Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A

Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A

In today’s entrance antiphon, from Isaiah 45:8, Prophet Isaiah prophecies and prays, “Drop down dew from above, you heavens, and let the clouds rain down the Just One; let the earth be opened and bring forth a Saviour”.

This powerful prayer and prophecy seems to describe where we are in our advent waiting.  It might be important to know that, at the time this prophecy came, God’s people had returned from exile but still awaited the complete fulfilment of God’s promises of restoration. This prophecy, as it were, represents the urgency of their need for a  saviour, the Just One who was coming from above to bring  dew to calm  down and  to refresh the dry and waste places of God’s people.

For us, we are precisely one week away from Christmas, a time of  joyful celebration of an event that changed the course of our lives and restored our hope and as it were, rained down dew on our lives. Like the last lap in our advent journey which we began four weeks ago, the readings now zoom in very closely to Mary as the one through whom was fulfilled the ancient prophecy of a just one, of a Saviour whose presence will be like the dew of heavens and a sign of God’s abiding presence with his people as Emmanuel (God with us). 

Hence, our first reading from Isaiah 7:10-14 takes us back to an ancient prophecy about the birth of  a Son who shall be called Immanuel,  but not just that. It also foretold that this shall be accomplished through a Virgin.  By the way the original Hebrew text says, “a girl is with child and will bear a son”. But some 200 years BC later, a Greek translation renders it, “The Virgin is with Child. The Evangelist  Matthew in the Gospel of Matthew made that connection and sees in this prophecy a prophecy of the birth of Jesus Christ by the Virgin Mary. The words of the Angel Gabriel at the annunciation also reinforces this interpretation.

And mind you, this prophecy came at about 736 BC when King Ahaz of Judah was king and for fear of being taken over by Babylon he wanted to enter into an alliance with foreign powers that will, eventually and contrary to his desire bring about the ruin of God’s people. Because he was ignorant of the consequences of his intended alliance with these foreign nations, through the Prophet Isaiah the Lord invited him to trust in God rather than in these proposed alliances. King Ahaz did not want to commit to such trust. Yet to reassure the King, the Lord says to him through Isaiah to ask for a sign from the Lord to show that God will be with him and will not let him fall into the hands of his enemies. King Ahaz still couldn’t see God delivering him from his enemies. He would rather take his destiny into his hands.  So, he preferred to trust his alliance with men  rather than his alliance with God the Most high, the Lord of Host.  He shies away from the courage of faith and says instead, “I will not put the Lord to the test”.

It was at the height of this faithlessness and fear, that the Lord, regardless of his unbelief gave him a sign of God’s abiding presence and the peace that will come afterwards. Here God shows again that his faithfulness can never to weakened by our unfaithful and that our Lack of trust will never hinder his trusting love towards us.  Thus, Isaiah says, “the maiden is with Child and will soon give birth to a son whom will be called Immanuel, a name which means God is with us.

This prophecy was probably in St Paul’s mind as he wrote to the Romans in today’s second reading from Romans 1:1-7 and called it Good News about the Son of God  through whom we have received grace, who according to the human flesh he took was a descendant of David. He calls it a promise that  the Lord had made long ago through his prophets in the scriptures.

Now, Convinced that Jesus is truly the just One, the saviour,  the Immanuel whose birth is a sign of God’s abiding presence with his people, through whom the heavenly dew of peace falls on humanity often harassed by the many threats of life as King Ahaz experienced and was cowered to seek  alliance with friendly enemies that would eventually bring God’s people to ruin, St Matthew gives a genealogy of Jesus. In that genealogy we see that Jesus, certainly was genealogically the Son of Mary and not of Joseph. However, it was through Joseph’s adoption of Jesus that Jesus was brought into the line of David. And this was really important if Jesus was going to be  the fulfilment of the Messianic prophecies. This adoption of Jesus into the Davidic line reminds us of our own adoption into the kingdom of light as sons and daughters of God.

Through Jesus Christ, we who were far off, gentiles and pagan nations who were not primarily of the house of David, are also adopted into the Abrahamic line, into the family of God through the obedience of faith.  Therefore, we are not afraid to trust him when problems and wars loom all around. We are not afraid to trust in Immanuel, the God with us who alone is able to save us.  In Jesus, whose birth we will celebrate next Sunday, we have an eternal Sign that victory await us come what may. King Ahaz could not see how God was going grant him victory over his enemies, but by his grace we do see that in the Son that is given us and in the child that is born to us, we have a sure hope of an everlasting glory for truly he is our Saviour, the Just one and the one who rains down upon us the heavenly dew of peace.

So, as we continue in this last lap of our advent journey, we pray for the grace to trust God even in the face of great danger , just like God through a dream invited Joseph in today’s Gospel of Matthew 1:18-24 not to be afraid but to trust God and so take Mary as his wife. Yes Joseph  was confused about the whole thing, but he had to trust  God in the face of danger, knowing that God is able to keep safe those who put their trust in him. In trusting God, Joseph became a safe guarder of the seed of salvation.  So we pray the grace of trust so that we may  always and courageously stand with God even if the whole world seems to be against us.  Hence, we conclude with the collect of today’s Mass.

Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever. Amen

The Lord be with you

May the Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Go in peace and Happy Sunday.