Fourth Sunday of Advent
Is 7:10-14; Rom 1:1-7; Mt 1:18-24 (year a)
The Fourth Sunday of Advent brings us to Mary and the imminent birth of her Son Jesus. If we reach beyond the familiar story, it is an invitation to expect the unexpected; to expect a graciousness beyond our imagining. Are we prepared for the unexpected, or do we continue life’s daily routine without any real expectation that anything might change in our lives?
This was certainly the case for Judah’s King Ahaz in 8th-century BC Jerusalem. This wheeler-dealer sought to hang on to power through a questionable foreign alliance, the last desperate resort of a worried man. He had no appetite for what God might bring about in his Kingdom. It is therefore scarcely surprising that he refused to listen to the prophet Ahaz, and, with false humility, rejected his promised sign: “I will not put the Lord to the test.”
