From Prophecy to Fulfillment: The Mystery of Emmanuel and His Mother
December 20, 2024 - Friday of the Third Week of Advent
Isaiah 7:10-14; Ps 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6; Luke 1:26-38
Around 733 BC, Isaiah prophesied about a virgin who would give birth to a son named Emmanuel (Is 7:14 LXX; Mt 1:22). At this time, the Assyrian empire was expanding westward, prompting Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel to seek an alliance against it. However, the King of Judah, Ahaz, refused to join, which led Syria and Israel to attack Judah, hoping to force its involvement. Feeling threatened, Ahaz ignored Isaiah's assurance of safety and instead made a pact with Assyria, rendering Judah subservient to this foreign power (Is 7:1-9; 2 Kings 16:7-9).
Ahaz declined to ask for a sign from God, as Isaiah suggested, claiming he did not want to test the Lord. Yet, rather than trust in Isaiah's reassurance, Ahaz relied on Assyria's strength and their gods. He even replaced the original altar of the temple with a replica from Damascus, used by the Assyrian king (2 Kings 16:11-16). For Ahaz, this altar to foreign gods offered more security than the promise of Emmanuel.
Pope Benedict XVI referred to the prophecy about the virgin and her son as a “word in waiting,” a message awaiting fulfillment. The identity of this child remained a mystery, much like the reference in Genesis about a woman and her descendant (Gen. 3:15). It took seven centuries until the New Testament unveiled the identities: the virgin was Mary, and her son, Jesus Christ, was Emmanuel—“God with us” (Matt. 1:23; 28:20). Yet, in the interim, Israel would lose everything it held dear: Jerusalem with its sacred temple, the Davidic kingship, and its national independence.
In the Psalm, the psalmist asks: "Who can climb the mountain of the Lord?" (Psalm 24:3). The answer: only those with moral integrity, "whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain" (Psalm 24:4). We can imagine this as a dialogue between the temple priests and pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem. But we also know that the reason for the temple’s destruction was that no one of such integrity could be found. As Jeremiah records, “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her” (Jer 5:1).
A person of moral integrity, one who values honesty over falsehood, will experience God’s blessing. Who could be such a person? Today’s Gospel points us to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception, the incorruptible temple of the Lord, chosen by God to be the Mother of Christ. Mary, a young virgin from Nazareth, is chosen to bear a son who “will be great, will be called Son of the Most High, the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father; he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his Kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:32-33). Luke gives us a profound insight into the identity of this child.
What the angel told Mary about her future son exceeded all expectations. The long-awaited Messiah was arriving—the one in whom and through whom all the promises of the Old Testament would be fulfilled. Yet the description of this child and the manner of his life go far beyond anything we could have imagined. And that is the profound mystery of Christ in whom we believe and whose birth we are about to celebrate.