Every year at Christmas we listen to Isaiah’s
inspiring words about the coming of the Messiah. Today the text is “A virgin
shall conceive and bear a child, and shall call his name Immanuel.” At the
Christmas Vigil Mass, we will listen to these words: “The people that walked in
darkness has seen a great light.” And “for unto us a Child is born, a Son is
given, and his name shall be called: ‘Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.’” Then, on the Solemnity of the
Epiphany in January: “Arise! Shine out! For your Light has come, and the glory
of the Lord is risen upon you!”
Isaiah has many passages which prophesy,
first, Jesus’ birth, then, his death and resurrection. It sometimes speaks of the
Messiah, the Suffering Servant of God, in a way which so accurately describes
Jesus that Christian tradition calls it “the Fifth Gospel.
The event described in today’s First
Reading is described as a sign. King Ahaz is under threat from
surrounding kings, and fears what to him is a very real threat; that these
kings will overrun Jerusalem and destroy his kingdom. God sends Isaiah the
prophet to Ahaz to reassure the king that he will not allow Jerusalem to be
overrun if only Ahaz puts his trust in Him. The maiden (meaning here, an
unmarried virgin) will conceive a child, and the name of the child, Emmanuel,
will be the confirmation of the fact that Israel is under God’s protection.
Emmanuel is a Hebrew word, im-manu-El, which literally means “with-us-God.” In
other words, the very name of the child means that God is present amongst his
people and will guide and protect them.
But there is a fuller sense to this
prophecy which no-one in the time of King Ahaz and the prophet Isaiah could
possibly have understood. For it refers to Jesus, God’s own and only Son;
Jesus, conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of his virgin mother Mary.
The very name Jesus suggests how this event is to be interpreted, for Immanuel,
God-with us, is given the name Saviour, which is what “Jesus” means. We are
told that he will be called this, “for he will save his people from their
sins.”
The ultimate threat to us all is not
some political kingdom, but the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of sin, evil, suffering
and eternal death. It is a kingdom from which only Jesus can save us, and by
God’s choice and command, only by becoming a “Son born to us”, “Emmanuel,” “God-with-us.”
At Easter, these prophecies of Immanuel are fulfilled in the death and
resurrection of Jesus. But at Christmas, we must allow ourselves to take
in the stupendous mystery of God born amongst us, as a baby that we could have
held in our arms. Only when we grasp this, can we really understand who God is
and what he has done for us.
Today, on the last Sunday of Advent, let
this be our purpose and thought; to the very best of our ability, to grasp this
powerful mystery, that for our sake God took flesh and came amongst us, and
that if we place our trust in him there is nothing that can keep us from him.
Fr Phillip.
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