A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)

A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)

  

First Reading – Isaiah 7:10-14

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 23(24):1-6 ©

Second Reading – Romans 1:1-7 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 1:23

The Gospel According to Matthew 1:18-24

 (NJB)

 

Listen!

 God is not a politician.

 The creator of the universe is not a kingmaker. God does not give victory in battle; God does not appoint winner and losers. God, Immanuel, the God of Jesus Christ, God is with all people, at all times, in all places.

God loves each and every one of God’s children, God’s love is without measure and flow through all people equally.

God stands with all people, whether or not any of them stand with God.

Be mindful of this.

All things and person have their being in God. God is the foundation of all that is. Without God there is nothing, and in nothing there is not even the possibility of being.

If you wish to climb the mountain, if your desire is to find God, that is fine, do it; God desire to be found. However, the path to God is closer than you might think; turn to your neighbor, see God reflected in their face.

God is there.

See them, behold the face of God, and in the presence of divine give thanks, give thanks for your neighbor, with your neighbor give thanks, demonstrate God’s faithfulness to you, demonstrate that faith living in you; trust the divine and demonstrate it through love.

There is no other way.

Do not worry about your own holiness, such pretensions are immaterial. Rather, believe that God loved you before the creation of the world, when only the possibility of you existed and know that even then you were loved and desired. Believe that this is true of all things and beings, this is true of everyone; everyone is loved by God, everyone is a vessel of God’s holiness.

Believe that this is true.

If you seek God’s blessing you will find it in the service you provide to your neighbor, to your mother and father, to your sister and brother, and know that God desires to see you blessed. If you seek to be justice, to be justified or justification in anything, find it in humility practice it in mercy.

Remember this:

God is not confined to the pages of a book, to inked scratching’s on parchment or vellum, or the printed word on paper, neither is God bound by the history and mythology of a single people. We may look to the histories and the traditions for glimpses of God, for the remembrances of past encounters, but we seek the living God in living beings, for God is alive in us.

Therefore always bear this metaphor in mind: the first time we saw God, when the first parent walked with the creator, then the world was a garden and that was paradise. There was no talk of kings, and no talk of the glory of God victorious in battle…let us return to that.

 Now listen!

 Do good and reject evil, and remember that the apostle Paul was not chosen, rather, he made a choice and chose to preach the Gospel.

 He was not converted, he converted; he underwent kenosis and metanoia, a turning around followed by the embrace of God.

 In all humility, remember this: Jesus descends from David through his father Joseph (if he was at all), he was a human being…this is a simple truth. And remember, Jesus was not a lord or king, he rejected those title and words to that affect were hung on the cross to mock him. Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph, he was a Rabbi and a healer.

 The record of his life tells the story of a man whose life and works provide an unparalleled example of goodness and the fullness of grace. He was not a conduit of grace, he was a manifestation of grace, emanating from the seed of the divine (God in God’s fullness) that exists in potential within all of us. Jesus’ mission was not to confer on human beings something that they lacked, but to activate in them something that is innate, the inherent capacity for good and a receptivity for God’s love.

 Now consider this when you read the Gospel for today:

 Mary was betrothed to Joseph and Joseph was of the House of David. She became pregnant before their wedding, according to God’s, the design God put in place for the propagation of all human life, according to no other design.

 It is reasonable to assert that Matthew’s narrative, depicts Joseph as having second thoughts about his marriage, taking Mary into his house as he had promised, and about being a father even though he had gotten Mary pregnant already, and that in the examination of his conscience, by listening to the spirit of grace within him, he made a choice; he embraced the truth, and accepted responsibility for his child.

 David received Mary as his wife, he brought her into his house; they named their child Joshua, after the great hero of the Israelites. They gave him a great name and pinned their hopes on him, in that hope and trust (which means faith) they encountered the presence of God, knowing then   that God was with them, inasmuch as they were with each other.

 If Joseph had succumbed to his fear and weakness and rejected Mary when she was with child (and that was a real possibility), in that time and place, Mary would have been destroyed; she would have become an outcast with no standing in her community, she and her child would have gone into servitude and likely would have perished after much suffering.

 The narrative shows that Joseph was humiliated by his weakness and humbled by his doubt moment of doubt; he came through that moment have learned what it means to truly love.

 He choose good, he rejected evil.

 If you believe it.

 

First Reading – Isaiah 7:10-14

The Maiden is With Child

The Lord spoke to Ahaz and said, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign for yourself coming either from the depths of Sheol or from the heights above.’ ‘No,’ Ahaz answered ‘I will not put the Lord to the test.’

Then Isaiah said:

‘Listen now, House of David: are you not satisfied with trying the patience of men without trying the patience of my God, too?

The Lord himself, therefore, will give you a sign.

It is this: the maiden is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel,

a name which means “God-is-with-us.”’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 23(24):1-6 ©

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,

  the world and all its peoples.

It is he who set it on the seas;

  on the waters he made it firm.

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?

  Who shall stand in his holy place?

The man with clean hands and pure heart,

  who desires not worthless things.

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

He shall receive blessings from the Lord

  and reward from the God who saves him.

Such are the men who seek him,

  seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Let the Lord enter! He is the king of glory.

Second Reading – Romans 1:1-7 ©

Our Apostolic Mission is to Preach the Obedience of Faith to All Pagan Nations

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus who has been called to be an apostle, and specially chosen to preach the Good News that God promised long ago through his prophets in the scriptures.

This news is about the Son of God who, according to the human nature he took was a descendant of David: it is about Jesus Christ our Lord who, in the order of the spirit, the spirit of holiness that was in him, was proclaimed Son of God in all his power through his resurrection from the dead. Through him we received grace and our apostolic mission to preach the obedience of faith to all pagan nations in honour of his name. You are one of these nations, and by his call belong to Jesus Christ. To you all, then, who are God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints, may God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send grace and peace.

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 1:23

Alleluia, alleluia!

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son

and they will call him Emmanuel,

a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 1:18-24

How Jesus Christ Came to be Born

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home and, though he had not had intercourse with her, she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)