We are on the cusp of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ!
But how and why do we arrive at and celebrate Christmas? Today’s readings on the Fourth Sunday of Advent provide us clues.
In the First Reading, King David laments that he has a palace while God has only a tent in which to dwell. God reminds David he has led him to great victories and his becoming King without having a grand manmade house, something King Solomon, David’s son, would provide the Lord in building the Temple (2 Sam. 7:13).
Of much greater importance, though, is what God will do for David and—by extension—us: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).
This prophecy is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, as the angel Gabriel conveys to Mary at the Annunciation, which is proclaimed in today’s Gospel:
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:32-33)
St Matthew makes clear in beginning his Gospel that Jesus is both “son of David” and “son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1), the latter important because God told the patriarch he would bless all the nations through his descendants (Gen. 22:18).
And what will that blessing be? Nothing short of redemption from our sins and the opportunity to attain eternal salvation: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God becomes man (John 1:1-3, 14), so that we can be reconciled and joyfully reign with him in heaven forever.
In just several more days, we will hear the angel proclaim to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
And so we wait to renew the joy of the Nativity.
We also see parallels in today’s readings between Mary and the Ark of the Covenant, as Luke affirms that the Child Mary will conceive is both man and God. In explaining how Mary will conceive, Gabriel tells her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). Similarly, God overshadowed the holy of holies in general, where he dwelled most intimately on earth in Old Covenant times (Exod. 40:34-35), and atop the Ark of the Covenant in particular, from which the Lord would speak to Moses (Exod. 25:21-22).
Because she conceives and carries the God-man, Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant:
Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is “the dwelling of God . . . with men” [Revelation 21:3] (CCC 2676).
With the intercession of his Blessed Mother, who is our mother too (Rev. 12:17), let us prepare our hearts to receive Jesus anew this Christmas.
[Readings: 2 Sm 7:1-5, BB-12, 14A, 16; Rm 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38]
