Emmanuel – God With Us

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

King Ahaz reigned as king of Judah for sixteen years. During that time, Ahaz proved to be one of the worst kings in the history of that kingdom. At the beginning of his reign, Ahaz found himself hemmed in by his enemies. He sought aid from the Assyrians, but God had forbidden the Kings of Judah from aligning themselves with pagan countries. Consequently, the Prophet Isaiah challenges his decision to form an alliance and tells him to seek help from God rather than from Assyria. As we heard in the first reading, he refuses to ask God for a sign because he realizes that if God answers the request, he will be forced to accept God’s will rather than his own.

At this point, Isaiah utters the oracle that has become the foundation of our belief in the virgin birth of Jesus. Isaiah speaks of a miracle, an act of God, through which God chooses to become one of us. The child born of the virgin is both human and divine, the son of Mary and of the son of God.

The sign of which Isaiah speaks reverses the ordinary order of our world. Ordinarily, human beings would seek God. However, Isaiah tells us that because this human king refuses to seek God, God will seek the human race. Rather than man climbing the mountain to find God, God comes down from the mountain and is conceived in the womb of a virgin. This miraculous sign provides us with a vivid picture of just how much God loves us.

Today we also read the very first verses of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, his longest and most important contribution to the Christian Scriptures. The words that we read today are Paul’s greeting to the Christian community of Rome. However, these verses are much more than a greeting. Not only do they identify the man who is writing the letter, they also identify the people who are receiving it. St. Paul tells the people of Rome that he has been called by God as an apostle to preach the Gospel of God. He follows this up with an incredible statement: “Through Jesus WE have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles. . .” Let those words sink in for just a moment. Not only has God called Paul, God has also called us. Not only are we to become apostles, but we are also called to be holy. In other words, through our faith in Jesus, we are called to become saints, or as one of the Eucharistic Prayers says it: “Saints among the Saints in the halls of heaven.” The sign which Isaiah has given to this wicked king is also given to us. Jesus, born of a virgin, is both human and divine and is the pattern which we are called to follow to holiness. The fact that God lives among us, is one of us, means that not only are we created in God’s image, we are also called to live in such a way that God is seen in our actions.

Joseph’s reaction to Mary’s pregnancy is totally understandable. He knows that he is not the father of her child. According to the way of life in which he has been raised, to claim the son of another as his own would be dishonorable and the cause for shame. His decision to divorce himself from Mary is motivated by his desire to avoid anything dishonorable. When God reveals to him through the visitation of an angel while he sleeps that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit, Joseph comes to realize that God is acting through him just as God has chosen to act through Mary. Ever obedient to God’s will, Joseph accepts Mary as his wife. Though he only appears in the Gospel in the opening chapters of the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. Luke, his decision to accept God’s will has made him the just man which we consider him to be to this day.

We all need signs, all kinds of signs. Signs help us to find our destination. Signs inform us and direct us. Today we celebrate the sign that God has given us which tells us of our ultimate destination and the path that we should take to get there. In this last week of Advent, our thoughts are turned toward the culmination of God’s plan for our salvation, the birth of our Savior in Bethlehem of Judah.