18 Dec 2022 – 4th Sunday in Advent, A
18 Dec 2022 – 4th Sunday in Advent, A
1st Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14
The prophecy about “Emmanuel — God with us” invites king Ahaz to trust
Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.
Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
Responsorial: Psalm 23: 1-6
R./: Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm. (R./)
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things. (R./)
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob. (R./)
2nd Reading: Romans 1:1-7
This introduction to Paul’s major epistle gives the earliest Christian beliefs about Jesus
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel: Matthew 1:18-24
The virginal conception of Jesus is revealed to the just man, Joseph
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.
What’s in a name?
King Ahaz could be honoured as the patron of skeptics. He simply would not rely on God to help him through the greatest crisis in his life. In the crisis facing his kingdom, he preferred to trust in his soldiers and his military plans. Are we much the same? Do we trust only the range of our own power and resources, and turn to the true God only as an extra insurance, a vague source of possible help in moments of crisis? But such faith is weak and inadequate. A fuller kind of faith would see us relying on God’s invisible, helping presence, not just in those moments when human support fails us. Real faith accepts the reality of God in every moment of life. It sees God as a dimension of all our experience, literally, the Emmanu-El, God-with-us.
The promise that God is with us was not for Isaiah’s time only, it is for our own. Even now the sign of that continuing presence is a young woman and her child, the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus. For Joseph the unexpected pregnancy of Mary was not a sign to confirm his trust either in her or God, it was a contradictory sign. In the hours of his darkness he found the enlightening Spirit of God, the Spirit who teaches us not to judge by what our eyes see or by what our ears hear (cf. Is 11:3.) This gospel shows us that the signs God gives are not always the ones we would choose for ourselves. He gives signs for those who are willing to take on the darkness of doubt in openness and sincerity.
What can a name tell us about a particular person? Not much, usually. Names like Helen, Paula, Sharon or Jason are useful for distinguishing various members of a family, but they don’t describe the people themselves. With some Biblical names it is different. For instance, Abraham meant “Father of a great people” (Gen. 17:5) and Moses meant “Rescued from the Waters” (Ex. 2:10.) Above all, our blessed Lord has names which are full of meaning. “Jesus” means “God saves,” “Christ” means “God’s Anointed Messiah” and the name “Emmanuel” in today’s Gospel, means “God in our midst.”
How important is Jesus for our religious belief? Be honest. Ask the question what is the heart of Christianity and what will people say? Something to do with loving your neighbour; keeping the law; going to church on Sunday? Will there be any mention of Jesus Christ, who is at the very centre of our faith. Ghandi once said, “If only you Christians took your Christ to heart..”
Jesus shares our lot, our life-experience and our troubles. At Christmas we will concentrate on the simplicity and poverty of Our Lord’s birth: how human he was, born of a young woman, not in luxurious comfort, but in the discomfort of a stable. That shows him as one of us, the human side of “Emmanuel.” This gospel however mentions the divine origin of Jesus. Although he has a human mother, he has not a human father, but was conceived in Mary by the power of God. This unique way of coming into life, with God as father, and the virgin Mary as mother, underlines who Jesus truly is: both God and man, one of ourselves and yet one with the eternal God.
If this seems mysterious to us, it must have been baffling for St Joseph. Close to Mary as he was, and finding her pregnant without any involvement by him, Joseph could only accept in faith what God’s messenger told him, that the child was in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. With great patience and humility, Joseph accepted the part for which God had chosen him, as guardian and foster-father to our Lord and Saviour. This kind of faithful acceptance is asked from each of us, when Christ comes into our lives, as “God-with-us.”
Whoever translated Romans did not do English composition–not one full stop from start to finish and I am not a scripture scholar. It’s good to have access to next Sunday’s readings.
The translation is from the new revised standard version of the Bible. Paul begins Romans with a deliberately highly intricate sentence in order to show that the material is mysterious and profound. The nrsv translators shows to translate the Greek into a single sentence in English.
