DECEMBER 22, 2019
7:30 AM, 10:30 AM (SUN) ORDINARY FORM MASSES
Based on a 15th century French funeral procession, the origins of the tune to the hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel were discovered in 1966 by an British Augustinian canoness and musicologist named Mother Thomas Moore Berry.
The text has more ancient origins – dating from perhaps well before the 9th century.
The Latin text as we know it comes from a 1710 hymnal, and the English translation from the middle 1800s.
Each of the seven verses contains a title for the coming Messiah, foretold in various Scriptural prophecies.
The titles are also featured in the Gospel (Magnificat) antiphons of Evening Prayer (Vespers) in the Liturgy of the Hours for the last seven days leading up to Christmas.
The titles, which begin the countdown to the Nativity, are: Wisdom from on High, Lord of Israel, Root of Jesse, Key of David, Rising Dawn (Sun), King of the Nations, and Emmanuel.
And so, today’s title is King of the Nations, and the text of the Evening Prayer antiphon for today is:
O King of the nations, and their desire,the cornerstone making both one:Come and save the human race, which you fashioned from clay.As a bit of medieval trivia, when read backwards in sequence, the first letter for the seven titles in Latin spells out the Latin phrase “I am coming tomorrow.”
The last title, Emmanuel, which is in the final antiphon, comes from a Hebrew word meaning “God is with us.”
We hear this title repeated throughout the liturgy for this Sunday.
In the prophecy of Isaiah – where Isaiah confronts Ahaz, doing his own thing despite being told otherwise by the Lord. In an attempt to feign humility, Ahaz gets on Isaiah’s nerves … and according to Isaiah, God’s nerves.
If Ahaz keeps this up, he will be the last king in the line of David … until such time as:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.
St. Matthew, begins his Gospel with “the genealogy of Jesus” listing out 40 generations from Abraham to Joseph and Mary. In the section we heard today, he ties everything back to the one prophecy we heard in the first reading.
According to some Bible scholars, there are over 300 messianic prophecies in Scripture that are fulfilled in Jesus. The probability that all of these could be randomly fulfilled in one man is astronomical.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, and as we move toward the completion of this holy season of Advent and into the Christmas season … let us recognize in Jesus Christ our desire, and our cornerstone; our Savior, and our newborn King.
