We’ve come now almost to the end of our Advent journey: the joy of Christmas is very close at hand.  To help us with the final preparations of our hearts, the readings today speak to us about the Lord fulfilling his promises.  The first reading is one of the most important passages of the Old Testament.  In the face of all our stubbornness and failure to understand, God promises the deepest possible expression of his love and care: he promises the Emmanuel: God will be with us.  That’s what the word Emmanuel means: God with us.  He will be with us really: not just spiritually or symbolically; actually with us.  God will work a miracle: a virgin will conceive a child: and that child will be God with Us, God among Us.  God spent hundreds and hundreds of years preparing the world for this. 

St. Paul says it so beautifully at the beginning of his letter to the Romans, which we’ve just heard: this is the truth promised previously through his prophets.  The prophets of the Old Testament talked about this, and the Savior is descended from David according to the flesh, meaning that he is truly part of this great story of salvation that has come down to us through the Old Covenant.  Jesus Christ makes sense as part of this great story: he’s in the lineage; he is connected to the activity of God before; it’s expected.  It’s also completely surprising.  Because he’s not just in the line of David; he’s not a political savior or just another prophet.  He is not only true Son of David, he also shows himself to be true Son of God, as evidenced in many ways, but particularly by his Resurrection from the Dead.  He is God himself.  God himself is our Savior.  These first few verses of the Letter to the Romans lay all this out for us. 

It’s said another way at the beginning of the Book of Hebrews, a very famous and important passage: “In many and various ways, Our Lord spoke of old to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.”  It’s hard to imagine a more perfectly concise description of what Christmas is all about.  God spent those thousands of years reaching out to us in many ways, in many different kinds of ways, through many human voices, through many historical events.  He revealed himself bit by bit, piece by piece, detail by detail.  But now, in the Word Made Flesh, in God-With-Us, in His Son, he has finally revealed himself fully, totally, completely.  After speaking in many and various ways for generations, he now speaks a single word which reveals all that we need to know.  That word is Emmanuel.  God is with us.  The full truth of who God is: God’s revelation of himself is now total and completely unrestrained, with nothing held back of who he is.  Our Lord Jesus, perfect God and perfect man, incarnate in the flesh for us and for our salvation.  In many and various ways, Our Lord spoke of old to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.  Let us prepare our hearts to welcome him as he comes to us, as he makes his revelation complete, as he makes his love for us visible, in the Incarnate Lord, our infant savior, the little king lying humbly in the manger.