Yes, it is an important sentence theologically, but a complete non-event when read in church between two texts about the virginal conception. The RSV is followed closely by the NRSV here. Doulos is translated ‘servant’ and ‘slave’ is relegated to a footnote (unlike the distasteful replacement of ‘servant’ by ‘slave’ throughout its version of the Gospels). ‘Designate Son of God’ (RSV) becomes ‘declared to be Son of God’; ‘Spirit’ (RSV) is decapitalized but the capital is retained in a footnote; ‘by his resurrection’ (RSV) becomes ‘by resurrection’; ‘obedience to the faith’ (RSV) becomes ‘the obedience of faith’; ‘for the sake of his name among all the nations’ (RCV) becomes ‘among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name’; the semicolon after ‘Jesus Christ’ becomes a comma. NRSV’s changes bring the sentence closer to what Paul wrote. It looks as if we need a different translation for use in church, where the epistle is not being studied in a quiet of a theological library. The semicolons, colons, and parentheses in KJV make no real difference to the sentence as read aloud and heard. The New English Bible has: ‘From Paul, servant of Christ Jesus, apostle by God’s call, set apart for the service of the Gospel. This Gospel God announced beforehand in sacred scriptures through his prophets. It is about his Son: on the human level he was born of David’s stock, but on the level of the spirit–the Holy Spirit–he was declared Son of God by a mighty act in that he rose from the dead; [footnote: Or ‘declared Son of God with full powers from the time when he rose from the dead’] it is about Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him I received the privilege of a commission in his name to lead to faith and obedience men in all nations, yourselves among them, you who have heard the call and belong to Jesus Christ. I send greetings to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his dedicated people. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.’
This is exactly how it is translated in RSV Second Catholic Edition. I would love for a Greek scholar to chime in here as the idea that this translation is wrong because the punctuation is wrong I believe to be incorrect.
Margaret Lee@1:
Thanks for alerting us to this unreadable mishmash. God help the Minister of the Word who attempts to make sense of this for the congregation on Sunday morning. Even the King James version of 1611 makes sensible use of colons, parentheses and separate ‘paragraphs’ for the seven verses of this introduction. The 1966 Jerusalem Bible (unrevised and with all its faults) uses paraphrase and full stops to help the reader. But I thought the Irish Bishops, like those of Australia & New Zealand, had chosen the more readable New Revised Jerusalem Version in contrast to the ESV-CE word-for-word adopted but not adapted by Bishops of England & Wales, Scotland, India etc. So which version of Romans 1:1-7 have we got above?
The translation is from the new revised standard version of the Bible. Paul begins Romans with a deliberately highly intricate sentence in order to show that the material is mysterious and profound. The nrsv translators shows to translate the Greek into a single sentence in English.
Key Message:
How to enjoy Christmas?
Being joyful and inspiring others to be joyful!!
Homily:
The story of the Nativity is a story of faith, courage, peace and joy. It also teaches us the bigger plan God has for us, compared to the small plan we have made for our own selves. As we read in the “Poem of Man-God”, Mamma Mary had a plan to be a maid of the mother of Christ. From her younger years she offered her virginity for the coming of the Messiah. God planned her to become the Mother of the Messiah. Saint Joseph planned to be a virgin for God once he heard Mamma Mary’s wish. Likewise, He became the foster father of Christ. God cherishes when we give up something happily for Him.
When our plans are not working out, it simply means God has a better one!! Be joyful!!
Saint Joseph was a righteous and hard-working person. He was a holy servant of God. He came out victoriously in his challenge, by deciding not to expose Mamma Mary to public disgrace. God granted him the privilege of becoming the foster father of God.
When we get through the test, God will reward us with a big award!! Enjoy the test too!!
In the Christmas story we understand that the preparation for the first Christmas was not an easy one. Mamma Mary had to travel all the way on a donkey in the days just before her delivery. They did not have a place to stay, provisions for the baby nor people to help. They had a lot of uncertainties. Amidst uncertainties, Saint Joseph and Mamma Mary were never sad or depressed. But in faith, they found their certainty.
