Reflection on the Readings at Mass for The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A). The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
The Theology of the Incarnation Through the Liturgy (Fourth Sunday of Advent) Year A
On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we have arrived at the promise of the Incarnation of Christ Jesus our Savior. Our First Reading is from Isaiah 7:10-14 where the Lord speaks to Ahaz, the twelfth King of Judah and the son and successor of Jotham, promising him a sign, that “the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel,” meaning ‘God with you.’ In the Second Reading, the Apostle Saint Paul bespeaks of this promise of old, in writing to the Church in Rome in 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.”
Then in the Gospel Reading, Matthew is completely dependent upon the Septuagint, (i.e., the 3rd to 1st B.C. Greek translation of the Old Testament) translation of Isaiah 7:14 in which the Hebrew word almah, meaning ‘maiden or young woman of marriageable age’ was translated into the Greek as parthenos, meaning ‘virgin’. In his telling of how the birth of Jesus Christ came about, Matthew in 1:18-24 was able to explain the logos of God and God’s choice of Mary and Joseph and their betrothal and His choice of the name to be given to the Son of God as Yeshua, meaning ‘God saves’, and the Incarnation event through the Holy Spirit, writing, “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.”
It is important to remember that the Incarnation event in Matthew is told from the perspective of Saint Joseph and the dream he received, and this is one of reasons why the genealogy tree in Matthew begins with Abraham and ends with Joseph, the husband of Mary. Whereas, the Incarnation event in Luke is told from the perspective of Mary and the visit she received from the Angel Gabriel, and that is one of the reasons why Luke’s genealogy tree begins with Adam and ends with Joseph son of Heli. That is, for Matthew, Jesus is truly of the Tribe of Judah; a descendant of Abraham and of the house of David, who Joseph is told in a dream, “will save his people from their sins.” Whereas, for Luke, Jesus is a descendant of Adam and of the house of David, but has truly come from God to reign over an eternal kingdom of which “there will be no end.” Whereas Matthew purposes the incarnation of Jesus within and for the salvation of the Jewish community first, Luke places the incarnation event at the beginning of salvation history and for the salvation of the entire human race; or those affected by the sin of Adam and Eve.
This is not the space to rehash the arguments and lack of consensus between Jews and Christians about the liberties taken by the translators of the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew almah to the Greek parthenos in Matthew 1:23, because it only suffices for now to remark that the incarnation event itself proves that the translators were abundantly wise in their translation, and were evidently guided by God’s providence in their work, just 200 to 300 years prior to the incarnation event of Christ. Neither do we have to rehash the Protestant caveat that almah need not necessarily mean ‘perpetual virgin’.
Yet, what is interesting to note about Isaiah’s prophecy about the Incarnation event is verse 7:14 was only one of the five promises given to Ahaz; also, none of which he asked to hear. The text says that the Lord told Ahaz to ask Him for sign; not only a sign, but a sign “deep as Sheol, or high as the sky!” Here, God was in full disclosure mode with King Ahaz and was willing to share whatever part of His divine will that Ahaz might have asked to see. But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!” Here Ahaz has something in common with the Blessed Mother, in that they were both given what they did not ask for. Moreover, in the first of five signs given to him, Ahaz also has something in common with Adam and Eve in that he too heard about the coming of the New Eve, before her birth; “the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel.” In this way, Ahaz, the 12th King of Judah, mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy, also touches upon Luke’s genealogy. The next four signs given to King Ahaz in verses 18 through 23 concerned some colorful imaging about the ruin that will come to Israel after the birth of Emmanuel.
Chapter seven of Isaiah and how Catholics understand it is a linchpin of the Christian beliefs in and our confessions about our Lord, savior, and redeemer, Jesus Christ. In fact, this first hearing of the Incarnation event touches upon the liturgy of the Divine Symphony in a very special way. Succinctly, what King Ahaz and the Blessed Mother heard on these occasions was that God is approaching you and approaching us. Ahaz heard that child born of the Virgin would be named Emmanuel, meaning ‘God is with us’, and Mary heard that He would be named Yeshua, meaning ‘God saves.’ To be with and to save is the very way that the liturgy of the Holy Mass communicates eternal life in Christ to us. To be with and to save is personal and intimate; for one to with and to save requires that they be in communion with that very thing.
You may have noticed that the things humans save are things they value and things they can touch in some way. No one saves something that they have no knowledge of. Rather we save things that mean something to us; that have personally touched us. How much more does God touch and value those whom He loves. For this reason, God approaches us through the Holy Mass; He not only approaches us, but He approaches us first in salvation history and approaches again after the prayers of consecration. We do not approach the altar before Christ, the Holy Eucharist, first approaches us. The Holy Eucharist is the sign that is given that was not asked for. The Holy Eucharist is the sign that was given, and the sign that was and is rejected by many. For this Fourth Sunday of Advent, let us adore and reverence the God who is approaching us and has been approaching us since the beginning.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
