O Emmanuel
O Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver
Emmanuel is a name of Jesus. As we know, in the Bible as in the Roman proverb, “nomen est omen”, a name is a sign, a pointer to someone’s identity and mission. You give someone a name, change it, you reveal or change their destiny – Adam, Eve, Abraham, the Patriarchs, prophets, kings – David – Simon becoming Peter, and so on.
So just as “Jesus” means “Saviour”, so “Emmanuel” means “God with us”. We know that’s true, but how is it true? Like most things in the Bible, it’s very simple, and yet not so simple. This Emmanuel-thing is sometimes called “realised eschatology” – what on earth does that mean? It means something that has already happened, that is here and now, and something that won’t happen till the end, both-and, rather than either-or.
Emmanuel, the expectation of Israel – come thou long-expected Jesus – Isaiah foretold, “the Virgin is pregnant and will bear a Son, whom she will name Emmanuel” (Is. 7: 14). Israel had to wait 400 years for him to come. But having arrived, he remains with us, telling us, in the very last verse of Matthew’s Gospel, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the ages.” So in Advent we share the hope of Israel, we re-live it. The Liturgy offers us simultaneously a pre-play and a replay of salvation history, past, present and to come. What the prophet foretold, what Mary experienced and what the Church prays for now – “Come, Lord Jesus!”
But God has been with us from the beginning, our first parents heard his footsteps as he walked in the garden (Gen. 3: 8), he never abandons us. God is with us, Isaiah again (8: 8 & 10), he is with us, (Ps. 45: 8), it is his constant purpose, “Make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Ex. 25: 8). “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” – but that text means, “he pitched his tent among us”, he is nomadic, like us, accompanies us wherever we go. Better still, he takes us with him, making us citizens of the new Jerusalem, “Behold the dwelling of God with men; he will have his dwelling with them, they will be his people, and he, God with them, will be their God.”
So this is no passing fancy, Jesus is with us now, and always will be so. No terms and conditions apply, there is no small print, this is unconditional. There are no “ifs” or “buts” involved. In the Old Testament, his People tried him repeatedly, but always he took them back. In the New Testament, we killed him on Calvary, but that statement in Matthew comes after that ultimate rejection, he is always with us. See how often the word we translate variously as “dwell”, “stay”, “remain” occurs in John’s Gospel.
Why is he with us? “God became man, that man might become God” – isn’t that blasphemy? No, it’s the constant teaching of the Church’s saints, it’s astonishing, it’s true. He became incarnate, took flesh, was made man, in order to be with us, so that we might see him, hear him, touch him, consume him, know the truth of this love.
This name is a prayer, a promise, a truth. When the Virgin called his name Emmanuel, she didn’t leave it at that, she treasured this Word from God, this Word of God, in her heart, ruminating it, savouring it, letting it enter more and more deeply into her heart and soul. “How can this be?” With God, all things are possible. This is a truth of our Faith. We are invited to bathe in the warmth of it, soak up the love. It is a mystery with many implications, says St. Paul, speaking of marriage, and this is the marriage of God with his creatures, his uniting himself completely to us, his giving himself to us, completely and without reserve, accepting us as we are, because he loves us. But in marriage, the covenant is mutual, we must give ourselves completely to our Emmanuel, holding nothing back, putting no limits to what we give, not allowing anything to seduce us, opening our hearts to welcome him in.
God is with us in so many ways, he is very serious about this. He gives himself completely, Body Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Communion. He is always with us in the Eucharist, to be adored, loved, glorified, worshipped. He is always with us in his Word, whether heard in the Liturgy, read in the Scriptures, alive and active in our hearts. He is with us when we pray, when we can’t pray, in joy, sadness and perplexity. He is with us in our neighbour, two or three gathered together in his Name, there he is in our midst. He is there in the unpromising and unprepossessing members of his flock, inviting us to find, recognise, love and serve him in his needy and impoverished members.
Every one of these great “O” antiphons ends with an invitation: “Come!”, and we should add our voices to that great chorus. Why? Because Jesus is polite and unassuming. Yes, he is our King, but he stands at our door and knocks, he does not barge his way in. He will come in and take his meal with us, in intimate friendship. He just wants to be asked. He is the one we hunger and thirst for, the one we sigh for, the only one who can lead us to the Father, to satisfy us.
He is the One our world awaits, the answer to very one of our needs, our hopes, our desires. He is our Saviour, our Jesus, we should ask for a limitless yearning for him, so that we may never be content with anything or anyone else, so that the vacuum of our hearts may suck him in, so that all the world’s troubles and sorrows may be assuaged.
Emmanuel: the Lord our God, in a tiny baby, in a Virgin’s bulging womb, in her overloaded loving heart.
He is our Emmanuel, our God with us, in every moment of our lives, the Sacrament of the present moment, closer to us than we are to ourselves, love swelling up and overflowing. How could we bear to refuse him? Come, Lord Jesus! “Surely I am coming soon,” he promises. How will he come? Yes, in sacraments, in liturgy, in Scripture, in neighbour, in events of daily life, in this great season, and ultimately when he comes to take us to himself, to be with him forever. That is what we are made for, to be happy with him forever in heaven, to experience him as eternal Emmanuel.
How to prepare for that, our personal Advent? To say, constantly, every day, “Come Lord Jesus, Come Emmanuel!” Say it insistently, lovingly, reverently, joyfully. Let it be the breath of your heart, your soul. Ask, and you will receive – heaped up, pressed down and running over.
By Fr Giles Connacher OSB, a monk of Pluscarden.