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Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 21, 2025
Posted in News
Gospel: Matt. 1. 18 – 24
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
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Homily
Last weekend I wrote about the criteria which we must use when thinking about leadership and tried to show that the preparing of the world to be a place which Christ could present to his Father depends on ensuring that sadness and sorrow is changed into joy and the suffering of so many is changed into happiness. A world worthy of being presented to the Father depends on these criteria and expectations being fulfilled. The Gospel reading for this Sunday, the fourth of the season of Advent, tells us about the King who is to come but in so doing it also gives us an insight into the way leaders of today are called to act. It must also be remembered that every one of us is a leader in one or another dimension of our lives.
The Gospel passage is the account of the annunciation of her impending pregnancy and motherhood to Mary, but it also tells us about the person to be born. The child to be born is called by two names; Jesus, a name meaning saviour, and Emmanuel a name which means “God is with us.”
If we fast forward to the public life of Jesus, we will recognize that Jesus saved his people, from spiritual and bodily affliction, not from any earthly or heavenly throne but from among them. Jesus literally walked with and among his people. He saw what afflicted them. He heard their cries for help and solace. He was close enough to them, enabling them to touch the hem of his garment in expectation of a cure. He was not like so many of our leaders who make their plans and devise their projects from behind their desks in offices. He did not operate from what he thought was good for the people. He knew what was good for his people because he walked with them and dialogued with them. He truly was Jesus, the Saviour and Emmanuel, God with his people.
The problem with so many of our leaders is that they think that they know what is good for their people and because they think that they know what is good for the people they do not listen and often enough the agenda is primarily personal aggrandizement and only secondly the needs of the people. Jesus was not about personal popularity and aggrandizement; Jesus was about the good of his people. This is how true leaders operate. They seek the good of the people because they know what the people want and need and to come to that knowledge, they walk among their people, not only at election time but always. It is a way of life for them. That is also how the saints of our church operate. They do not isolate themselves from people; they walk with them because they are concerned about them, as Jesus was concerned for his people.
The problem with us is that we see Jesus simply as being divine and forget that he was a human being. We forget that as a human being he had to learn from his parents. We forget that the examples of Joseph and Mary would have been a great influence on his life. We forget that the Gospel defines Joseph as a just man and righteous man and so would have followed the Deuteronomic code, a code which emphasized as all the prophets did, the necessity of charity and love of the neighbour. This was not simply occasional actions; this was a way of life.
This Gospel passage should therefore questions all of us. Whether we are teachers or parents or leaders of business institutions or political leaders, the question remains the same; Is love of God and neighbour a way of life for us? Do we truly seek the best for our neighbours, for those in our company, because having walked with them, and talked with them, we truly understand their needs? Do we truly understand our duty to so live and deal with others that the example that we give especially to children, teaches them to live and treat righteously with others so that their sadness is turned into joy and their sorrow into gladness. Do we help those in need and those seeking happiness to understand that Christ walks with them and understands them just as he understood the needs of the people of his time because he walked with them, and was their saviour and is our saviour because he is Emmanuel, “God with us”
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, we thank you for leaders who have impacted positively on our lives because like your Son Jesus, they understood our needs and sought the best for us because they knew us, they walked with us. Help us never to presume that we know what is best for others without first coming to know them because we have been with them. Give us the grace to overcome the temptation to self-aggrandizement so that like Jesus, our first concern will be the good of those we lead. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our Mother and your Son Jesus, Amen
