Fourth Sunday of Advent (A)
Think of a famous person whom you admire greatly. It could be an author, a movie star, a recording artist. It could be a star athlete, someone successful in business, or a politician. It could be a well-known priest or nun, or even the Pope himself. Now, imagine that, somehow, you have a chance to spend some time with this famous person you admire. You might feel excited as the day approached. But you might also feel nervous, even intimidated. “What would I say?” you might ask yourself. Here is someone who seems to live in a very different world from yours, far beyond anything with which you are familiar. Would you find anything in common with this person you find so admirable? Would you embarrass yourself when you tried to speak?
Now, think of someone you know well. A sibling or a cousin, or someone who was a close friend all the way through school. Imagine that you are going to meet this person for lunch. You may feel excited, especially if you haven’t seen this person in a while. Odds are, however, that you wouldn’t feel anxious or intimidated. This is someone you know well. When you are with this person, it feels like the two of you were never really apart. There’s a personal connection. You feel comfortable together. Conversation flows effortlessly.
In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah, the Lord announces that Israel will be given a sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel. In our Gospel reading, after recounting how Joseph learns the truth about Mary’s pregnancy, Matthew quotes this very prophecy, and then tells his readers the meaning of Emmanuel: God with us.
Emmanuel. God with us. We hear these words every Advent. We sing them in many ways every Advent. O come, O come, Emmanuel. God with us. Familiar words. It’s all too easy to let them slide by, unnoticed.
When we pause for a moment and ask ourselves what this name Emmanuel, God-with-us, might mean, what do we find?
On the one hand, God is like that famous person we are about to meet in my first example. Like that, and yet far beyond even the most famous of human beings. God is Totally Other. “My ways are not your ways”, the Lord says through Isaiah, “and my thoughts are not your thoughts”. God is beyond anything we can see or touch or understand. Even all our doctrines about God, true though they are, do not begin to describe the full mystery of God. God brings the whole universe into being and sustains it at every moment through creative love. Higher than the skies, deeper than the ocean. This only begins to suggest what we mean when we speak of God’s transcendence. God is beyond anything we can know or say or perceive.
On the other hand, God is at the very same time closer to us than even we are to our own selves. God sustains every one of us with creative love. God calls us by name, from our mother’s wombs, and brings us to life. Nothing we feel or think or hope for is unknown to God. God knows us more intimately than any human being could know us. This gives us a hint of what we mean when we speak of God’s immanence. God stands at the very wellsprings of our being and draws each of us forth into life.
God with us. Who would dare to invent such a thing? The God who is, at one and the same time, beyond anything we can perceive and yet lives in the deepest core of our hearts – this is the One who is with us. This is the One who takes on our very flesh, even our very frailty, in Jesus. When we simply let the mystery into us, we are awestruck. Why would God choose to be with us? Who are we that God would choose our flesh? But God does. How can we not feel immense gratitude and awe before such a mystery? How can we not move into praise and thanksgiving? How can we not give ourselves to God, thus imitating, in our own little ways, how God has given himself to us in Christ?
Emmanuel. God is truly with each of us. Yes, even with me and you. With us in our goodness; with us in our weakness. Yes, even with us in our sins, always calling us to turn back to Him, to trust Him once more, while there is yet time. Advent is short. Our lives are short. God calls to us even now. May we have faith in Emmanuel, and say yes once again to this God who offers us His yes in Christ,