December 21, 2025
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 10
Reading
1
The LORD spoke to
Ahaz, saying:
Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God;
let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!
But Ahaz answered,
"I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!"
Then Isaiah said:
Listen, O house of David!
Is it not enough for you to weary people,
must you also weary my God?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.
Responsorial
Psalm
R. (7c and
10b) Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
The LORD's are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Reading
2
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,
but established as Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through him we have received the grace of apostleship,
to bring about the obedience of faith,
for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,
among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia,
alleluia.
The virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
This is how the
birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
"Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins."
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."
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122125.cfm
Commentary on Isaiah
7:10-14; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-24
We are now on the eve of the birth of Jesus. In
today’s Gospel, Matthew tells us how this came about. His account is
totally different from that of Luke. The only thing in common with both
accounts are the central ideas that:
- Jesus
is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and
- Joseph
and Mary are the parents of Jesus.
In both accounts there is an angelic appearance: in one case
to Mary and in the other to Joseph. Mary is told—in Luke’s Gospel—that
she is to bear a son. When she says that she is still a virgin, she is
told that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and her child will be the Son of
God. In Joseph’s case, he is told—in Matthew’s Gospel—not to be afraid to
take Mary home as his wife because the child with whom she is pregnant is from
the Spirit of God. The stories are different, but the central message is
the same. Mary is the mother of the Child, but Joseph is not the father.
Jewish weddings
Jewish weddings involved three stages. First, there was the engagement.
This was often prearranged by the parents or a matchmaker while the couple were
still young children. Marriages were primarily seen as the union of
families and the continuing of the family line. They were not primarily
unions of love, as we expect today. Of course, in the course of time
husband and wife could become deeply bonded by a genuine love and caring for
each other. But it was procreation, especially the bearing of sons, that
was the first priority. So we see in Old Testament times how cursed women
felt who could not bear sons for their husband and his family.
Love might or might not come later—it was secondary.
And it was only relatively recently that the Catholic Church itself put the two
ends of marriage—love and procreation—as equally important. It took quite
a while in the Church for the idea that a deep Christian love could be
expressed through sexual relations, that it involved a deep mutual giving of
one’s whole self to the spouse and that it was not just a regrettable, but
unavoidable means to procreate.
Joseph’s dilemma
Later came the betrothal. This was a legally binding relationship lasting
for one year. During this period the couple lived apart and had no sexual
relations. If either party did not want at this stage to go through with
the marriage, there had to be a divorce. And the penalty for having
sexual relations with a betrothed virgin was stoning to death for both.
The third stage was the marriage itself.
We can see then Joseph’s serious dilemma, not to mention his
feeling of shock, when he found that his betrothed was already pregnant and not
by him. It seemed an open and shut case of adultery.
And imagine the feelings of Mary herself in this
position! How was she to explain that she was pregnant by the power of
God? Who would believe a story like that? If Joseph felt outraged
and betrayed, one would understand. Most men would have planned vengeance
at such an insult to their manliness and the possibility of becoming the
laughing stock of the other men in the village.
But Joseph was not an ordinary person. He was a
“righteous” man. And he must have seen Mary as more than an ordinary
person too. He did not want to expose her openly. To do so would
have made her liable to the severest punishment. But at the very least,
the Mosaic law required a man to divorce his wife under such
circumstances. This was Joseph’s duty and he was going to observe it.
But compassion for his bride (extraordinary in the
circumstances and in that culture) led him to want to break off the engagement
quietly that is, before a minimum of two witnesses and without pressing
charges.
The angel’s message
Just then the angel appears to him telling him to go through with the
marriage. The child has been conceived by the power of God’s
Spirit. No other man is involved. The son is to be called ‘Jesus’,
which means ‘Saviour’, because his mission is to save his people from their
estrangement with God.
As a descendant of David, Joseph will become the legal
father of Jesus the Messiah. And Jesus will be called later in the
Gospel, “Son of David”. As Paul puts it in the Second Reading today: he,
Paul, is preaching the gospel:
…concerning [God’s] Son, who was
descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God
with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
In many ways, Joseph is a reflection of Joseph in the Hebrew
Old Testament, the son of Jacob who was sold into slavery by his jealous
brothers. He was also a righteous man, influenced by dreams and forced
into exile in Egypt.
Fulfilment of scripture
Eleven times altogether in his Gospel, Matthew indicates how events in the life
of Jesus are fulfilments of Old Testament promises. Here he quotes the
prophet Isaiah (using the Greek Septuagint text):
Look, the virgin [Greek parthenos;
Hebrew alma, young girl of marriageable age] shall become
pregnant and give birth to a son…
The child will be called Emmanuel, which Matthew explains as
meaning “God with us”. Jesus will be the very presence of God the Father
in our world. As John says in his Prologue:
And the Word became flesh and lived [literally,
‘pitched his tent’] among us, and we have seen his glory… (John
1:14)
God is with us and is one of us. And this presence
does not end with the Resurrection.
Before Jesus leaves his disciples at the Ascension, his last
words in Matthew’s Gospel are:
…I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt
28:20)
Right down to the present, Jesus continues to be
Emmanuel. And that is why we continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus
more than 2,000 years on. Through his Body, the Church—the Christian
community—Jesus continues to be visibly present in word and action. This
Eucharist is our sacramental celebration of that presence, a presence in every
single one of us here.
The effectiveness of that presence depends on our conscious
union with Jesus and with the vision of his gospel lived out in our daily
lives. Let Jesus be really re-born in each one of us this Christmas.
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Sunday,
December 21, 2025
Fourth
Sunday of Advent
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures
with the same mind that You read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In
the light of the Word, written in the Bible, You helped them to discover the
presence of God in the disturbing events of Your sentence and death. Thus, the
cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life
and of resurrection. Create silence in us so that we may listen to Your voice
in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the
poor and suffering. May Your word guide us so that we too, like the two
disciples on the way to Emmaus, may experience the force of Your resurrection
and witness to others that You are alive in our midst as source of fraternity,
justice and peace. We ask this of You, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed the
Father to us and sent us Your Spirit. Amen.
Gospel Reading – Matthew 1: 18-24
Key for Reading:
The majority of the members of the Christian communities in
Palestine and in
Syria, for whom Matthew wrote his
Gospel, were converted Jews. They accepted Jesus as Messiah and believed in
Him. They were persecuted because of their faith. Their brother Jews said to
them, “You Christians are deceived! Jesus is not, nor can He be the Messiah!”
In the text which we are meditating on this Sunday, Matthew’s concern is
evident. He wants to confirm the faith of the communities. It is as if he
wished to tell us, “You do not live deceived! Jesus is truly the Messiah! “The
intention of Matthew in chapters one and two of his Gospel is to inform the
readers concerning Jesus, whose
activity will be described beginning in chapter three. In the first two
chapters, Matthew presents the credentials of Jesus, the new Legislator, the
new Moses. In the genealogy (Mt 1: 1-17), he had already shown that Jesus
belongs to the race of David and of Abraham (Mt 1: 1). In these verses (Mt 1:
18-25) Matthew continues to present Jesus to us describing His birth. He says
how Joseph received the news that Mary was with child and, the prophecies which
will be realized with the birth of Jesus, showing that He is the expected
Messiah. During the reading, it is well to pay attention to what the text tells
us on the person of Jesus, especially in what concerns the significance of the
two names that He receives.
A Division of the Text to Help the Reading:
•
Matthew 1: 18: A legal irregularity in Mary
•
Matthew 1: 19: The justice of Joseph
•
Matthew 1: 20-21: The explanation or elucidation
by the Angel
•
Matthew 1: 21-23: The melody in Matthew’s Gospel
•
Matthew 1: 24-25: The obedience of Joseph. The Text:
18 This is how Jesus Christ came
to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to
live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Her
husband Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided
to divorce her informally. 20 He had made up his mind to do this when suddenly
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of
David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has
conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son
and you must name him Jesus, because He is the one who is to save His people
from their sins.'
22 Now all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken
through the prophet: 23 Look! the virgin is with child and will give birth to a
son whom they will call Immanuel, a name which means 'God-is-with-us.’ 24 When
Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took
his wife to his home; 25 he had not had intercourse with her when she gave
birth to a son; and he named Him Jesus.
A
Moment of Prayerful Silence
so that the
Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.
Some Questions
to help us
in our personal reflection
•
Which point of this text struck you the most?
Why?
•
According to the words of the Angel, who is the
Son who will be born of Mary?
•
According to the words of Matthew, which
prophecy of the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus?
What are the two names which the
Child receives and what is God’s plan hidden in these names?
•
How is Joseph’s attitude to be understood? What
does this attitude teach us?
•
In what exactly does Joseph’s “justice” consist?
•
What is our justice, compared with that of
Joseph?
To Go Deeper into the Theme
Context of the evangelic text:
The genealogy of Jesus (Mt 1: 1-17) leaves us with a question.
Next to the names of the forty-two paternal ancestors of Jesus (Mt 1: 17),
Matthew gives the names of four maternal ancestors only: Tamar (Mt 1: 3),
Rahab, Ruth (Mt 1: 4) and the wife of Uriah (Mt 1:6). The four women conceived
their sons outside the parameters of purity or of the legal justice of that
time. Therefore, the state of these four women is irregular before the Law. The
irregularity of these four ancestors is evident. It is sufficient to read the
texts of the Old Testament where their story is described. And thus, at the end
of the genealogy a question arises: “And Mary, the spouse of Joseph, from whom
Jesus is born (Mt 1: 16), does she also incur some irregularity of a legal
type? The text on which we are meditating this Sunday speaks about this. Commentary on the text:
•
Matthew 1: 18: A legal irregularity in Mary
Mary is with child before going to live with Joseph, her
promised spouse. The one who looks at things from outside is aware of an
irregularity and will say, “Mary, how horrible!” According to the law of Moses,
these errors merited a death penalty (Deut 22: 20). To avoid this mistaken
interpretation of facts, Matthew helps the reader to see the other aspect of
Mary’s pregnancy: “She conceived by the Holy Spirit.” To human eyes this may
seem a transgression of the Law, but in God’s eyes this was exactly the
contrary!
•
Matthew 1: 19: The justice of Joseph
The pregnancy of Mary takes place
before she went to live with Joseph, not because of a human deviation, but
because of the divine will. God himself made fun of the law of legal purity in
such a way as to make the Messiah be born among us! If Joseph had acted
according to the requirements of the law of that time, he would have had to
denounce Mary and possibly she would have been stoned. Pregnancy before
marriage is irregular and according to the law of legal purity, she should be
punished with the death penalty (Deut 22: 20). But Joseph, because he is just, does not obey the requirements of
the law of purity. His justice is
greater. Instead of denouncing, he prefers to respect the mystery which he does
not understand and decides to abandon Mary in secret. The greatest justice of
Joseph saves both the life of Mary and that of Jesus.
Thus, Matthew sends an important message to the communities
of Palestine and Syria. It is as if he said, “Behold, what would happen if the
rigorous observance were followed, which certain Pharisees demand from you!
They would put the Messiah to death!” Later Jesus will say, “If your justice is
not greater than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 5: 20).
•
Matthew 1: 20-21: The explanation or elucidation
of the Angel and the two names of the Son of Mary: Jesus and Immanuel
“The Angel of the Lord” helps to discover the deepest
dimension of life and of events. He helps to make an X-Ray of events and to
perceive God’s call which with our human eyes alone we cannot perceive. The
Angel makes Joseph understand that Mary’s pregnancy is the fruit of the action
of the Holy Spirit. God Himself, the day of creation, blew over the waters and
filled with force the creating Word of God (Gen 1: 2). The new creation takes
place in Mary. It is the beginning of the new heaven and the new earth,
announced by Isaiah (Isa 65: 17). The Son of Mary receives two names: Jesus and
Immanuel. Jesus means “Yahweh
saves.” Salvation does not come from what we do but from God, rather from what
God does for us. Immanuel means “God
with us.” In the Exodus, when getting out of Egypt, God goes down to be with
the oppressed people (Ex 3: 8) and tells Moses: “I will be with you” (Ex 3: 12) and from that moment on God never
abandons His people. The two names, Jesus and Immanuel, render concrete and
even go beyond the hope of the people.
•
Matthew 1: 22-23: The melody of Matthew’s Gospel
“All this took place in order that what had been said of
the Lord by the prophet could be fulfilled.” This sentence or other similar
ones are like a melody, words which are repeated many times in the Gospel of
Matthew (Mt 1: 23; 2: 5, 15, 17, 23; 4: 14; 8: 17; 12: 17; 13: 14, 35; etc.).
This reveals the purpose which the author had in mind: to confirm for his
readers of Jewish origin the fact that Jesus is truly the promised Messiah. In
Him the promises of the prophets are fulfilled.
Here Matthew quotes the text of Isaiah: “The virgin will
conceive and give birth to a son, whom she will call Immanuel” (Isa 7: 14). The
title Immanuel more than a name
reveals the meaning of Jesus for us. Jesus is the proof that God continues to
be with us. The name itself of the Child is Jesus (Mt 1: 25).