Jesus coming is certain, when we have uncertainties. So let us be joyful in the uncertain situations!!
Regarding gifting, let us not have any expectations of what gifts we will receive, or think if we give this gift I will receive a good one. It is nice to follow traditions as along as it is comfortable and meaningful, else it is good to set ourselves free from it. If we are not able to buy gifts for someone, we can explain it to them in person and tell them when we are in a better position we can do so. The best gift to give both Jesus and people for Christmas is taking care of them or spending time with them. Even though the world seems to be busy, there are a lot of lonely people. Let us invite some lonely people and make them experience the beautiful time that baby Jesus longs to do for them.
If we are alone, then take the privilege of being the invitation instead of sitting still and waiting to be invited. Invite someone who is all by themselves. If we are financially sound we can give gifts to the poor kids or give a good meal to people who require care.
We need to watch how to keep the baby Jesus in our heart happy. We are bringing our baby Jesus to others when we do good for them. We should find people whom we can help during Christmas. It may be elders staying alone or people broken due to the recession or family with financial needs or the sick or whosoever is not able to make Christmas happy on their own. God will show us whom we want to help once we start searching for whom we need to help. We will feel fulfilled with our Christmas celebrations!! This will be the great Christmas cake for our baby Jesus.
We are privileged to prepare the best Christmas cake for the birthday baby!!
God gave us the best gift for Christmas – Jesus!! We can never fully understand the deep love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, being God, came as a man and suffered a cruel death on the cross. We cannot do what He did for us. But we can forgive others like he forgave us. Forgiving the hurts of others is a nice Christmas gift. We can tell our baby Jesus “Baby Jesus forgave all my sins, just for me. Now I forgive all of my friend’s sins just for you”. Instead of pursuing bitterness we can pursue peace. People will find a sense of peace when we are around.
Bring peace wherever you are. Do not point out if others go wrong but try to clean up the mess created by it. Jesus says the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy. So he will try to destroy our peace by often bringing to mind the wrongdoing of others. Then we need to remind ourselves that this is the work of the devil and we should not submit ourselves to him by pursuing the thoughts of bitterness. We should pursue the thoughts of togetherness like our sweet baby Jesus. An elderly lady was saying, “I was pleading to God for some blessing. Then I heard the silent voice asking me, ‘How can I bless you when you hate your neighbourhood friend like anything?'” So she forgave her friend from her heart, went to her house with gifts and made peace with her. She was then beautifully blessed.
Let us be the gift of peace from our baby Jesus!!
Mamma Mary and Saint Joseph wandered on the streets of Bethlehem as a poor and needy couple. Still there are a few ‘Mamma Mary or Saint Joseph’ wandering alone or looking for some kind of help. Let us be their temporary shelter or clothing or a kind friend. Mother Teresa came out of a well-secured convent to the poor and needy to be their shelter. All she had when she came out was 5 Indian rupees in hand, not good enough for a meal. But with God’s help, generations of people are being sheltered in her homes in India and all around the world.
When we plan to be God’s help, God will be our help. Let us rejoice to be God’s help!!
The holy family too needed people to celebrate Christmas with them. So God sent shepherds to make them enjoy!! The shepherds also celebrated Christmas with them and they came out rejoicing!!
When this Christmas season is over, will we also come out rejoicing as the shepherds!!
The translation is from the new revised standard version of the Bible. Paul begins Romans with a deliberately highly intricate sentence in order to show that the material is mysterious and profound. The nrsv translators chose to translate the Greek into a single sentence in English.
Unto Us…
‘Past the inn with ne’er a vacancy,
raucous revelry, receding…
Around the back to the stables:
animals stirring… then still,
breathing warmth unto cold night air.
Aloft, a movement of wings.
In a makeshift crib,
on a bed of straw –
under a thousand stars –
a newborn babe…
Gentled to her breast
by a young Jewess…
And by their side
a quiet man of few words,
wondering…
Sean Walsh