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).
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.
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