Catechism Links [1]
 |
“The Nativity of Jesus”
by Caravaggio, 1609 |
Readings
for the Fourth Sunday of Advent [2]
Readings
from the Jerusalem Bible [3]
Readings and
Commentary: [4]
Reading 1: Isaiah 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.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Is
7:10-14
Jerusalem is being
attacked by two neighboring kings when Isaiah is commanded by God to go and
speak to the Jewish king, Ahaz, cautioning him to have faith that God will
protect Jerusalem. Ahaz is hypocritical in both his faith and his response,
which is interpreted as cynical when he says: “I will not ask! I will not
tempt the Lord!”
Isaiah follows with his prophetic vision. He does not realize the
import of his prediction. Most scholars agree he thinks he is merely speaking
of the rescue of Judah. “The sign proposed by Isaiah was concerned with the
preservation of Judah in the midst of distress (cf Isaiah 7:15, 17), but more
especially with the fulfillment of God's earlier promise to David (2 Samuel 7:12-16) in the coming
of Emmanuel (meaning, "With us is God") as the ideal king (cf Isaiah 9:5-6; 11:1-5). The Church
has always followed St. Matthew in seeing the transcendent fulfillment of this
verse in Christ and his Virgin Mother.”[5]
"The child, the son, is the most significant part of the
sign. If the prophecy refers to the son of Ahaz, the future King Hezekiah, it
would be indicating that his birth will be a sign of divine protection, because
it will mean that the dynasty will continue. If it refers to another child, not
yet known, the prophet's words would mean that the child's birth could manifest
hope that 'God was going to be with us,' and his reaching the age of discretion
(v. 16) would indicate the advent of peace; the child's birth would, then, be
the sign that 'God is with us.'" [6]
CCC: Is 7:14 497
-------------------------------------------
Responsorial
Psalm: Psalm
24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (7c and 10b) 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.
R. Let the Lord
enter; he is king of glory.
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.
R. Let the Lord
enter; he is king of glory.
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.
R. Let the Lord
enter; he is king of glory.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Ps
24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Psalm 24 is a processional song. It recalls that God is the great
Creator and he calls his people to be faithful. It asks the question: "Who
can ascend the mountain of the Lord?" The psalmist answers, only those
who are sinless (completely reconciled to God). They who achieve that beatified
state will receive the reward of eternal life from the Savior. It focuses on
the character of the one who worthily seeks God, and the one who is worthy to
come into God’s kingdom and stand before him. We are answered: “He whose
hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.”
This is part of an entrance hymn, sung as the Ark of the Covenant
was brought into the temple at Jerusalem, followed by the faithful. Once again
in this song, we find a reference borrowed by St. John’s Revelation (Revelation 14:5), and an
image created in the Letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:22). Who are
the ones allowed full access to God?
CCC: Ps 24:6 2582
-------------------------------------------
Reading II: Romans 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.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Rom
1:1-7
St. Paul introduces himself to the Christian churches in Rome with
this opening message from his letter. We note that the apostle has seen clearly
that all that was promised by the law of Moses and the Hebrew prophets was
fulfilled in Christ, thus establishing continuity with the Jewish faith. In
typical fashion, the introduction includes a statement of purpose (apostolate
of the Gospel of Christ) and a profession of faith. Specifically, he directs
his remarks to the Gentiles, also called to faith. It is implicit in this
greeting that the profession of faith is shared by the church in Rome.
CCC: Rom 1:1 876; Rom 1:3-4 648; Rom 1:3 437, 496; Rom
1:4 445,
695; Rom 1:5 143,
494, 2087
-------------------------------------------
Gospel: Matthew 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.
-------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Mt 1:18-24
Following the genealogy, St. Matthew provides the short story of
Mary’s virginal conception through the Holy Spirit, and how God intervened to ensure
that Joseph also heard his call. This section of the Nativity narrative from
St. Matthew’s Gospel tells the story of Joseph’s dilemma. He is required by
Mosaic Law to file a petition of divorce in front of witnesses. He has resigned
himself to this course of action when he had a dream in which an angel came to
him and told him of the origins of the child Mary bore. For his part, Joseph
accepted the message and did as the Lord commanded.
