Happy Sunday!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isaiaha 7,10-14; Psalm 23; Romans 1, 1-7; Matthew 1,18-24; 4th Advent Sunday Year A, 2019/20
The first reading from the prophet Isaiah first requires a historical reading. Around 734, Tiglath-Pilezer III, king of Assyria, dangerously threatens all the kingdoms of the Near East. The king of Damascus, Rezin, proposes to build a coalition in order to match them. But Ahaz, the king of Jerusalem, does not adhere. Then Rezin joined forces with the king of Samaria to march against Jerusalem. The terror takes hold of Ahaz, a hesitant, an opportunist, without coherence. (From the book of Kings (2 Kings 16,3), we learn that he made his son pass through the Fire, that is to say, that he offered him as a sacrifice like the pagans). Isaiah intervenes forcefully in the situation. He wants the king to put his trust in the one true God and promises him a sign, the most eloquent sign that there could be: the birth of a son filled with the presence of God; it will be the pious king Hezekiah who will know how to reject evil and choose good. He was merited to be protected at the time of the siege of Jerusalem in 701 (2 Kings 19,35-36). God's protection is expressed by the name given to him here: Emmanuel = God with us. In the context of the first reading, the word alma means young woman and designates both Abi, wife of Ahaz and mother of Hezekiah, and the Daughter of Zion of whom the prophet speaks elsewhere, that is, the people of God as a whole, from whom will be born the new king. The Greek translators, however, translate alma to mean parthenos, which means virgin in the strict sense. It was this interpretation that prepared what the Gospel makes of it three centuries before Christ. It designates the announcement of the virginal conception of the Messiah. In addition to this prophetic announcement, the spiritual reading of the text in Advent time sees a message of hope that highlights the divine initiative. Ahaz asks nothing, flaunts religious scruples, does not want to test the Lord; but, in reality, he does not know what he wants and in whom to place his trust. The Lord will then speak and give a sign, to show his will to save his people. The birth of Jesus is this sign of an initiative of God, free and gratuitous, to save humanity.
Psalm 23 is used liturgically to celebrate the entrance of a procession into the temple of God. The first part says that those who approach God must have innocent hands and a pure heart. Ahaz, divided between the true God and the idols, will see himself thus rejected. But the second part is more immediately suited to this time of Advent, because, together with the peoplel who enter the temple, is the king of glory, Emmanuel, about to enter the world.
The second reading, the prologue to the letter of Paul to the Romans, first presents a profession of faith, a creed concerning the person of Jesus. According to flesh, he is from the lineage of David but according to the Spirit he is constituted Son of God with power. In him there is the movement from flesh to Spirit; from birth to resurrection, from humanity to power and from humanity to divinity. Note that humanity is affirmed through the lineage of David, and this emphasises that Jesus is the fulfilment of the promises of the old covenant. The prologue then proceeds to present the Apostle, Paul and his mission. Paul is chosen, called by God, to announce the Gospel. This Gospel is the one promised by the prophets, but destined for all the people, for the pagans also and not only for the Jews. In this time of Advent, this announcement of universal salvation has a very current resonance.
The Gospels of childhood (according to Matthew and Luke) show that Jesus is the announced Messiah, the hope of Israel. Mathew puts Joseph at the centre of today's gospel pericope, a narrative one may designate as the Annunciation to Joseph. In Luke, Joseph has no face, was just the bridegroom of Mary. Here instead, he collects all the inheritance of God's promises from Abraham onwards. The genealogy of Matthew, which precedes this passage, goes from Abraham down to Joseph. Joseph inherits all the fragmentary missions of the patriarchs and the kings. For him, hope reaches fulfilment. In particular, Joseph is the son of David - (Luke says the same thing by affirming that he is of the house of David) so that Jesus may receive the throne of David his father. Above all, Joseph is spiritually, the heir of the patriarchs and of all biblical history. He is the just one who trusts in the word of God, even when events put him to the test. Thus, according to Matthew, Joseph is not a marginal figure. Was it already necessary to respond to ironic allusions about the husband overtaken by events?
This story testifies to the faith of the primitive Church in the virginal birth of Jesus. Joseph fully assumes the role of father that is delegated to him by God: he will have to give the name to the child. Finally the child's name means, the Lord saves, and in line with all the tradition in the Old Testament, God, above all, is the one who saves. This name shows that salvation has come. God with us - is therefore the first message of Matthew and also the last one: Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world (Matt 28, 20).