•
Matthew 1: 24-25: The obedience of Joseph
Waking up from sleep, Joseph does what the Angel told him
and took Mary to his house. And he continues to say that he had no relation
with Mary, to confirm that Jesus is born from the Holy Spirit.
Extending the Information:
•
A key for
the Gospel of Matthew - The Gospel of Matthew is addressed to a community
of converted Jews, who live a deep crisis of identity in relation to their
Jewish past. When in the year 65 AD the revolt broke out against Rome, the
Jewish-
Christians did not participate and
they abandoned Jerusalem. The Pharisees did the same thing. After the
destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, the Pharisees reorganized the people
who had remained and they lined up, always in a more decisive way, against the
Christians, who at the end were excommunicated. This excommunication made the
problem of identity even worse. Now, officially excommunicated, they could no
longer go to their Synagogue, to their rabbi. And the question arose among them:
To whom do the promises belong: to the Synagogue or to the Church? Who is the
true People of God, they or we? Is Jesus truly the Messiah? Matthew writes his
Gospel for this community. The Gospel of Matthew can be defined by the
following three words:
•
The Gospel of consolation for those excommunicated and persecuted by their
brother Jews who do not accept Jesus as the Messiah (Christ); it helps to
overcome the trauma or shock of the breaking.
•
The Gospel of revelation: It shows Jesus as the true Messiah, the new Messiah, in
Whom is the summit of all the history of the Old Testament with its promises.
•
The Gospel of the new practice: It describes the practice of Jesus, and shows how to
attain a new justice, greater than that of the Pharisees.
•
This
happened in order that it could be realized - by means of this phrase
repeated many times in his Gospel, Matthew touches on the point of greatest
tension between Christians and Jews. Starting from the Bible, they said, “Jesus
is not and cannot be the Messiah!” Starting from the Bible itself, Matthew
responds and affirms, “Jesus is truly the Messiah!”
•
The
pregnancy of Mary - Matthew as well as Luke quote the text of Isaiah “A
virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, whom she will call Immanuel” (Isa
7: 14). But there is a difference. Luke places Mary in the center and gives
more importance to the sign of virginity (Lk 1: 31). Matthew places Joseph in
the center and gives more importance to the significance of the name Immanuel.
•
Joseph’s
dream - the Angel appeared to Joseph in his sleep and helps him to
understand. With the help of the Angel, Joseph succeeded in discovering God’s
action in this event, which according to the opinion of the time, seemed to be
only the fruit of deviation and of sin. Angel means messenger. He brings a
message and a help to perceive God’s action in life. Today there are many
Angels who guide us in life. Sometimes they act while we sleep, in our dreams,
other times in our meetings, in conversations and in Biblical encounters, in
facts, etc. So many Angels, so many Angels!
Prayer: Psalm 72 (71)
His Name endures for ever!
God, endow the king with Your
own fair judgement, the son of the king with Your own saving justice, that he
may rule Your people with justice, and Your poor with fair judgement.
Mountains and hills, bring peace
to the people! With justice he will judge the poor of the people, he will save
the children of the needy and crush their oppressors. In the sight of the sun
and the moon he will endure, age after age.
He will come down like rain on
mown grass, like showers moistening the land. In his days uprightness shall
flourish, and peace in plenty till the moon is no more. His empire shall
stretch from sea to sea, from the river to the limits of the earth.
The Beast will cower before him, his
enemies lick the dust; the kings of Tarshish and the islands will pay him
tribute. The kings of Sheba and Saba will offer gifts; all kings will do him
homage, all nations become his servants.
For he rescues the needy who call
to him, and the poor who have no one to help.
He has pity on the weak and the
needy, and saves the needy from death. From oppression and violence he redeems
their lives, their blood is precious in his sight.
Long may he live; may the gold of
Sheba be given him! Prayer will be offered for him constantly, and blessings
invoked on him all day.
May wheat abound in the land,
waving on the heights of the hills, like Lebanon with its fruits and flowers at
their best, like the grasses of the earth.
May his name be blessed for ever, and endure in the sight of
the sun.
In him shall be blessed every race
in the world, and all nations call him blessed. Blessed be Yahweh, the God of
Israel, who alone works wonders; blessed for ever His glorious name.
May the whole world be filled with His glory! Amen! Amen!
Final Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You for the word that has enabled us to
understand better the will of the Father. May your Spirit enlighten our actions
and grant us the strength to practice what Your Word has revealed to us. May
we, like Mary, Your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word. You
who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and
ever. Amen.
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