this is being
fulfilled in Virgin Mary, who is betrothed to St. Joseph belonging to
King David dynasty.
“JOSEPH,
SON OF DAVID, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO TAKE MARY YOUR WIFE INTO YOUR
HOME”:
In
the Gospel Reading
of today, St. Matthew provides us with the circumstances surrounding
the virgin birth of Jesus and its clear affirmation. However, he also
wants to communicate to us a sense of how dramatic this divine action
was. Actually, there are three famous biblical personalities that
dominate the Advent season viz. Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary.
But suddenly today a fourth biblical personality appears ever so
briefly in the Gospels and then disappears: St. Joseph. While St.
Luke presents the infancy narrative through the main character of
Mary, St. Matthew builds the story around the person of Joseph. In
both accounts there is an angelic appearance: in one case to Mary and
in the other to Joseph. Mary is told in St. Luke’s gospel that she
is to bear a son. When she says that she is still a virgin, she is
told that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and her child will be
the Son of God, the Most High. In Joseph’s case, he
is told not to be afraid to take Mary home as his wife,
because, the child with whom she is carrying is of the Holy Spirit.
The stories presented in both the narratives are different but the
central message is the same. Mary is the mother of the Child but
Joseph is not the father and he is given a new mission.
Now,
St. Matthew begins with Mary, Jesus' mother, as betrothed to Joseph.
But before they lived together, she was found with child. Among the
Jews, betrothal was the first part of the marriage, constituting a
man and woman as husband and wife though their normal married life
would only begin some months later. Thus any subsequent infidelity
was considered adultery which was punished with death by stoning.
Divorce was allowed, but usually only initiated by the
husband and was done publicly, so everyone would know the reason. So,
Joseph is not out of line in the story when he decides he must
divorce his pregnant wife. St. Matthew gives Joseph a very wonderful
character, however. When Joseph finds out that Mary is pregnant and
he knows he is not the father, he undergoes a severe crisis. But he
has such respect for Mary that he does not want to expose her
publicly, but will do it in private, so not to shame her. But even
this 'inspired' decision of
Joseph is not enough for God. Joseph is part of His grandiose plan
for the salvation of mankind. So, God intervenes. In a dream, an
angel tells Joseph about the mystery surrounding Mary's pregnancy,
that she is conceived 'through the Holy
Spirit.' For his part, Joseph is to be the husband of Mary
and the foster father of her and God's Son.
Continuing his narrative,
Matthew says that when Joseph awoke, he did as the angel had
commanded him and 'took
his wife into his home.' Joseph listens to the
angel. He listens and he acts on what he hears. Though Joseph played
second fiddle to Mary, he was nonetheless to play a major role in
God's plan. He was to provide Mary and Jesus with the needed care and
protection. We may ask how Joseph was able to carry out all his
duties and responsibilities. The answer is simple: he placed himself
completely at the disposal of God - as Mary did with her 'fiat'
('Be it done to me') when the
angel Gabriel told her she was going to be the mother of the Son of
God. In carrying out their respective missions, both Mary and Joseph
put their trust completely in God. And through their cooperation, God
was able to bring His redemptive plan for mankind to its successful
completion.
Thereafter, Matthew
draws the connection of the virgin birth of Jesus quoting the Prophet
Isaiah, saying, "All
this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the
prophet: 'Behold,
the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name
him Emmanuel,'
which means 'God is with us.'"
Jesus is the very presence of God the Father in our world. The
effectiveness of that presence depends on our conscious union with
Jesus and with the vision of his Gospel lived out in our daily lives.
Let Jesus be really re-born in each one of us this Christmas. The
Lord wants to enter into our hearts. We should be like Joseph and
Mary who put their total trust in divine providence. As we continue
with the celebration of the Holy Mass, let us pray for all Christians
that they may prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord and
welcome Jesus like Mary and Joseph, to receive his joy and peace.
JESUS
– THE SON OF A WOMAN AND THE SON OF GOD:
Today's
Second
Reading forms the introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans and
carries his beautiful salutation to the Christian community at Rome
wishing them the very best, “Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Here
St. Paul considers himself to be 'a
slave of Christ Jesus'
and 'an
apostle'
set apart to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. He speaks about two
over-riding aspects of Jesus Christ: his humanity
and his divinity.
As to Jesus' humanity, he affirms that Jesus is a
descendant of King David
as prophesied through the Prophet Isaiah; that he is human, born of
the flesh, born
of a woman.
And as to Jesus' divinity, he asserts that Jesus is the
Son of God
with power according to the spirit of holiness by
resurrection from the dead.
Through the mystery of incarnation, the Son of God became one with us
– sharing the hopes and fears that we have in our imperfections.
Through the paschal mystery of his passion, death and resurrection,
the true nature of Jesus as Son of God was fully manifested. Indeed,
Christmas and Easter are intimately woven as warp and woof of
salvation history.
St. Paul further says
that through Jesus Christ he and his companions have received grace
and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among
all the Gentiles for the
sake of the Name of Jesus. This calling of obedience of faith is a
calling to the entire human race. It is a calling to each and every
one of us to feed upon the Word of God for our spiritual growth so
that we may go forward to teach and defend the Gospel of Our Lord
Jesus.
CONCLUSION:
The
Lord has come,
the Lord is here, and the Lord is coming again. In two days, we will
commemorate his coming on earth in human flesh. This moment of
worship, a great Feast that unites heaven and earth, will be one of
joy and praise for all the faithful who will gather around the
spiritual table of the Lord to receive the Sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist. Anticipation and preparedness are the watchwords for this
Sunday of Advent. In this immediate preparation for the birthday of
our Lord, we delve into the meaning of him who is God’s gift to us
- whose 'advent'
or coming into our life we deeply long for. The Messiah would come as
a child. He is the 'Emmanuel,'
which means 'God
with us.'
And God is indeed in our midst. Born of the Virgin Mary through the
power of the Holy Spirit and fostered by Joseph of the House of
David, Jesus would save his people from sin. He is the radical
revelation of faithful love and the fullest expression of saving
life. May Mary and Joseph continue to be models and our examples of
faith and trust in God as we encounter Christ, the son of God, the
Light of world and the Prince of peace at Christmas. And this is the
Good News of today.
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