Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God-with-Us: the Fourth Sunday of Advent – Year A

Central idea: Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God-with-Us. Doctrine: The Incarnation. Practical application: An Act of Faith in the Incarnation.

To view the Lectionary 10 readings, click here.

Central Idea: Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God-with-Us

Reading 1 Is 7:10-14

The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!

But Ahaz answered,
“I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!”

Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.

• Ahaz was King of Judah and a descendant of David. He was immoral, idolatrous, and even sacrificed one of his sons to Moloch.
• It was the worst of times for Israel, yet God promised a Son of David who would be “God-with-us.”
• This Son would be a tremendous sign of God’s favor, a sign deeper than the netherworld, higher than the sky.
• And now that it has taken place, we can see even more about this tremendous sign. The virgin is not a maiden who married, conceived in the natural way, and had a great son. She was one who conceived while a virgin and the child is really God.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6

R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.

The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.

Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.

He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.

• Human beings desire God to dwell with them, but how can the invisible, immaterial God live with us? He can through the Incarnation.
• What is the requirement for us to actually dwell with God? We must be like God: we must have sinless hands and a clean heart and not be filled with vain desires.
• Those who are like God are not only those, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose hands have always been sinless, whose hearts have always been clean, and who have never desired what is vain.
• Those who are like God are also those, like us, who have been redeemed by Christ and who have amended their lives so that when they arrive their hands are sinless, their hearts clean, their desires right.

Reading 2 Rom 1:1-7

Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,
called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God,
which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
the gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh,
but established as Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through him we have received the grace of apostleship,
to bring about the obedience of faith,
for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,
among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Paul has authority to speak because Christ called him to announce the gospel to the Gentiles, to non-Jews. The gospel or “glad tidings” Paul announces is that Jesus Christ is the descendent of David and the holy Son of God promised by the Old Testament prophets, like Isaiah. He is Emmanuel, God-with-Us.
• He is established as Lord through his resurrection from the dead.
• The Gentiles are called to belong to him and he brings to us holiness, grace, and peace.

Gospel Mt 1:18-24

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.

Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.

• Paul announced “the gospel about [God’s] Son, descended from David according to the flesh.” Here, the angel explains to Joseph, son of David, that “through the Holy Spirit” Mary’s “child has been conceived in her.”
• Paul announced the call to “the obedience of faith” to “belong to Jesus Christ” so as “to be holy.” The angel explains that Joseph is to name this child of Mary and the Holy Spirit “Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins,” so they can be holy. Joseph exercises this obedience of faith because “he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”
• The virgin Mary conceived and bore a son who is literally Emmanuel, God-with-Us, and who is named Jesus, literally God Saves, because he will save his people from their sins.
• This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesy, the sign or miracle God gave Ahaz.
  • The Virgin conceived a human and divine Son, so God did and still does dwell with us.
  • Consequently, he could and did descend to “the netherworld” to save us from sin and ascend “high as the sky” into heaven to bring us up there with him into eternal life.

Doctrine: The Incarnation

• Paul announced the reality of the resurrection of Christ from the dead for our salvation. But before this, the angel Gabriel announced the reality of the living God becoming a living man. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, “became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.” (CCC 464)
• In the Incarnation, or “becoming flesh,” God became man. Jesus Christ is one divine person who has united to himself a complete human nature:

The Son of God . . . worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin. (CCC 470)

• This precise definition of the nature of Jesus Christ illuminates how God can be Emmanuel, how God can dwell with us and we can dwell with him.

Practical Application: An Act of Faith in the Incarnation

• Ahaz was disobedient to God. Paul recommends to the Gentiles the “obedience of faith.” Mary and Joseph lived this obedience of faith.
• We live the obedience of faith by believing what God has revealed and living a holy and blameless life, which is always an on-going project.
• As this Advent comes to an end, it might be good to simply dwell on the thought that the Blessed Virgin Mary carried God, the Christ Child, in her womb.
• We can also do that while we meditate on the traditional “act of faith”:

O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three Divine Person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; I believe that Thy Divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, who canst neither deceive nor be deceived. Amen.

The Homiletic Directory recommends these Catechism points and themes for these Lectionary readings:

• CCC 496-507, 495: Mary’s virginal motherhood
• CCC 437, 456, 484-486, 721-726: Mary the Mother of Christ by the Holy Spirit
• CCC 1846: Jesus as Savior revealed to Joseph
• CCC 445, 648, 695: Christ the Son of God in his Resurrection
• CCC 143-149, 494, 2087: the “obedience of faith”