Readings of the day: Jeremiah 23:5-8; Psalm 72:1-2, 12-13, 7=8, 18-19; Matthew 1:18-25
Who among us has
ever had the experience of a period of difficulty in your life suddenly eased,
or perhaps a spiritual insight during prayer, or a moment of forgiveness or conversion?
For those of us who have had these experiences, we remember them and they become
the foundation of our hope for the future.
These kinds of
moments that bring renewed hope are recalled both by the prophet Jeremiah, in
our first reading, and by Matthew in today’s Gospel reading.
Jeremiah appeals
to the memory of the Israelites, who are in the midst of exile in Babylon, one
of the darkest periods of the history of early Israel. Old Testament Israel’s
central memory of God’s power to deliver from exile was the exodus from Egypt
led by Moses. God, Jeremiah prophesies, will not just repeat the first exodus
for the exiles of his time, but will do something like the exodus and yet even
better. God will bring the Israelites back to “their own land”; a land where God’s
own justice and peace will reign.
Matthew’s appeal
to his hearers’ memory is similar to that of Jeremiah. Once again, Israel finds
itself under foreign occupation, this time by the Romans. In Matthew’s words,
we can hear an undercurrent that asks, “Do you remember how God brought you
back from Egypt under Moses? Do you remember how God brought you back from
Babylon?” Now, to deliver us once again, God has become one “with us,” Emmanuel; a human being like us!
Today, we might
ask one another: Do you remember when God brought you back from a moment of sorrow
or despair? Do you remember when God came to be one with us as Jesus Christ, who
lived, died, rose again, and ascended to heaven for us? Behold God promises
something more yet. Christ promises to return again.
This return of
Christ is primarily what we await this and every Advent, but we have the memory
of God’s saving actions of the past, especially the birth of Jesus that we are
preparing to celebrate, as the foundation of our hope in this future promise.
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