“Joseph,
the tsaddiq or pious Jew, finds himself before a God who seems to
contradict himself, just as he did when he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac,
the only son of the promise. We are
always compelled to read anew the deeds of God in our lives. His justice and righteousness are inseparable
from a hidden inventiveness whose logic cannot be codified once and for all.
‘To make an example by punishing publicly’ is the full connotation of the verb
δειγματίσαι in the legal context in which it appears here, and it is the verb that
describes the procedure prescribed by Jewish law for one convicted of adultery.
But Joseph did not want to do with Mary in a literal obedience to Jewish law,
God, in a sense, did with her, only in an unexpected way. The Gospel here
proposes Mary as the example of the God-fearing person ought to behave when
approached by a God who always has unfathomable reasons for acting as he
does. The depth of Mary’s obedience is,
thus “exposed” by God, ought to convert our disobedience by the sheer force of
its radiance! What Joseph did decide to do was λάθϱα άπολΰσαι to ‘dismiss’ or
‘divorce her secretly’.” [7]
CCC: Mt 1:16 437; Mt
1:18-25 497; Mt
1:20 333, 437, 486, 497; Mt
1:21 430, 437, 452, 1507,
1846, 2666, 2812
-------------------------------------------
Reflection:
All
of the sacred texts used today have been used in our liturgy within the past
twelve months. They have occurred at
different times and with different significance but each of the readings has
been presented, some multiple times (the psalm and St. Matthew’s Gospel). They come together today to tell a story of
God’s plan being fulfilled. It is
remarkable that none of the individuals involved today had any relationship to
each other, yet all were integral in causing God’s plan of salvation to come
together. Isaiah, probably thinking he
was delivering a message to his king so the people would take heart that God
was with them, predicted the birth of Jesus, born of a virgin, called Emmanuel,
the Messiah.
Following
Isaiah by hundreds of years come St. Joseph and Mother Mary, both being of the
line of King David as was Ahaz. Both were selected by God to raise his Only Begotten
Son, who was to be the salvation of the world.
Finally, we have St. Paul who comes as an apostle of the Son of God. He
proclaims the arrival of the Messiah, predicted by Isaiah, and raised by St.
Joseph and St. Mary, bringing the message of hope to the world. We stand today in awe of God’s wondrous works
and his plan of salvation.
The
baton is passed to us as we gather ourselves for the final rush to the Nativity
of the Lord. We take the message of
peace and joy, which is encompassed by the Kingdom of God, into a world that
prefers the darkness of greed, hate, and hedonism. Like a scene from a vampire movie, we take
the cross of Christ to dispel the evil of the world and bring hope to those
without hope and love to the unloved.
Always
it has been the same. God called Isaiah
to deliver a hard message; he called Joseph and Mary to take on a heavy burden
based upon faith; and he hurled St. Paul into a hostile world. We reach out for the hand of the infant Jesus,
knowing where it leads, and pledge once more to walk with him to the Kingdom of
God.
Pax
O
Antiphon for December 18th: [8]
O
Sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed
yourself
to Moses in the burning bush, who gave
him
the holy law on Sinai mountain: Come, stretch
out
your mighty hand to set us free.
O
Adonai, et dux domus Israel,
qui
Moyse in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et
ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni
ad redimendum nos in brachio extent.
[1]
Catechism links are taken from the
Homiletic Directory, published by the Congregation for
Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014.
[2]
The picture today is “The Nativity of Jesus” by Caravaggio, 1609.
[3]
S.S. Commemoratio[4]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the
psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is
for private use only.
[5]
NAB footnote on Isaiah 7: 10ff.
[6]
The Navarre Bible: “Major Prophets,” Scepter
Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002, p.73.[7]
Fire of Mercy Heart of the Word Volume I, Erasmo
Leiva-Merikakis, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, © 1996 p. 65.[8]
The Roman Church has been singing the "O" Antiphons since at least
the eighth century. They are the antiphons that accompany the Magnificat
canticle of Evening Prayer from December 17-23. They are a magnificent theology
that uses ancient biblical imagery drawn from the messianic hopes of the Old
Testament to proclaim the coming Christ as the fulfillment not only of Old Testament
hopes, but present ones as well. Their repeated use of the imperative
"Come!" embodies the longing of all for the Divine Messiah. (USCCB).
No comments:
Post a Comment