Spirituality

O Antiphon – O Emmanuel – Day 7

Today‘s O Antiphon – O Emmanuel.

Isaiah prophesied:
“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

Emmanuel, God with us.

I don’t know if there is a sweeter Name nor one so profoundly comforting than this:

Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

God with us

All longing, grief, sorrow and pain – all disappointment and hurt.

All fractures in families, all sickness and disease, all devastation and heartache meet with the gift of Presence – Emmanuel.

When my heart is shattered and wrung out –

when I am confused

unsure, and buffeted by the storms of life, I lift my voice.

I call out for mercy – and Emmanuel, He comes.

He comes with tenderness, and with infinite love.

He enters my pain.

He cups my face with gentle hands – He weeps for and with me.

Closer than breath

He comes close.

So close.

Closer than a breath.

Sweeter than air in Springtime.

He holds me, enfolds me.

Emmanuel,

He

loved so intensely that He gave up glory, came as a tiny babe, died an excruciating death.

So that sin, death and hell are ultimately, forever powerless.

Emmanuel

“O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.”1

Emmanuel is Hope. God with us. Hope for the nations. Hope for you. Hope for me. Hope for all of us.

Hope.

Hope for the moment.

Hope for the future.

In the liturgical prayers for advent, there is a line called “The Cry of the Church.”

And it goes like this:

Even so, Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Because we place our hope in Emmanuel, in the coming of Christ, in Christ the fulfillment of our hope. To Him in all His fullness we cry:

O Wisdom,
O Lord and Ruler,
O Root of Jesse,
O Key of David,
O Morning Star,
O King of the Nations,
O Emmanuel:

we repeat it again,

Come, Lord Jesus!

Amen.