4th. Sunday of Advent (A)
(Isaiah 7:10-14;
St. Paul to the Romans 1:1-7; St. Matthew 1:18-24)
The People of Israel had only come into existence by God's own
call: from a motley gathering of enslaved ethnic groups they became a people by
God’s choice; and as the People of God they could only prosper in existence by growing
in their trust of the God Who had called them into being. As the prophet Isaiah would tell them:
Thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy
One of Israel: By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet and in trust
your strength lies. (30:15)
Ahaz, king of Judah the homeland of God’s Chosen People,
was, however, a selfish and unreliable individual and, consequently, a faithless,
indeed disastrously faithless king. He
sacrificed to the gods of the Canaanites and, when pressed by enemies, would not trust in the Lord God of
Israel as Isaiah, God’s prophet, urged him to do, but rather turned to the
current super-power, the Assyrians, for more immediate and sensible help.
In the Old Testament, and in the Mediterranean world of
that time, the King of a country was regarded as son of the country’s God: whoever
the god of a nation might be, the king was regarded as his son and his chosen
instrument to bless, guide, and protect the nation. This was also the common understanding of the
relationship between Yahweh the one true God, and the
reigning king of Judah and of God’s Chosen People. However, the faith of Israel would not
tolerate any suggestion of such a son arising from the copulation of gods, or
from any carnal intercourse of a god with the queen mother; for Israel, only a relationship
as ‘adopted’ son of God was admissible for the proclamation and confirmation of
a new sovereign on the occasion of his coronation. Thus the words of Yahweh in Psalm 2 verse 7:
You are My son, today
I have begotten you.
You can imagine then the disgust Isaiah felt for this
present king Ahaz who -- supposedly a ‘son of God’ for Judah, an instrument of
God for the blessing of His Chosen People -- was, in reality, faithless before
the God of Judah and indifferent to the well-being of his people, being entirely
devoted to his own self-interest.
Therefore Isaiah prophesied in the name of the Lord as you heard:
Listen, O house of David! Is it
not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you
this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him
Immanuel.
The Great King who was to come, the Messiah, Emmanuel, would
be, quite literally, GOD-WITH-US. Ahaz,
had neither the faith, nor consequently, the trust, to live in difficult times
as God's instrument of blessing for His People.
The King to come however – Emmanuel -- would be God's very presence, not
simply on the basis of human faith and fidelity, but on the fact of His divine
origin and dignity: truly, the only Son of the only God; no mere instrument of blessing, but God’s very
Blessing Himself.
He would be no descendent of Ahaz the unworthy, because His
mother would be a Virgin. She would, indeed,
be totally unlike Ahaz who was most miserably and cynically failing his people
through distrust of God, for she would have such full and perfect trust in the
Lord, that Elizabeth -- under the impulse of the Spirit of God -- would declare
such faith and trust to be Mary the Virgin’s supreme characteristic:
Blessed are you who believed that
what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. (Luke. 1:45)
Let us now, therefore, look at both Ahaz and Our Lady and
learn what they, in their very different ways, teach us about the meaning of
Emmanuel, God-with-us; for God is with us not only as Saviour for all mankind,
not only with us as Head of the Body which is His Church, but also with each and
every one of us who believe, for the right-living and fulfilment of our earthly
lives and the attainment of our ultimate reward in heaven.
Despite the Lord's promise of divine blessing and help made
through Isaiah the prophet, Ahaz perversely put his trust in the military might
of Assyria, opting for a quick-fix that would provide personal advantage and
security at the cost of crushing taxes for the people as a whole. Mary, for her part, would ignore her own
precarious personal standing with her neighbours and look to the Lord alone,
putting her total confidence and trust in His word given her by the angel
Gabriel.
Ahaz feared for his throne and his life; Mary consecrated
her humility and her virginity to the Lord, despite thereby -- according to the
Law – putting her life at risk. Ahaz’ faithless
gamble turned out predictably -- or should we say prophetically -- to be
disastrous both for himself and his people.
Mary’s total trust that God would protect her was vindicated, and she has
been proclaimed blessed above all women on earth ever since.
Therefore God-is-with-us means that He is always with us to
lead us into, and protect us along, the right way if – setting aside both our human fears and our
personal pride -- we will, with confidence and trust, accept His
guidance. God-is-with-us to enlighten,
watch over, and help us, in all our needs; but such grace and power can only
flow into us through our faith and trust in Him and our obedience to His Spirit.
Finally, we can say the God-is-with-us means precisely what
it says: He wills to be with us as our constant companion: always sharing, and
involving Himself with us and for us, in every aspect of our experience of
life. In all situations, He wills to be
at our side -- whatever we may have made of ourselves thus far -- if only we
will turn to Him, humbly open ourselves up to Him, and trust Him. As the negro spiritual puts it most
beautifully: “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus”.
He is there, moreover, not only for our guidance, comfort,
and strength throughout our earthly pilgrimage, but also to lead us to the
Father, our eternal destiny: that we might to learn to love Him as Jesus loved
Him Who was, indeed, the supreme love of Jesus’ being-human on earth. To that end we have the Scriptures of Mother
Church where the very words and actions of Jesus respond to and fulfil the
preparations and anticipations of both the Law and the Prophets, and inspire
the writings of those disciples who most closely shared His public life and deeply understood the meaning and
purpose of His sufferings and death on the cross.
However, He is with us supremely in and through the Gift of
His Holy Spirit to Mother Church, and through her sacraments -- above all of
Baptism and the Eucharist -- to each and every loving disciple or humble
searcher. In this aspect we do not so
much imitate Jesus, His words, or His deeds, but rather He draws us -- often
enough unknown to our conscious awareness -- by the gift and the power of His
Spirit; for it is the work of His Spirit
to form us in Jesus for the Father. In that work we are largely being carried
along, so to speak; spending all our effort to remain close, and indeed, to get
ever closer, to Jesus through intimacy with the Scriptures and through prayer
and the sacraments. Then, looking most
hopefully for the Spirit to guide us, we try to be attentive and understanding,
responsive and obedient, to Him in all things. In that work there is so much to
rejoice in and be thankful for, but also, so little, so very, very, little to
boast of, since God’s prolific goodness is also most humbling.
Soon we will be able to celebrate with true joy and
gratitude the birth of Emmanuel -- Jesus Christ, the Co-eternal Son of God the
Eternal Father, become Son of Man. It is
eminently fitting, therefore, that today we celebrate her from whom the Son of
God took flesh in order to become the Lord and Saviour of mankind. Moreover, it is truly fitting that today, we
celebrate Mary precisely as the one who most perfectly surrendered herself in
trust and faith to the promise made her by the Lord, since it is in this regard,
supremely, that she is our model as well as our Mother; for St. Paul tells us
that faith and trust in God's word is the very essence of the Christian life for
all in Mother Church, when -- as you heard in our second reading – he declares:
Through (Jesus Christ our Lord) I
received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for
the sake of His name, among all the Gentiles.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at
the hour of our death, that we may have the grace both to live faithfully and
to die peacefully trusting in the goodness of God Who, in His great compassion,
has already gifted us with faith to believe in His only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord and Saviour, and has, thereby and above all, endowed us with His
Holy Spirit, to form us in the likeness of our Our Lord and Saviour and lead us
to that heavenly home which is already
prepared and waiting for all who will prove themselves His own true disciples,
and, in Him, children able to eternal glory to their heavenly Father and rejoice
the heart of You, the Mother of all believers.
