St. Matthew begins the Gospel by framing the birth of Jesus with a quote from Isaiah: “They shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” He ends his gospel with Jesus telling his disciples “I will be with you always.” The evangelist wants us to understand that “God is with us” not only when we win the lottery, not only when the doctor tells us we are cured, not only when the children get straight “A”s but all the time. The Gospel assures us that, with the example of Jesus, we know God is with us when we are carrying our cross, when we are agonized in prayer, when we are confronted with death. Advent means finding God in all things.
