4th Sunday of Advent (A)

 Is. 7:10-14; Rom. 1:1-7; Mt. 1:18-24

As we gather on this final Sunday of Advent—standing just at the threshold of Christmas—our hearts feel the nearness of the mystery we have been waiting for: “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means God-with-us.” That line alone would have shaken any ancient listener. Virgins do not conceive; God does not enter history in the form of a fragile child; and no king—least of all one born in a helpless manger—comes to save the world without the strength of armies or the threat of weapons. Yet this is precisely the story we are preparing to welcome—the story of God breaking into human hopelessness, political turmoil, and private suffering, not with thunder, but with the soft cry of a newborn.

To feel the full tension of today’s readings we must travel back to the world in which the prophet Isaiah spoke. The political climate of Judah during King Ahaz’s reign was one of suffocating fear. Two powerful nations—Israel (the northern kingdom)

Third Sunday of Advent (A)

Is. 35:1-6a, 10; Jas. 5:7-10; Mt. 11:2-11

The First Reading from the Book of Isaiah [Is. 35:1-6a, 10] echoed the anticipation of God's chosen people. In their perception of the coming of the promised Messiah, the people visualized a transformation of the physical world where the entire creation would rejoice. They envisioned blooming deserts that would manifest the glory of the Lord.

"The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them." (Mt 11:5)

Today’s Gospel reading explains the characteristics of the coming of God’s Kingdom.

The blinds receive their sight. Isaiah 35:5 had already prophesied this long ago. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” In Psalm 146:8 we read “The Lord opens the eyes of the blind”. Jesus' ocular miracles are identified in three incidents. According to the New Testament, Jesus cured blind men in Jericho, Bethsaida and Siloam.

Second Sunday of Advent (A)

Is. 11:1-10; Rom. 15:4-9; Mt. 3:1-12

Today's First Reading from the Book of Isaiah [Is. 11:1-10] consisted of a descriptive prophecy related to the coming of the ideal king from David's line. It began by proclaiming that "A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." [Is. 11:1] Jesse was the father of king David, from whom the Judean kings descended.

When Isaiah said, "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them..." [Is. 11:6] he was providing a picture of a Messianic era when paradise would be restored. 

The Gospel of Matthew affirms that Jesus was the King referred to, He, being of the root of Jesse who was the father of David. [Mt. 1:5-6; Rev. 5:5, 22:16]

Today's Reading from the Gospel of Matthew [Mt. 3:1-12] began by telling us that Saint John the Baptist proclaimed a baptism of repentance in the wilderness of Judea. John's message was one of repentance in preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven that