We’ve come now almost to the end of our Advent journey: the joy of Christmas is 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 a sign of his love and of care and grace: the sign of Emmanuel: God will be with us, really: not just spiritually or symbolically.  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 just heard: this is the truth promised previously through his prophets, his Son, descended from David according to the flesh (in other words, truly part of this great story of salvation that has come down to us through the Old Covenant), but also established as Son of God as evidenced by his Resurrection from the Dead.  He 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 a political savior or another prophet.  He’s God himself.  God himself is our Savior.  

It’s said another way at the beginning of the Book of Hebrews: “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 perfect 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 human 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, now he speaks a single word which reveals all that we need to know.  That word is Emmanuel.  God is with us.  

In just a few hours, we will see the Baby in the manger.  The sight will be a proof of God’s mercy and love.  We will be able to say: on this Christmas night I am face-to-face with my salvation: no noise from the world matters, nothing has my attention but this gentle little child.  He doesn’t say anything, but he is there.  He is God loving me.  And if God becomes man and loves me, how can I refuse to follow him?  How can I give up hope of finding him, if he himself has been actively searching for me?  If he has become man and come to this earth in order to find me, and to save me, and to be with me: this is the source of my trust.  This is the truth of who we are, and the truth of who God is, our salvation, our justice, our hope.  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.  Thanks be to God.