Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Advent

At the provincial house we got an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday nite, in the form of a positive Covid test result for one of our confreres.  Consequently, none of us can go out for at least a few days, and we won't be celebrating Sunday Masses in parishes or religious houses.  (We can't even pray together.)  I hadn't finished drafting my intended homily; so I offer y'all an old one.

Dec. 19, 1993
2 Sam 7:1-5, 8-11, 16
Luke 1: 26-38
St. Vincent de Paul, Hunter, Grand Bahama Island
St. Agnes, Eight Mile Rock, GBI

“Thus says the Lord:  Should you build me a house to dwell in?” (2 Sam 7:5).

One month ago the father of a friend of mine threw a surprise 75th birthday party for his wife.  She thought she was going from Florida to North Carolina just to visit one of her sons and his family, but her husband flew all their children and grandchildren—over 30 people in all—down from New Jersey, New York, and has far away as Oregon. The lady had quite a surprise, the whole family had a wonderful time surprising her and celebrating, and her husband considered every dime he spent well worth it to see his wife so happy.

We all love a good surprise—love giving one, love receiving one.  Perhaps we’re like our Father in heaven, in whose image we were created.  For he loves surprises too.

  King David (by Nicolas Cordier), Church of St. Mary Major, Rome

Consider what he did for King David.  David was grateful to the Lord for making him king, defeating Israel’s enemies, and making him secure in his new capital city, Jerusalem.  So David proposed to build a handsome temple for God; the Ark of the Covenant had been kept only in a tent for 200 or 300 years since Moses had it made, as we read in Ex. 26-37.  David, who was now living in an expensive house paneled in the finest cedar, decided it was not fitting for God to continue to live in a tent of cloth.

Now David did something smart.  He tried to discern God’s will in this.  He consulted the prophet Nathan.  Nathan did something dumb.  He didn’t try to discern God’s will but simply told David, “Go ahead” (7:3).

God, however, had a surprise in mind for David. So he paid a visit to Nathan that night.  We must always consult God before a major undertaking.

What God directed Nathan to tell David was this: You shall not build me a house.  I will build you a house: a dynasty and a kingdom that shall endure forever (7:16).  God surprised David with a wonderful, unexpected gift: his name would be famous forever and his offspring would rule eternally.

For the next 400 years David’s descendants ruled over the kingdom of Judah.  But then Judah was conquered and ruled by a series of foreign invaders: the Babylonians, the Persians, Alexander the Great and his Greeks, and finally the Romans.  For 580 long years the Jewish people kept alive God’s promise to King David and the hope that God would deliver them and restore David’s family to the throne of Israel.  They longed to crush their enemies and take a proud place among the powers of the earth.

But once again God had a surprise up his sleeve:  “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David” (Luke 1:26-27).  If any of David’s descendants aspired to overthrow the Romans; if any of them had royal pretensions—it certainly wasn’t the carpenter Joseph or his spouse-to-be, Mary.  They were just 2 humble country folk in an out-of-the-away little town.  You remember Nathaniel’s reaction when Philip told him, “We have found the Messiah, Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth?” Nathaniel replied, “Nazareth?  Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:45-46).  Who would have thought God would see anything special in that couple?  Yet he did.  He saw in them people completely open to all the goodness of his own heart.  God surprises us by what he sees in people.  God surprises us by the people he chooses.  God surprises us by what he can do with the people open to him.

                                                                                                                                            Annunciation (Domenico Beccafumi)

And if you think it was surprising for God to choose Mary, the betrothed of Joseph the carpenter, what comes next is a real shocker.  “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”  “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (1:34-35).  Never before, never since, has it been reported that a god took on authentic human flesh and bone, heart and mind and soul.  What a surprise that God should be so madly in love with the human race as to want to become part of it!  What a surprise that he would do so thru the womb of one of his creatures!  What a surprise that he would do so in a unique way, leaving no mistake that God alone would think our eternal happiness was worth all that—and more:  you noted that in our opening prayer the incarnation of the Son was pointed toward his suffering, death, and resurrection, for that is where Christmas leads us—our happiness was worth all that, despite the track record of the human race.  What a surprise that the promise to David would be fulfilled thru the eternal life and everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, and not thru earthly power.

Brothers and sisters, God never runs out of surprises.  He sure surprised me the day Fr. Provincial called me into his office and invited me to consider going down to the Bahamas for 6 months.

Not all surprises are as pleasant as coming to Hunter and Eight Mile Rock.  But we can never predict what God is going to do for us, to comfort us or to shake us up.  We can only be sure that he loves us.  Whatever unpleasantness he allows to happen to us, whatever beauty or goodness he unexpectedly lays before us, he means to produce growth, holiness, and happiness in us for the long run.  An unpleasant surprise like an injury or a layoff may force us to reorder our values and priorities.  A lovely surprise like falling in love or the birth of a child calls us to reflect on the loveliness of God and the unspeakable joy he wants to give us.

God’s surprises are always profitable to us if we are open to them, as King David was.  It was easy, of course, for David to accept the promise of an eternal dynasty—tho maybe not so easy for him to set aside a building project.  But David later showed that same openness to God when the prophet Nathan surprised him by publicly denouncing him for adultery and murder.  David repented and returned to the path of justice and holiness.

God’s surprises are profitable to others if we are open to them, as Mary and Joseph were.  No doubt Mary was shocked by the angel’s appearance; she was “troubled,” Luke tells us.  She must have been more shocked by the implications of his message, and really shocked by the realization that she was truly pregnant.  And you bet Joseph was shocked!  But Mary said, “I am the Lord’s maidservant.  Let it be done to me as you say” (1:38), and she meant it.  Joseph sought God’s guidance; as a “just man” he wanted to do what would please God, and so he received an angelic dream (Matt 1:18-25).  From Mary and Joseph’s openness to God’s surprise came the birth of our Savior.

May our hearts, our minds, our souls ever be open to God.  May we always seek what he wants.  May we look for him in life’s surprises, and grow from them in human maturity and in holiness.  And on the last day, may we be joined to the Son of David, Mary’s Son, who lives and reigns forever and ever.