Fourth Sunday of Advent

12-21-2025Weekly ReflectionThe Faithful Disciple

Throughout my life, I have had a litany of requests for God. I have asked for mundane and ultimately inconsequential favors and also for guidance in much more important matters. But I have often hesitated to ask for the deepest desires of my heart. Those requests feel too big, too impossible, and possibly too selfish – as though asking these things would take away from God’s ability to provide for others. But in thinking this way, I am putting limits on a limitless God. In today’s first reading, the Lord speaks to Ahaz and tells him to ask for a sign – “let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!”

When Ahaz refuses, God speaks through the prophet Isaiah to deliver the most impossible promise – that “the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” God wants to give us everything we need to be close to him, so much so that he sent his Son to open the pathway to eternal life with him. God wants us to ask for him to do the impossible because he longs to give generously to us.

God brings about his plan of salvation in an extraordinary way: The virgin Mary conceives Jesus in her womb through the power of the Holy Spirit. Although God does all the spiritual heavy lifting here, notice that our Gospel tells us that he also desired and asked for Joseph’s cooperation. “Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home,” the angel tells Joseph. The Gospel tells us that Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” In our work of evangelization, God does the heavy lifting: it’s God who moves the hearts of others to seek him. But the amazing thing is that God still wants us to be part of the way his plan unfolds. We, too, cooperate with God’s work of sharing the faith and bringing salvation to others by our actions and obedience.

PRAY: As we begin this final week of Advent, the Church continues to pray with the O Antiphons, which we hear in the hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Listen to the refrain, which speaks of Israel’s immense longing to be set free and for her savior to appear. As you reflect on the first reading and upon this hymn, bring your own deepest desires to the Lord. Spend some time in prayer asking for what you need to draw closer to God.