Sunday, December 18, 2022

Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Advent

Dec. 18, 2022
Matt 1: 18-24
Is 7: 10-14
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him” (Matt 1: 24).

St. Joseph's Anxiety (James Tissot)

Two men are given directives from heaven in today’s 1st and 3d readings.  In the Old Testament reading, the prophet Isaiah directs Ahaz, king of Judah, to ask for a sign from God.  In the gospel, Joseph of Nazareth is directed to go thru with his planned marriage to Mary.

More than 700 years before Christ—Ahaz reigned from 736 to 716 B.C.—in God’s name Isaiah has been cautioning the king against involvement in the power politics of the Middle East.  Isaiah tells him to trust in God’s help rather than in the Assyrian Empire, making Judah a vassal state of Assyria.  Pretending piety, Ahaz won’t listen to the prophet, not even when Isaiah offers a sign from heaven, namely that a young woman[1] whose identity we don’t know—but Ahaz must have known—will conceive and bear a son.

St. Matthew sees in Isaiah’s words a new meaning[2] that bears on the coming of Israel’s Messiah:  “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about” (1:18).  Of course, St. Joseph’s totally in the dark about the miraculous pregnancy of his betrothed.  Mary and he are legally committed to each other; betrothal is more than an engagement, in our pre-marriage customs.  Legally they are husband and wife, tho they won’t live together or have relations until the public marriage ceremony is celebrated some months after the betrothal agreement.

Unlike Ahaz, Joseph is “a righteous man” (1:19), which means he truly worships the Lord and always wants to do what is right, to do what God wants.  Thus when “the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream” (1:20) and informed him of the origin of the child Mary was carrying, he was ready to listen to God’s message and to obey.  And when he awoke, he “did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home” (1:24).

Each of us can live like either Ahaz or Joseph.  Our piety, our devotion to God, can be fake like Ahaz’s, who’s going to do what he’s decided to do, regardless of God’s word addressed to him.  Ahaz is like Catholics who, when reminded of church teaching on marriage, birth control, or abortion, respond, “I disagree.”  Or we can strive to be righteous, just, holy, pleasing to God like Joseph, who makes 2 decisions in the gospel as he tries to live by God’s law.  All of us have a bit of Ahaz in us—our sinful selves—and a bit of Joseph, the self that wants to live like a disciple and friend of Jesus.

Joseph’s 1st decision is “to divorce her quietly,” not “to expose her to shame” (1:19) before their families and the rest of Nazareth, possibly even to expose Mary to death by stoning for the crime of adultery (cf. John 8:3-5).  Joseph wants to balance mercy and respect for the Law of Moses by putting aside a woman who appears to have been unfaithful.  That’s his 1st decision.

His 2d decision reverses that 1st one.  When God speaks to him thru an angel, he changes his plan—unlike Ahaz.  As a righteous or just man, he’s ruled by faith in God.  He adjusts his intention to what God commands.

God doesn’t use angels to speak to us today.  But he continues to address us concerning what he wants of us by several means.  The 1st means is his revealed word in the sacred Scriptures.  So it’s important for us to read the Bible regularly, especially the Gospels, and not only when we come to church.

The 2d means is in the teachings of the Church.  Jesus says explicitly that whoever hears his apostles hears him:  “Whoever listens to you listens to me.  Whoever rejects you rejects me.  And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me” (Luke 10:16).  The apostles have been succeeded by the Pope, successor of St. Peter, and the bishops.  They teach us God’s ways with the authority that Christ has given to them when they speak about the commandments, the beatitudes, war and peace, marriage, sexuality, abortion, care for creation, human dignity, human rights, etc.

The 3d means by which God speaks to us is thru modern prophets, thru saints like Mother Teresa and Oscar Romero, thru people who show us what’s right and wrong in contemporary society, people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day.

St. Paul reminds us today that we are “beloved of God, called to be holy” (Rom 1:7).  Brothers and sisters, each day we have occasions to hear God speaking to us.  Each day we have opportunities to speak and to live as the Gospel instructs us—to act obediently and righteously like St. Joseph rather than stubbornly and self-willed like King Ahaz.



[1] almah in Hebrew, “young woman” of marriageable age.

[2] Working from the Septuagint Greek text, which renders almah as parthenos, “maiden, virgin.”

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