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

First Reading – Micah 5:1-4 ©

Responsorial Psalm – 79 (80):2-3, 15-16, 18-19 ©

Second Reading – Hebrews 10:5-10 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 1:38

The Gospel According to Luke – 1:39-45 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The prophet Micah foresaw the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, who was Joshua bin Joseph, the child of Mary, who Saint Paul called the Christ, and who we lovingly refer to as the prince of peace.

Be mindful.

Micah’s prophecy was not a reading of the future; we know this because God made the universe, and us in it, free, so that the future is not predetermined.

Micah’s prophecy is an expression of hope and trust in the way of love, which he believed all people are called to participate in.

As all prophets do, Micah calls our attention to the troubling times he and his people faced, and by extension the troubles we are facing today. Just as in Micah’s day, as in Jesus’ day, there is sorrow and there is pain and a deep sense of alienation felt among the people; we are isolated from each other and fell alienated from God who we cannot see or touch, but who we can hear…if we listen carefully.

This is the human condition

As a good prophet does, Micha pointed toward our future, to the hope that the Christ will come, the archetype of peace to which all human should aspire, a peace that all leaders should seek to serve.

Now consider the words of the psalmist for today, who misunderstands the natural unfolding of historical events by ascribing them to the will of God. God does not intervene in the affairs of human beings, God is not the author of our past, present or future histories…we are.

God is call all people to the divine self, not only Israel, and not only the Church founded in Jesus’ name. God call everyone individually, not by family, tribe and nation.

Know this.

God does not reside on a throne and God is not the general of armies.

Armies and kingdoms are human institutions and when we imagine God in the role of emperor or king, price or warrior we do a disservice to God’s spirit, which embraces everyone. God created the universe and everything in it, loving all who come to be with an equal share the inexhaustible and divine compassion.

Therefore, God will not rescue anyone from the human dilemma, not in this life, whether it is long or short, easy or hard, there is no deliverance from it, save by our own action, which is why we are called to share the divine love with our family and friends, the stranger among us, and even our adversaries, if we have the capacity to do so.

God’s face shines on everyone, look for it in the face of your neighbor, in the face of your enemy, in the faces of those who persecute you. God is as much present in them as God is present in you, and where God is present God is present fully.

God did not rescue the Israelites from Egypt; they rescued themselves (if you believe it), committing horrible atrocities and considerable crimes along the way. I am not talking about the promises they broke to God, God knew that they would, I am talking about the people they murdered, the cities they plundered, killing and robbing, utterly exterminating dozens of tribes along the way…God forgave them for all of it and loved them anyway.

God did not send the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Ptolemy’s, or the Romans, to punish the people of Israel, and God did not destroy their temples.

Each of those conquering Empire’s did what they did for their own reasons in their own time, just as the armies of Joshua son of Nun did in his…in most case it was for loot: gold and silver, access to clean water and farmland to feed their people.

The only lesson we are to draw from those events is this: God will not protect you, or show you favor in this world. We are all subject to the vicissitudes of change and its random nature.

It is up to us, God’s children, to act on God’s behalf by showing love, distributing justice with mercy, and caring for those downtrodden with humility…we are called to this work, for this is the way.

Remember:

Service is the seal of our baptism, to be a Christian you must accept the role of a servant, as Jesus showed us when he took up his ministry and followed it all the way to his death on the cross.

Consider the teaching of the apostle and know that Paul made a tragic error in his early conception of the purpose of Jesus’ ministry, and the reason for his murder.

When Jesus said, “God wanted no sacrifice, takes no pleasure in holocausts, or sacrifices for sin,” he meant it. Jesus did not mean to suggest that his own death was the sacrifice God wanted. The purpose of Jesus’ ministry was not that his death become an oblation to God or a holocaust rising to the heavens. He was murdered plain and simple, it was a political assassination.

Jesus stood in the tradition of the prophets against the cult of animal sacrifice, because he knew that the cult of sacrifice belonged to a corrupt institution, one that burdened the poor while fattening the wealthy. This is why he turned the tables of the money changers over in his tirade at the temple; this is why the priests plotted his murder and conspired with the Romans to achieve it.

