IVth Sunday of Advent

IVth Sunday of Advent.: Is 7: 10 – 14,: Rom 1: 1 – 7;Gosple: Mt 1: 18 - 24

Over 100 years ago Father Damien, a Belgian priest, began working with lepers on a small Hawaiian island. Each Sunday Father Damien would begin his sermon with these words: "You lepers know that God loves you." This went on for years. Finally, one Sunday Father Damien began his sermon this way: "We lepers know that God loves us.” Father Damien had contracted leprosy. Yet he went on loving and serving until his death in 1898. Even as Father Damien cast his lot with the lepers, Jesus, Emmanuel, invested himself totally with us sinners. "He was bruised and wounded for our sins. He was lashed, and we were healed." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel"( Mt 1: 22-23). The birth of Emmanuel was the fulfillment of God’s promise. In all, Mathew quotes 12 fulfillment prophecies.

Human parents are careful about naming their children. They want the name to mean something, to signify how important this new life is to them. God the Father was also careful about naming his Son. He didn't leave it up to chance or to Mary and Joseph's creativity. He chose it himself, and sent an angel to announce the choice to Mary and Joseph.
In the Old Testament, God often changed people's names, mostly when someone was given a special mission in salvation history - like Abram and Jacob. When God changed their names to Abraham and Israel, the meaning of the name signified their role in God's plan. But when the Father instructs Joseph to call Mary's son "Jesus" even before he has been born, he shows that Jesus is not just another prophet. He shows that Jesus is his Son in an entirely unique way - so much so that God the Father has the right to choose his name from the very beginning of his human existence. And what does that name mean? In Hebrew Joshua, which is Jesus in Greek, means "God saves."
This name reveals Christ's mission. Unlike the Old Testament prophets, Jesus didn't come to earth only to announce God's plan of saving mankind from sin and evil; he came in order to enact that plan, to win that salvation.

Another name of Jesus is also revealed to us today: Emmanuel. This name was foretold by the prophet Isaiah, and Matthew applies it explicitly to Jesus. "Emmanuel" in Hebrew means, "God is with/among us." The name "Jesus" referred to Christ's mission, what he came to do. "Emmanuel" refers to his identity, to who he is. But the two are closely related. Names have power - and Christ's names, when we really understand them, have enough power to bring our relationship with God to a whole new level.

Jesus' calling is to save his people from their sins and to manifest God's presence. Matthew thus begins his Gospel with the promise that Jesus is God-with-us. He will end the Gospel with the promise that Jesus will be with us "always, to the end of the age" (28:20). Matthew understands that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, God is with us, reconciling the world to Himself. He is the reassurance in the flesh that God has not given up on us, but will remain with us.
We need to experience Emmanuel in our lives and change the world: God who entered our world through Jesus 2000 years ago is at work in the world. But the question is, if God has come to be present in our lives and our world, then why are there so many lives which are unhappy and beastly? Why are people so hostile, hating each other, and why do so many love-relationships turn sour? Why is there domestic violence and child abuse? Why is there war in at least a dozen countries of God's good earth at any given time? Why are there so many people, homeless and hungry, even in rich countries? The good news and the consoling message of Christmas is that the child Jesus still waits today to step into our hearts—your heart and mine—and to change us and the world around us by the beauty of God's love, kindness, mercy and compassion.
The problem is not that God is not with us, the problem rather is that we do not recognize the ways of God’s presence and action among us. We are often enough, like Jacob in Bethel who awoke from his sleep and exclaimed, “So the LORD is in this place – and I did not know it!” (Gen. 28:16).
We usually think of salvation almost exclusively in terms of our souls at the end of our lives, our getting into heaven when we die. Salvation at the end of our life is fine, it is essential. But we all need help right now. We need to be saved from selfishness, from greed, from a bad temper, from envy and jealousy, from hatred, bitterness, resentment, a critical spirit, gossiping and many other weaknesses that we easily give in to. All this Jesus wishes to accomplish in us here and now, that is, if we are willing to be saved in his way. Emmanuel, God with us, will save us from what we can not save ourselves.
The great writer Max Lucado tells about his neighbor who was trying to teach his six-year-old son how to shoot a basketball. They were out in the backyard. The father shot a couple of times, saying, "Do it just like that, son; it's real easy." The little boy tried very hard but he couldn't get the ball ten feet into the air. The little fellow got more and more frustrated. Finally, after hearing his father talk about how easy it was for the tenth time, the boy said, "It's easy for you up there. You don't know how hard it is from down here." You and I can never say that about God. When Jesus became man and lived among us, he walked where we walk, he suffered what we suffer, he was tempted as we are tempted.

God is with us in moments of sorrow as well as joy. God’s presence is the richest treasure one can have in one’s life. Presence of God is the foundation of our hope and absence of God is the beginning of crises. He is with us in situations of poverty as well as plenty. He is with us in times of worry as well as peace. God is with us to see us through any struggle, to help us survive any setback, to strengthen us to endure any disappointment. Christmas is a yearly sign to reaffirm our faith that God is still with us and will be with us to the end of time. And, to realize that “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).