This Christmas is the sacred season to imitate the example of Jesus, the Face of God the Father’s mercy

“For a child is born to us, a son is given us”- (Isaiah 9,5)
Introduction:
1. In the Christmas Mass at Midnight, we read Isaiah 9,1-6 as the First Reading. We often hear therein these words, “For a child is born to us, a son is given us.”  

Isaiah refers to the birth of a son. This refers back to a former prophecy in Isaiah 7,14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Hence it is clear that the name of the son is “Immanuel”, which means ‘With-us-God.’ 

2. Who is this son, ‘Immanuel’ in the Isaian prophecy? There are two interpretations: the Jewish interpretation and the Christian interpretation.

Hebrew Hermeneutics: 
3. First, let us turn to the popular interpretation of our Jewish brethren. Accordingly, it is King Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, King of Judah. 

This King, whose name etymologically meant in Hebrew ‘God strengthens’, was righteous – i.e. right in the eyes of the Lord. “Loyal to the LORD, Hezekiah never turned away from him, but observed the commandments which the LORD had given Moses” (2 Kings 18,6). Therefore people felt that God was with them during his reign in the 700s BC. 

This King of Judah, being determined to enact religious reforms, promoted the worship of God, destroying idols like sacred pillars and trees (‘asherah’) and banning the reverence of the bronze serpent (‘nehushtan’ in Hebrew) of Numbers 21. He centralized the worship of God in the Temple of Jerusalem (i.e. sacrifice at the altar of the Temple of Jerusalem), destroying the rural ‘high places’ throughout Judah and celebrating the Feast of the Passover (‘Pesach’ in Hebrew) in Jerusalem. “It was he who removed the high places, shattered the pillars, and cut down the sacred poles. He smashed the bronze serpent called Nehushtan which Moses had made, because up to that time the Israelites were burning incense to it” (2 Kings 18,4).

Thus Hezekiah made people feel God’s presence with them and was understood as ‘Immanuel’ by his contemporaries, including Isaiah the prophet. The Deuteronomistic Historian of 2 Kings 18,5 commended him thus: “He put his trust in the LORD, the God of Israel; and neither before him nor after him was there anyone like him among all the kings of Judah.”

As we traverse the holy Gospels, we find Jesus of Nazareth as an itinerant preacher, teacher, healer and exorcist going from village to village, city to city, synagogue to synagogue and finally, in the Temple precincts

Christian Hermeneutics:
4. From this Jewish interpretation, we may now shift to the Christian understanding of the Isaian prophecy. 
The early Church identified the ‘Son’ with Jesus of Nazareth. It is clear in the Gospel of Matthew 1,22-23: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” St. Matthew sees the Child conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit as ‘Immanuel’, the ‘son’ in the ancient prophecy. Thus the prophecy of Isaiah came to be fulfilled entirely in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 

5. As we traverse the holy Gospels, we find Jesus of Nazareth as an itinerant preacher, teacher, healer and exorcist going from village to village, city to city, synagogue to synagogue and finally, in the Temple precincts. Without being confined to His village and kinsfolk, He went from multitudes to multitudes, making them all feel the presence of God in their midst. Without being confined to his work as a carpenter with tools on bench, He proclaimed the Gospel through His words and deeds, gestures and postures and His very life. Thus all felt, “God visited His people” (Luke 7,16). They all felt, ‘A child is born to us, a son is given us.’ They all felt, ‘Immanuel’, ‘With-us-God.’ 

With-us-God Today:
6. This Christmas is the sacred season to imitate the example of Jesus, the Face of God the Father’s mercy. Today people should feel, by our words, deeds and the manner of our life, ‘God-with-us.’ In the language of the Pope of Mercy, “In our parishes, communities, associations and movements, in a word, wherever there are Christians, everyone should feel an oasis of mercy” (Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus, # 12). 

7. We live at a time when religious extremism has raised its ugly head over and over again. Priyantha Kumara finally returned home, but in a drastically different way. The wife lost her beloved husband; the children lost their loving father; and the family lost its only bread-winner. The country lost one of her finest men, who stood and lived by universal moral norms and principles. Can we kill people in the name of God, no matter what we call the Transcendence, whether it is Elohim, God, Allah or Brahma? Is God a blood-thirsty Dracula? We cannot please God by shedding the blood of fellow human beings, the sons and the daughters of the Mother Earth. It is rather a mortal sin and crime against humanity – like the slaughter of the innocents on the 4/21 in Christian churches and hotel complexes. This is not the way we can make others feel the presence of God in our midst. Religious intolerance, radicalization, extremism and terrorism – these modern-day evils – should not go escort-free, without being addressed by the international community severely. 

8. From Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan to Colombo, Sri Lanka now! The shade of the Cross has already fallen upon the Church. Today our Catholic community in Sri Lanka and overseas is very much disturbed and distressed by the delay of justice and the hiding of truth concerning the Easter Sunday attack on 21 April 2019. Justice delayed is justice denied, while it is truth that sets us free, as Jesus taught us (John 8,32). The sages of Israel instruct us, “Even to the death fight for truth and the Lord your God will battle for you” (Sirach 4,28). 

Accordingly, some of the educated Catholic clergy and laity started fighting for truth. Instantly this was met with some blatant attempts to silence them. For example, a complaint was lodged against Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Colombo. Immediately, Fr. Gamini, who had become the voice of the voiceless, was summoned to the CID for three days and was interrogated for more than eight hours a day. Fr. Gamini was thus nailed on the place called the Skull daily as a salutary warning for the Church to take the vow of silence concerning the Easter Sunday bloodbath. 

9. When will the masterminds and the perpetrators of this deadliest Easter Sunday attack, which shook the nation and sent shock waves across seas and continents, glide down from the heights they have climbed (capitalizing on the blood, spilt in churches and hotels) and repent sincerely? We pray to God for their conversion – change of heart and ways.

10. In the meantime, the fire, set initially by prophetic voices like Fr. Gamini, should not be doused at any cost but be fuelled all the more by the Church, the Bride of Christ, ‘With-us-God.’ It took almost twenty years, in Homer’s Odyssey, for Odysseus to return to his rocky island kingdom of Ithaca after leaving for Troy and the Trojan War lasted, in the same legend, for more than ten years. Hence the Church, guided and guarded by the abiding presence of God in her midst, should fight tooth and nail, no matter the time it takes, for truth and justice, keeping in her mind always the ancient prophecy, “For a child is born to us, a son is given us.”  

LOGOS Ministry: 
Motto: ἡμεῖς δὲ τῇ προσευχῇ καὶ τῇ διακονίᾳ τοῦ λόγου προσκαρτερήσομεν.
“And we shall show steadfast strength towards the prayer and the service of the Word” (Acts 6,4) ..

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Jubilee Publication Series/ JPS-28
St. Anthony’s Church,
Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka
25 December, 2021