Jesus was right, and so was the prophetic tradition he stood in. God takes no pleasure in blood sacrifices and burnt offerings, their efficacy as a mean for the expiation of sins is a contrivance that is akin to witchcraft, it is ineffectual and meaningless. 

The only sacrifice God desires is the sacrifice of service, a gift that is offered in love and engenders hope. Your loving service, is the only offering God wants from you, service which furthers the ends of peace, fosters trust, seeks justice, and teaches a love in fulfillment of God’s law which is written on your heart.

Consider the gospel reading for today:

The authors of Mark begin their narrative when Jesus was a man, already an adult, at the beginning of his public ministry.

 The early Christians wanted more of a story, and so the authors of Luke went back in time by narrating a fable about his conception and birth. In this fable, or myth (whatever you think it should be called) they attempted to tie up various loose ends in the stories that were being told about Jesus in their time.

They intended, through their writing, to unite different factions within the nascent Church which were already falling apart just a half-century after Jesus’ death; the narrative from today’s reading, was meant to appeal to the followers of John the Baptist. It brought forth the notion that Jesus and John were actually cousins, and that even though John was older, he was a follower of Jesus…even from the time he was in the womb; by the same token they make John’s mother subordinate to Mary.

 Remember!

 These are just stories, they are fables, myths; the whole thing is a fiction…an unfortunate fiction, because a great deal of theology and doctrine has been hung from these exercises in make-believe, even as these fictions were in themselves naked political calculations meant to manipulate the burgeoning movement.

 The succeeding Gospels each in their turn reached back further in time; the writers of Matthew inserted a confusing genealogy, tracing Jesus’ heritage back to Adam, through David on his father’s side, and yet, at the same time, the Church insists that we believe Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father.

 The writers of John begin their narrative with the beginning of time itself, and the creation of the universe.

 It is sad to note, that over the centuries, what people believed about these fables, ended up being the cause of extreme, bitter and deadly partisan conflict among Christians. They set aside the actual teaching of Jesus, which was to love your enemies and pray to for those who persecute you, in favor of murderous pogroms based upon whether or not your community accepted particularly rigid formulations concerning the divine economy.

 Remember this when you pray; remember the errors of the Church, the fictions of Luke, the mistakes of Paul, the carelessness of the psalmist…and finally the hope of Micah for the reign of peace.

 

First Reading – Micah 5:1-4 ©

He Will Stand and Feed His Flock with the Power of the Lord

The Lord says this:

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah, out of you will be born for me the one who is to rule over Israel; his origin goes back to the distant past, to the days of old.

The Lord is therefore going to abandon them till the time when she who is to give birth gives birth.

Then the remnant of his brothers will come back to the sons of Israel.

He will stand and feed his flock with the power of the Lord, with the majesty of the name of his God.

They will live secure, for from then on he will extend his power to the ends of the land.

He himself will be peace.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 79(80):2-3, 15-16, 18-19 ©

Lord of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

O shepherd of Israel, hear us,

  shine forth from your cherubim throne.

O Lord, rouse up your might,

  O Lord, come to our help.

Lord of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

God of hosts, turn again, we implore,

  look down from heaven and see.

Visit this vine and protect it,

  the vine your right hand has planted.

Lord of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

May your hand be on the man you have chosen,

  the man you have given your strength.

And we shall never forsake you again;

  give us life that we may call upon your name.

Lord of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 10:5-10 ©

God, Here I Am! I Am Coming to Obey Your Will

This is what Christ said, on coming into the world:

You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me.

You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin; then I said, just as I was commanded in the scroll of the book, ‘God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will.’

Notice that he says first: You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the oblations, the holocausts and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to obey your will. He is abolishing the first sort to replace it with the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 1:38

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the handmaid of the Lord:

let what you have said be done to me.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Luke – 1:39-45 ©

Why Should I be Honoured with a Visit from the Mother of My Lord?

Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

 

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