The liturgy, through the responsorial psalm chants: Behold, the Lord comes, the king of glory. On the first Sunday of Advent, we asked for the grace to go out to meet Christ who is coming. Today the responsorial psalm announces to us that his coming is now imminent. The waiting becomes more solicitous and intense as the moment of the meeting approaches. But who is actually being expected? What does he bring us? How should we wait for it? Only the word of God can give us the answers. We will discern how to wait for the Lord by listening and hearing him speak to us through the readings we are offered on this last Sunday of Advent. Paul in the second reading tells us that the one who is coming is no less than Jesus Christ, born of the lineage of David ... Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God, born of the stock of David according to the flesh. Matthew and Luke, in weaving the genealogy of Jesus, agree in introducing Joseph, the father of Jesus according to the law, as son of David. St. Paul does not say anything else here, but in writing to the Philippians he will speak clearly of the divine nature, of equality with God, of Christ Jesus who stripped himself, assuming the condition of a servant and becoming like men; that appeared in human form, humbled himself by becoming obedient until death, death on a cross and for this God has exalted him (Phil 2,5-9). Writing to the Colossians, he presents Jesus as the beloved Son of God, the image of the invisible God, begotten before every creature, who is first of all things and all things subsist in him (Col 1,13-17). Who Jesus Christ is comes further in the symbol with which we profess our faith: God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God ... for us men and for the our salvation came down from heaven, and by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became man. And he, the awaited one, has chosen Paul to give him the grace of the apostolate, sending him to announce the Gospel of God to all peoples, called by him, Jesus Christ, to faith and salvation. We too are among these called: it is right that we await him. But how? With what feelings? The Virgin Mother waited for him! Who better than she can teach us how to wait for him? Therefore on this Sunday, the Church presents us with the figure of Mary, implicitly in the collect, referring to the announcement of the angel. In the first reading the words of Isaiah could have alluded to the son, Hezekiah, who is born from the wife of the king Ahaz. It is still very probably that Isaiah himself or some of his disciples rethink later this prophecy in a messianic sense. Thus the Christian tradition constantly intends it, taking in Mary the virgin mother and Jesus in Emmanuel, God with us. The thought of the Church is clear in the head of Matthew, who sees in the message announced by the angel to Joseph the fulfilment of this prophecy. The Council cites this passage from those that show how a woman, the mother of the Redeemer ... is already prophetically overshadowed in the Old Testament (Lumen Gentium, 55). How did Mary wait for her? The preface holds: With ineffable love, the love of a mother, of the virgin mother of the Son of God made man. Isn't it a lesson for us? If Christmas reawakens even the least attentive and fervent Christians the feeling of family affection, if it is a call to goodness and love for all, it must first of all be a meeting with love to the one who only for love has wanted to make himself one of us. Love suggested by faith requires our obedience, in the docile listening to the word of God and in the will to put it into practice. This love emanating from faith must open up to all. First of all, we show this love to the Lord of glory, who came to us as a weak, humble and poor child and who embodies in himself the image of innumerable ranks of the poor, the forgotten, the suffering, and the marginalised . The same love borne of faith should induce us work for the establishment of a more just and more conforming world for the message of Jesus. We wait for Jesus with Joseph, the just one. The Gospel story hinges on the appearance of the angel to Joseph. It is therefore, logical, while we are waiting for Jesus, that we also turn our attention to this man called to collaborate, in humility and in silence (the Gospel does not bring us a single word out of his mouth) to the central event of history, to the encounter of God made man with men he wants to save, in an equally important and mysterious role. His figure is familiar to Christian piety; his example of a faithful spouse and fully available to the designs of God, a humble worker and dedicated to the service of Jesus and Mary, head of a family aware of a mission to which he awaits with absolute loyalty, attracts our admiration and stimulates us to imitate him; to his intercession we resort with confidence, mindful of the obedience with which the Son of God made man adhered to him. Meditating on the words of the angel: You will call him Jesus, we can ask ourselves if they do not sound like an invitation to exercise, towards the Son of God who is born of Mary, a paternal authority, representing the heavenly Father, by virtue of a legal capacity that authorises him to give the name to the child, exercising a right proper to the father. This simple consideration sheds an ever more vivid light on the greatness of Joseph and his power of intercession with the Son.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ! We want to exchange Christmas greetings with these words from Paul. It will come true to the extent that we will wait for the Lord who comes, following the example of Mary and Joseph. May we therefore at this point in this Advent Season solicit during todays Eucharistic Celebration for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that of St Joseph to obtain for us the graces we need for a profitable waiting for the coming Lord through prayerful listening and obedience to the word of God in faith and love. I wish you: Happy 4th Sunday of Advent! Happy Christmas! and a Happy and Grace-full New Year, 2020! +John I. Okoye
(graphics by chukwubike)
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