Listen, Liken and Live...
Fourth Sunday in Advent - December 21, 2025
Isaiah 7:10-14; Romans 1: 1-17; Matthew 1:18-24
We are on the fourth Sunday of Advent already, and the great event of Christmas is just around the corner! It fills us with a child-like excitement and that is pure and holy joy... may it fill our days and our hearts. However, it should fill us also with an anxiety - not about the loads of work and errands that rest yet pending... but about how prepared are we internally and spiritually. How has these three weeks that we have come by, served the purpose of preparing ourselve towards receiving once again the great message of Incarnation? Having raised that initial question, let us look at the wonderful message that the Word has to offer us today!
We have read and reflected on the readings of today, be it the first or the Gospel, over and over gains these days! Because that is the message in the air... that the coming of the Lord, the great prophesied, pre-announced, long-awaited coming of the Lord is at hand. As pilgrims of the Reign... we have been preparing for the coming of the Lord as the coming of the Reign... what do we really do, as the Reign draws close at hand? Keep Calm, says the Word... Keep Calm and Enter the Reign!
Yes, what is expected of us is not a clamorous running hither and tither, in the name of getting ready to receive the Lord or the Reign... in fact, both are already amidst us. What we need to do is, keep calm and recognise them. Keep calm and enter the Reign, gradually, peacefully, serenely but determinedly. This message is given to us by the instrumentality of two wonderful personages in the Readings today - David and Joseph!
The name of David is heard in all the three readings today... David becomes a key figure whenever we enter the season of advent, and whenever we speak of the kingship of Christ or the coming of his Reign. Apart from so many things that David was known for... one of his personality traits that stands out is the way he faced crises: be it his personal crisis of fall from grace and return to God's favour, or the threat in his young age when Saul was after his life, or the entire episode of coup d'etat organised against his by his own son Absalom. They were intense moments of uncertainty and terror, but David never lost his heart or his mind. He was firm and recollected, even on the run. The reason: he stood on the promises of the Lord. And the Lord, remained faithful to the promises right unto the end!
Joseph, the son of David - that is how the Angel addresses him, is prepared today for the upcoming great event. Mary, we saw right at the beginning of the advent, was prepared already and here, Joseph is made ready too! Only thing that remains is, the entry of the King, the baby-king! The Joseph-David connection is not merely a name-sake, or a genetic connection. It is about the personalities. Joseph, just like David, handled crises with ease, peace and trust. Be it the moment when he found out that Mary was with a child in her womb, or when he had to scout around with an any-time ready to deliver pregnant wife on a mule, or when there was a rumour that the king was out to kill his new born baby boy...Joseph handled it all with a calm that was incredible. The reason: he stood on the promises of the Lord - the virgin shall conceive and bear and son, and you shall name him Emmanuel.
The promise was not so much about the 'virgin who shall conceive a son', as about 'Emmanuel'. Yes, the real promise is the second part... Emmanuel - God is with us! God is with us, so we can face any situation. That is what St. Paul declares in the second reading offering "peace and grace" in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and a descendant of David. Here is the King, here is the Reign... all that we need to do is keep calm and enter that Reign, in grace and peace.
The time is ripe. We are called now to calm down, silence our minds and our hearts and become aware of the preciousness of this moment. The Lord is close. The Lord is here. The Lord is with us - Emmanuel. In these last three days, calmly, peacefully, gently, can we behold the Lord, behold the Reign and realise the presence and the promise come true!
How do we do it? First, let us listen to the Lord! Isaiah says that with firmness in the first reading: Listen, house of David... do not try the patience of God. God continues to speak to us, communicate with us and reveal Godself to us...can we just stop our fretting, and Listen?!
Secondly, we are called to liken ourselves to God... to the son of God who comes to reveal to us the way we can live the Reign, make it present and manifest it to the world around us. St. Paul reminds us of this fact in the first reading. He says, we are "called to belong to Jesus Christ" (v. 6); we are "called to be saints" (v. 7a)... in short we are called to grow up in his image, in the image that he revealed to us, the Imago Dei.
Thirdly, we are called to live for God. That is the concrete way of making the Reign come, that is the only way of entering the Reign. Just as David and Joseph did in their lives, becoming stupendous instruments in the hands of God, towards bringing God's Son into the world, so are we called to become instruments in bringing the Reign of God into the world.
Hence, getting closer and closer to the great commemoration of the Incarnation event, the liturgy today gives us a strong, challenging message: Keep calm, and enter the Reign.
