General. This is a Sunday full of joy for we have now passed the austerities of the first two weeks of Advent and are now joyful that the Lord’s coming is near. Our joy can be realized as from this Eucharist, when we become one with him in his body, receiving his holy Spirit within us as a sign of his bond with us. This bond will be the main reason for our keeping ourselves in him, and God in us, or rather with us, in fulfilment of His name "Emanuel".

Isaiah is in jubilation about Jerusalem’s triumph the same as we are that the Lord’s incarnation into man’s history is fast approaching, wishing that it were so even today in real life. The Lord watches over the world at all times, even if many a time we may not be aware of it for various personal and historical reasons, yet at times His intervention is manifest to one and all in time and history. He is the Pantocrator, the One with History in His Hands, who with love executes divine justice in the world and comes into it to save it ("Jeshua").

St James. The Prophets who preceded Christ are this Sunday still commemorated in the Byzantine Liturgy as models of faithful believers before Christ. Patience and fortitude were their hallmarks, even in their times, as they should be today for Christians who do not see a ray of hope in today’s misery. St James exhorts Christians to respect one another and not to lodge reciprocal complaints, but to rejoice and keep their hearts pure for the day when the Lord will surely come.

St Matthew. The transition from the Old (or First) to the New (or Second) Testament (there were really no two different times but only a natural passage in time from one era to the next) and from the biddings of John the Baptist to convert, to God’s love and mercy as preached by Jesus Christ, characterize the reading in syntony with the time of joy we have now entered. The Law and the Prophets (Moses and Elijah) have now been accomplished and Jesus’ entry into the world will carry along with it universal charity towards humanity.

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