Antiphon for December 23

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of the nations and their
Savior.  Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Isaiah 7:14: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel".

Isaiah 33:22: "Indeed the Lord will be there with us,  majestic.  Yes, the Lord our judge, the Lord our lawgiver, the Lord our king, he it is who will save
us".

With this last antiphon our expectation finds joy now in the certainty of fulfillment.  We call Jesus by one of the most personal and intimate of his titles, Emmanuel, God-with-us.  We recall that in his birth from the Virgin Mary God takes on our very flesh and human nature: God coming nearer to us than we could have ever imagined!  Yet he is also to be exalted above us as our king, the lawgiver and judge, the one whom we honor and obey.  And he is our savior, long-expected by all creation.  The final cry rises from us urgent in our need for daily salvation and forgiveness of our sins, and confident that our God will not withhold himself from us.  

(c) 2000 Jeanne Kun