O Emmanuel

"O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations and their Savior: come and save us, O Lord our God!" This last of the seven "O Antiphons", which are paraphrased in the popular Advent hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, indicates that the birth of the Lord is very near. Emmanuel means God is with us in Hebrew. We read in Revelation 21: 3, "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself wll allways be with them [as their God].'" St. John states it this way: "So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us." "Et verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis." (Jn. 1: 14). Another translation has God pitching his tent among us, giving us a more visual image of "living among us." How worthy for our pondering today is this great mystery of the Incarnation, the great expression of God's love for us, the point of all that we have been reflecting on these weeks of Advent, the real reason why we will be celebrating with such festivity on December 25th. It is too vast for this one day celebration so the Church will extend it for a week in what is called the Octave of Christmas. This antiphon calls us to start NOW! Christmas is near, God is near, God is with us. Let us simply repeat the word Emmanuel over and over again during the day as a means of more deeply appreciating this gift.
Bro. Rene