4th Sunday of Advent - 2025 - Year A

Jeff Bagnall • 12 December 2025

The first reading is a small part of a story loosely based on an event in the history of the Jews ( in the second book of Kings ) around 733 BC. The story tells of Aram and Ephraim (namely, Syria and Israel) in the north, joining together against Judah in the south, to try to force an alliance of the three as a defence against the threat of the Assyrian empire in the east. In Judah in the south, the prophet Isaiah has told its King, Ahaz, that he should trust God to defend his people and not worry; God even offers the king a sign to show His support, but Ahaz turns the offer down. Like a very understanding and caring negotiator, God will give him, and his court, a sign anyway, which is our first reading ( Isaiah 7:10-14 ). The message is delivered through Isaiah, God’s spokesman; “Look,” he says “that young marriageable girl there. She will become pregnant and produce a son whom she will call Emmanuel (God’s with us)” – the name is significant because people often gave their children names that express something about their situation or hopes, so Emmanuel might mean that by the time of the birth, the people will feel sure that ‘God is with them’. In fact Ahaz called upon the emperor of Assyria to help him, rather than rely on God; so Judah was safe, at least for the time being and the two northern kingdoms were beaten by the Assyrians. This story raises the question of how to proceed in life’s difficulties; whether to trust God or to take evasive or defensive action oneself; but it also points to hope and belief that one day God will be with the people in a reassuring way – with us.

In the second reading ( Romans 1:1-7 ) we have the opening address of the great exposition of the way that Paul saw the good news arising from Christ (the ‘gospel’ according to Paul). In conformity with letter-writing custom we would expect it to read “Paul, to all God’s beloved in Rome, grace and peace.” But in his letters Paul usually elaborates on this, and here we have the longest introduction of all his letters and its just one sentence in the original Greek. Of himself he says he is a worker with a remit and a special role – a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and appointed to deliver the good news. Paul has not visited the Romans yet and wants to reassure them of his credentials, and so adds a reference to an early creedal formula which they will most likely know – the good news is that through His human nature Jesus is descended from David, and by God’s Spirit has been revealed as Son of God at his resurrection. Paul wants to emphasize that he has a call from God to work with Gentiles – the majority of the Christians in Rome would come under that designation. He ends with the customary Greek salutation (here translated as grace, but meaning ‘rejoice’) and the traditional Jewish wish of Shalom (peace). It speaks to us, because we can both rejoice and have a deep inner peace because of the reality that we celebrate at Christmas.

Matthew’s infancy narrative is well structured and begins with a genealogy in three sections highlighting Jesus’ connections through Joseph, with Abraham, David and the Jews in exile in Babylon. This is followed by five sections that recount the birth, the magi, the trip to Egypt, the slaughter of babies and the return to Nazareth, each ending with a quotation fulfilled. In this whole section , Joseph plays an important role and echoes the Old Testament Joseph (the one with the coat of many colours) whose life was threatened by his brothers and who ended up in Egypt, he was the person who had meaningful dreams and his descendants, the Jews, eventually settled in the land where Jesus was born. In our gospel this day the story is of Mary betrothed to Joseph when he finds she is expecting. He doesn’t want to cause a fuss and has decided to separate quietly, but then has a dream and an assurance from an angel and the saviour is born to the couple. The section ends with the fulfilment quotation found in our first reading,. This context tells us that God’s way with the world is consistent throughout history; the story of the Jews from the time of Abraham, though the birth of Jesus is a definite and distinctive instance of this and a decisive step towards the fulfilment of God’s creation of a perfect world.

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Jeff Bagnall was a lecturer for many years at Craiglockhart College teaching RE to many future Catholic Primary teachers.

4th Sunday of Easter 2026 - Year A

by Jeff Bagnall • 21 April 2026

The first reading repeats the introduction from last week so as to make sense, for there follows a continuation of the previous words spoken to the crowd by Peter. The people have been moved by the accusation of putting Jesus to death, and they want to know what they can do. Peter calls upon them to be baptised. As John the Baptist seems to have preached to his listeners, Peter begins with the need for repentance and the need for baptism. You could feel sorry for the past but this repentance means ‘change your attitude to life.’ Baptism is a washing symbolic of starting with a clean sheet; here it is for starting a new life caught up in the life of the risen Christ. In his life our past is transformed; those baptised will have the forgiveness of past sins. The words translated ‘forgiveness of’ could equally well be translated as ‘release from,’ meaning a freedom from the debilitating affects of past sins. Those baptised will share in the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God. God wants people of all kinds to come into this communion with Him.

3rd Sunday of Easter - 2026 - Year A

15 April 2026

In Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, today’s first reading is the first sermon from Peter after the resurrection. The literary style is not that of a Galilean Jew, but the content is believable as a very early expression of the initial preaching about Jesus. In this first century account of the beginnings of Christianity, Peter is a key figure in the growth of the early church, together with Paul, the missionary to the Gentiles. It is significant that it is a Jewish audience in Jerusalem that Peter is addressing. Jesus is referred to as the Nazarean and there is uncertainty whether this means a man from Nazareth or one specially dedicated to God, as for example, Samson in the Old Testament, called a Nazirite. The understanding of Christian beliefs develops over time, so Peter speaks about God working through Jesus where we might be clear that Jesus is Himself God; but he does see Jesus as the fulfilment of the hopes of the Old Testament and quotes Psalm 16 verses 8 to 11, which was a song originally about someone faithful to the Lord, maybe king David, being looked after by Him; (it is used for the responsorial psalm this day). In the sermon Peter accuses the Jews of engineering the death of Jesus in an anti-Semitic way; this attitude was decried by the Church most noticeably in the 20th century in the Second Vatican Council initiated by Pope Saint John XXIII, with the words: “Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any person, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.” (The Church and non-Christian religions, Nostra Aetate, Oct. 1962). But for us the positive message from Peter’s sermon is that the Spirit of God is now poured out into creation because of the resurrection of Jesus destroying the deadliness of death and the power of evil in our lives. The second reading is part of an address to early Christians, probably Gentile converts. It is about what it means to be a Christian, noting that it is brought about by Christ – the writer uses the word ‘ransomed’, but no words can really capture the mystery of it. The mystery is that the final age has been initiated thanks to the work of God in Christ, through His life and death. The imagery of the sacrificial lamb which is used is derived from the bloody sacrifices of the Jewish Temple which at the time of this letter had been destroyed. And those addressed are living like people in exile and are urged to conduct themselves reverently in this situation; this reflects how the Jews were when they were in exile in Babylon, they had to work at it to keep themselves true to their calling. So, though we are elevated in our being through the work of God in Christ, we are for the time being in this world and must live here in a way becoming of our status.