Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Advent

Dec. 22, 2019
Rom 1: 1-8

Is 7: 10-14
Matt 1: 18-24
Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“… to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy” (Rom 1: 7)

God the Father addresses his beloved people in today’s Scriptures.  He addresses King Ahaz thru the prophet Isaiah, the Christians of Rome thru St. Paul, and St. Joseph thru a dream.

Each address is a call, a vocational call, an appeal from God to carry out a responsibility. 

Isaiah meets King Ahaz

(Benn Matthew: https://medium.com/@benn29/)

The prophet has been appealing to Ahaz—whose vocation is to lead the Jewish people in fidelity and righteousness—to take a course of action that will indicate reliance on divine protection rather than political calculations.  Speaking pious but insincere words, the king flat-out refuses to listen.

St. Paul is writing to Jesus’ disciples in Rome, people he’s never met but whose reputation he knows—even without social media, the Roman Empire had good communication networks—and whom he hopes to visit.  He reminds them of the vocation they received thru Baptism—“called to belong to Jesus Christ” (1:6)—and in this letter he’ll speak at length about the gift of God’s grace they’ve received—all of which comes down to sharing in God’s own holiness thru their relationship with God’s Son, and in living as disciples of Jesus day by day.

St. Joseph has been thrown into consternation, confusion, and dismay by his fiancée’s pregnancy.  With regret and mercy, he decides to end their engagement.  (I use our terminology.  Their situation was somewhat different; Joseph and Mary were already legally contracted to each other.)

Then God sends an angel to Joseph in a dream with an explanation and a directive.  That leaves Joseph, like Ahaz, with a choice:  to believe what he’s been told, no matter how preposterous it appears, and then to act on what he’s been told—or not.  Fortunately for Mary, for Jesus, for Joseph himself, and for us, he chooses to believe, to carry out God’s plan for the redemption of the human race.

By acting on God’s word for him, his vocation in God’s plan, Joseph the carpenter becomes holy, becomes Saint Joseph the foster father of Jesus and protector of both Jesus and Mary.

St. Paul reminds the Christians of Rome that they, too, are called to be holy, to be saints.  That call, that vocation, is yours and mine too.  Like those early followers of Jesus, who faced discrimination, open persecution, and the daily temptations of the 7 deadly sins, and like King Ahaz and St. Joseph, you and I have to make daily choices to be faithful or not, to obey God’s will or not, to accept a share in divine holiness or not.

In our family relationships, for example—to forgive or not, to be on speaking terms or not, to share responsibility for ailing parents, to deal with financial matters, we can choose to listen to Jesus calling us to holiness, to make decisions according to what he teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, the parable of the Prodigal Son, and the rest of the Gospel.

In matters of sexual morality—marital fidelity, premarital chastity, the use of contraception or IVF, homosexual behavior, pornography, etc.—we can choose to act like King Ahaz and think our opinion and way of thinking is smarter or more practical than what the Scriptures teach, what the Church of Jesus Christ teaches.

When faced with difficult decisions in our lives—in the family, at work, a vocational choice—we can imitate St. Joseph.  It’s unlikely that God will send us an angel with clear instructions, but he will guide us thru prayer, reading and reflection on the Gospels, and consultation with a spiritual director and other prudent persons if we truly turn to him and ask for divine light.

In the Collect this morning, we beseeched the Lord to pour forth his grace into our hearts and, thru Christ’s passion and death, to lead us to the glory of Christ’s resurrection.  God’s grace is always offered to us to help us figure out what he wants of us at any time in our lives, and to help us have the courage and strength then to act according to what he desires—like the Christians of Rome, like St. Joseph, and of course like the Virgin Mary; and so to “belong to Jesus Christ” and in him to become holy, to attain a share in Christ’s glory.  That’s our vocation.