In today’s Gospel the great promise or vision of Isaiah the prophet is fulfilled: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel…” (Matthew 2:23; Isaiah 7:14). Matthew gives us the meaning of this Hebrew phrase (emmanu-El), “God is with us.” Jesus not only reveals to us the one true God, but Jesus is God with us. This phrase is the key optic to understand the whole of Matthew’s Gospel since the Gospel ends with an echo of this phrase, “And behold, I am with you always.” (Matthew 28:20).
The whole Gospel from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to Jesus’ multiple healings, from his dialogue with Jewish leaders to his passion, death, and resurrection, is the presence of God in our midst. Each one of Jesus’ words and deeds teaches us about God and invites us to encounter, Jesus, God who is with us.
Like the prophet Isaiah, the prophet Jeremiah also sets God’s promise and vision before us in today’s first reading: “Behold, the days are coming…when I will raise us a righteous shoot to David; As king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land.” Jeremiah proclaims that this new king will be called, “The Lord our justice,” which is a direct challenge to the current King Zedekiah whose name means “The Lord is my justice” although he is not a just king.
Like Jeremiah, Jesus challenges all, but especially religious and political leaders to be people of justice and integrity. Sadly, we too often today find religious and civic leaders who are not leaders of justice and integrity but hypocrites who preach but do not practice what they preach. During this week let us recognize Emmanuel, “God is with us,” and let us strive each day to know and to do God’s will. We pray in the words of today’s Responsorial Psalm that “Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace forever.”
Image: “Adoration of baby Jesus” by Creative Carol is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.