‘God is with us.’
By Dan Cummings, Contributing writer
Dan Cummings
All three of our readings for this 4th Sunday of Advent remind us that our faith is grounded in a real Person who had a real history. On Earth. And, if I could borrow a lyric from the great singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, “He came to the world in the usual way.” A fully human being. But unlike Chapin’s story in his song about a father-son relationship, our Lord’s coming, and His relationship to HIS father, is anything but usual. Yes, on Christmas we’ll celebrate the birth of a baby boy in a poor backwater town in Roman-occupied Palestine. But here’s the unusual part of His coming to the world: unlike others up and down the ages who have claimed to come from God or speak for Him, the coming of Jesus of Nazareth was foretold, in the ancient prophecies of the Old Testament. The first chapter of Fulton Sheen’s “Life of Christ,” was entitled “The Only Person Ever Pre-Announced.” You can make a pretty strong case for that. Look at today’s reading from the prophet Isaiah: “Listen, O house of David!…the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” In our second reading, among the very first words of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he speaks of “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.” And then, our reading from Matthew’s Gospel about the birth of Jesus: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, and Matthew reminds us of Isaiah’s prophecy: “the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.”
“God is with us.” Theologian and scholar N.T. Wright says that theme frames Matthew’s entire gospel. It’s there at the very beginning and again at the very end when Jesus promises to be “with” His people to the close of the age. How is He with us today, in this age? In this first year of the National Eucharistic Revival, we should remind ourselves that our Lord offers Himself fully in His body and blood at every Mass. The baby whose birth was foretold by the prophets became our Messiah, our Emmanuel. And because of the Blessed Sacrament, and the mystery it holds, our God is ALWAYS with us.
Editor’s note: Dan Cummings is a retired news anchor and reporter with WSYR television in Syracuse, a very familiar personality throughout Central New York. He is the husband of Danielle Cummings, the diocesan Chancellor and Director of Communications.
