21 December 2025
Fourth Sunday of Advent ‘A’
Is 7:10-16; Rom 1:1-7; Mt 1:18-24
Homily
If the people of Israel played a significant role in ancient history, it was certainly not because of their numerical or military importance, but because of their strategic position. Israel was a kind of buffer zone between the great powers of the time: between Assyria and Egypt for a time, then between Persia and the Greco-Roman Empire. These superpowers, each in turn, considered it their right and duty to act as international police and to impose or depose the leaders of the people of Israel. At the time of Jesus' birth, Judea was under the authority of a king who was a puppet of the Romans, and Galilee was under a Roman governor.