December 18, 2016

4th Sunday of Advent A Isaiah 7: 10-14; Romans 1: 1-7; Matthew 1: 18-24 We have one week until Christmas. Actually many people hasten the celebration and begin on Christmas Eve. I remember when I was young the first Christmas mass was at Midnight. Our family went to this mass, then we had a big festive breakfast, cleaned up the dishes and went to bed. On Christmas morning we opened the presents. Being the youngest I was the first up and could not figure why it took the rest of the family so long to arise. What was the meaning of Christmas…I knew it was about the coming of Jesus. But what does this mean? Is it just receiving presents, especially the present of Jesus or is there more involved on my part? The readings on this last Sunday of Advent clarify the gift and my accountability. The first reading is from the prophet Isaiah. God sends the prophet to meet Ahaz the King of Judah. He was twenty when he became king and reigned for sixteen years. At the time of this writing, he is taking steps to secure his kingdom from attack. He was determined to do it his way and doesn't need God’s help. His kingdom was bordered by the great attacking Assyrians and the potential for violence was imminent. Isaiah told him to trust God. Isaiah says that God is always present and always available for help. He invites the King to ask for any sign at all from God to help him realize God’s presence and help. The King declines; he cannot imagine how God can help in securing his kingdom from attack. He tries to cover up his lack of faith by saying he doesn’t want to tempt the Lord. He has everything under control. Isaiah continues; many of the king’s solutions have failed in the past and the people are unsettled. So he tells the king that the Lord will choose a sign. A virgin will conceive a son. She will name the son, ‘God is with us’ (Emmanuel) because by the time the child is born, it will be obvious that God has saved the people just as Isaiah has predicted. Paul begins his letter to the Romans by thanking God for the honor and privilege to proclaim the gospel: God has risen, He has saved His people. He is doing it God’s way. Paul has been called to spread the Good News of the Gospel, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection to the Gentiles. Now for centuries, the people of Israel saw themselves as God’s people, no one else had this specialness. Everyone else was of less or no real concern to God. He tells the Romans and everyone that we have also been called to belong to Jesus. We are called to be holy. We are called to live the Good News when convenient or inconvenient…when we want to and when we don’t want to…when it is easy and when it is hard. We have been privileged to be called and most importantly we have duties and responsibilities that go along with the gift of our faith. Am I living my faith? Am I living my belief in Jesus? Am I living the Catholic Faith? Am I a witness of Jesus? Matthew shares the infancy narrative through the eyes of Joseph. The angel clarifies Jesus’ origins telling Joseph not to be frightened to take Mary as his wife, “For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. “ This was the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah we heard in the first reading. Joseph had a plan as to what he should do—divorce Mary quietly and disappear from the scene. It wasn’t God’s plan. Much like the ‘plan’ of Ahaz, God wants to bring His plan for redemption to the world. His plan was to send His son so that all would know that God loves all His creation. He wants His creatures to realized that they are loved and that the end product of His plan is that each one lives forever with Him in heaven. The child’s name is Jesus — YHWH saves…God saves! The name Emmanuel is also important because it means God is with us. Matthew completes this in the very last words of his Gospel Matthew 28: 19-20 after the Resurrection when Jesus summons His disciples probably to the Mount of Beatitudes and says, Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “A Disciple: Those who accepted Jesus’ message to follow Him are called His disciples. Jesus associated His disciples with His own life, revealed the mystery of the Kingdom to the disciples and gave them a share in His mission, His joy, and His sufferings.” We have been called, we have been chosen. We come from a long line of people whose faith and trust made clear that God is with us. Now we can’t hide this, Ahaz tried and Joseph had the idea to do this. But we can’t hide the fact that God is with us all the time in all situations. I have the obligation to tell this story. It is realizing the greatest gift that we have ever received, our life, our faith, and most especially that each one is loved. God is with us…God is with me…NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT THAT? One of the difficulties of our age and even in our religion is the realization that we are special. In realizing this we feel that we’ve received some gifts other’s haven’t…thus making me ‘better’ than others. And if I feel that I’m am in this situation then I don’t have to do anything about it. I can just live in ‘royalty’ and reap the benefits. John Cassian was one of the very early writers on monasticism in the fourth century. He said that the purpose of holiness is being a person what he calls pure of heart. With purity he is not talking about chastity but in the sense of a heart really open to God, open to other people and free from the obstructions that we have to be ‘like God’. Adam and Eve wanted to ‘be like God’. They didn’t recognize their complete dependence on God. But we are: we are creatures of God, we are children of God and we are called upon to allow God to be the dominating and motivating force with our own lives. So each day we all have work to do. Christmas is God’s gift to us…how are we living this gift? So we reflect on: • So I believe that God will ask of me only what I can do? How do I react when God seems to ask more than I think I can handle? Do I trust that God will be with me through everything? • How much trust did Joseph show in today’s gospel? Is my faith as complete as that of Joseph? Are there times when faith asks more of me than I wish? • Do I willingly and knowingly invite God into my life? In what way? Sacred Space 2017 says: “Joseph is faced with a heartbreaking dilemma. His life is in turmoil because he loves Mary so much. Let me imagine for a few moments how welcome the angel’s message must have been to him! How quickly he acts, allowing himself to follow his heart and not allowing his sense of legal obligation to rule. How often in Scripture does the quiet prompting of the Spirit come from within, in the form of a dream. How sensitive must the dreamers have been, to recognize the Spirit in their hearts. Do I invite the Spirit to prompt me? How ready am I to hear what the Spirit might suggest?