The Great 'O' Antiphons: O Emmanuel. God is with us - 23rd December

O Emmanuel, our king and lawgiver, the hope of the nations and their saviour: Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Do you take the trouble to read and explore what is being said in Scripture? There are contexts to be investigated, particularly in sections that have clear historical origins, such as Isaiah's utterances for us in this last week of Advent. We need to engage more so that the word of God comes alive in us. We study the Scriptures but we also pray them, engage in what the monks called lectio divina so that the Holy Spirit may open for us the treasures of the teaching of the Lord Jesus through our Gospels and other writings.

That's what our Great 'O' antiphons do, they weave poetry, symbols, scripture, and theology all together so that we glimpse the unfolding of belief in the risen presence of Jesus, God who is always with us, the true Emmanuel!

There are two prophecies of Isaiah that link into this 'O' antiphon. One poetically describes what is to come: 'The Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel' (Is 7.14) Some people have quibbled about what this might actually mean, but we don't use this as a 'proof text', it belongs to the revelation of faith, those times when the obscure, cloudy, utterances of humans are filled with the clear light of the Most High, where in the words of St Luke, 'nothing is impossible for God!

The second passage reveals a context, and the meaning of the name Emmanuel: 'God is with us'. (Is 8.8) Initially this is about trouble with the Assyrians, who are going to terrorise the people of Judah . Isaiah warns in unequivocal terms; 'enemy soldiers will cover Judah like a flood reaching up to your neck', but then gives a signal that all is not lost, far from it: 'But God is with us. He will spread his wings and protect our land'. (Is 8.8) To the enemies he says, 'you will fail because God is with us'.(Is 8.10)

In Isaiah's quotes I find great hope, that from the dawn of time right up to Bethlehem and the nativity of Jesus and beyond to our own day, in times of oppression and of joy, God has been with us, and in the person of Jesus Christ really came to be one of us.

O Emmanuel, be with all peoples, draw them ever closer to your abiding presence that they may find salvation and see the joy of their hope in you fulfilled.

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Catholic Chaplain for the Melkites in the UK. He is also an Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church Oxford