OMELIE / Omelie EN

21 dic 2025

21/12/2025 - 4th Sunday of Advent - Year A

21/12/2025 - 4th Sunday of Advent - Year A

First reading Isaiah 7:10-14 from Psalm 23 Second reading Romans 1:1-7 Gospel Matthew 1:18-24

Today we are helped to look at Jesus through Mary and Joseph. Both of them experienced profound anguish in anticipation of the birth of the one who would be called their son. Mary gave her consent to God, trusting blindly in him, in his wisdom and omnipotence. Joseph also entrusted himself to the angel's revelation and the advice he received: 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit'. After meditating on the dream, in which he was reminded of the same words of the prophet that had also been announced to Mary: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”, he put aside his own reasoning and submitted to what had been revealed to him.

The response given to God was not easy for Joseph, precisely because it would become an occasion for misunderstanding and contempt on the part of everyone. Both he and Mary had to keep their gaze fixed on God with determination and perseverance, without giving importance to the probable reactions of men and their predictable judgements. In this they are exceptional teachers.

I see that every day I have to struggle with the temptation to pay attention to what this or that person may say or think. If I were completely oriented towards the Father's will, I would not have this struggle: I would endure ridicule and contempt from men, but the Lord would be my complete security.

Mary and Joseph live the expectation of Jesus with great joy, mixed with trepidation, suffering, and uncertainty due to the whole environment that surrounded them and disapproved of their joy. Jesus was already a sign of contradiction for them, even before he came into the world.

For them, the Word of God was a certainty and a guarantee for their journey, for their purity, for their future: it was the Word that the prophet had addressed to a self-confident king, incapable of accepting the signs of God. In fact, as we hear in the first reading, at the time of Isaiah, King Ahab did not want to accept the suggestion to desist from his plans for war in order to live in peace, relying on the divine promise. For this reason, he refused to ask for a sign from above. The sign will be given anyway, but not to him, but to the whole people: the one whom the prophet himself calls “prince of peace” will be born, the one who, when he is welcomed, will bring together the panther and the kid, the cow and the bear, the wolf and the lamb.

Mary and Joseph are willing to suffer in order to collaborate in God's plan. They suffer, but they do not allow themselves to be overcome by the doubts and hesitations that fill the lives of men and women every day. Their response to God is an act of constant faith, an obedience lived in secret, which experiences fatigue before joy.

St Paul, writing to the Romans, reveals that he knows he has been called to obey God by welcoming Jesus into his life. And, having done so, he has experienced that such obedience is a grace, an immense gift, a new and true life. The Gospel, in fact, makes true humanity, the fullness of joy, peace and fraternal communion grow in us. It brings people into harmony with one another so that they may experience a strength and joy otherwise unknown. For this reason, the apostle dedicates himself with determination to proclaiming to all the faith in Jesus, or rather, obedience to the faith: ‘to bring about the obedience of faith among all peoples, to the glory of his name’ .

He is certain that those who accept will be grateful to him, and that God himself will reward him, because whoever welcomes the Lord Jesus becomes the glory of the Father. In fact, whoever welcomes Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit, becomes a temple of God, a source of peace and forgiveness, a meeting place for men.

Whoever welcomes Jesus becomes, like Mary and Joseph, a new humanity. St Paul does not receive the promise that everything will be easy. On the contrary, he will experience the suffering of rejection, psychological and moral suffering and economic hardship, dangers and persecutions, but he will live all this as an opportunity to bear witness to Jesus, the source of true and eternal life, the source of selfless love. Thanks to his suffering for Jesus, many will believe in him! No one will be able to take away his joy!