The Season of Advent offers us readings that begin with apocalyptic scenes of Jesus’ prediction of the coming destruction of the Temple and the signs of “end times.” It is a gospel taken from Holy Week and seemed a bit out of place in Advent. But one message of the readings was “pay attention” for the signs of a promised age to come. The Season of Advent is a season in preparation of the “three comings of Christ” – in history past with his birth in Bethlehem, in history future at his second coming, and in the present at our reception of Him into our hearts. The gospels for Advent have moved us from the promise of a Messiah to the herald’s ministry of announcing his arrival via John the Baptist in the readings from the 2nd and 3rd Sundays of Advent. We then come to the 4th Sunday of Advent in lectionary cycle C.

The gospels for the 4th Sunday of Advent tell of the events that preceded and prepared for the birth of Jesus. We will either hear about the dreams of Joseph (Matthew), the Annunciation in Year B (Luke), or the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (also in Luke). This year we hear the Annunciation proclaimed along with a reading from the Book of Micah:

1 But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times. 2(Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel.) 3He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; And they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; 4he shall be peace. (Micah 5:1-4a)

When the magi from the East come to Jerusalem expecting to find the king of the Jews, King Herod’s scribes quote this passage from Micah as evidence that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem has been venerated as the family home of David (1 Samuel 16:1; 17:12) and the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Son of David, since the late first century AD. So popular was the site that emperor Hadrian built a shrine to Adonis-Tamur (Phoenician patron of vegetation) on the site in order to discourage Christian pilgrims from visiting it. In the fourth century, Constantine had a basilica built on the site, and its choir, repaired by Justinian in the sixth century C.E., stands precisely over the grotto where Jesus was thought to have been born. The thousands of visitors who travel to Bethlehem each year can admire five original naves of the Constantine basilica which remain intact and have been integrated into the present structure of the Church of the Nativity.

Modern day Bethlehem is considerably more famous than it was in ancient times. As the prophet Micah attests in today’s first reading, it was “too small to be among the clans of Judah” (the New Jerusalem Bible has “least of the clans”). Nevertheless, and in keeping with the divine modus operandi so evident throughout the scriptures, God chooses that which humankind regards as insignificant to work wonders. From tiny Bethlehem would come the Lord and savior of the world.

Image credit: The Visitation | Giotto | Lower Church of the Basilica of St. Francis | Assisi, Italy | PD-US