Fourth Sunday Of Advent Homily - 2013

Isaiah 7: 10-14

Romans1: 1-7

Matthew 1: 18-24

How would you or I respond to an encounter with God?  In today’s first Scripture Reading and the Gospel, we see two different reactions to an encounter with the Divine.  In the reading from the Book of Isaiah, we see the Lord, through His prophet Isaiah, offering to make any sign to prove to Ahaz, that the God of his ancestors, the God of Abraham, Moses, and David; was still with His people, still had the power to defend them from their enemies.  Now, Ahaz was the king of Judah, the southern part of the former Kingdom of Israel established by King David.  Years after the deaths of David and Solomon, the Kingdom split into two smaller kingdoms, the southern one called Judah, held the city of Jerusalem.  The northern kingdom retained the name of Israel.  Now the northern kingdom would eventually be conquered by the Assyrians, and wiped off the map.  King Ahaz did not want that to happen to his kingdom, so he began paying tribute money to the Assyrians, and allowing the worship of the Assyrian gods.  At the same time, he was preparing Jerusalem to withstand a siege, and negotiating secret alliances with the other regional powers.  The prophet Isaiah tells Ahaz that all that is needed is to remain faithful to God, and his people will be safe.  And to prove it, God will give Ahaz a sign of His power.  Now Ahaz , a pragmatist, some today could call him a secularist, would rather depend on his own efforts; but to humor Isaiah, he hides behind false humility: “I will not tempt the Lord!”  God sees through this act, and through Isaiah, gives Ahaz a sign, whether he wants it or not.  Biblical scholars believe that the child of the prophecy is Ahaz’s own son, Hezekiah, whose mother had just become old enough for child bearing.  For his lack of faith, Ahaz is counted as one of the wicked kings of Israel, and it is said, he was not buried with his ancestors, David and Solomon.

Now in today’s Gospel, we hear about Joseph, and how he faced the situation with his betrothed, Mary.  The evangelist Matthew, describes Joseph as a “righteous man,” someone who is faithful to God, who has followed the Mosaic Law.  And according to that law, Joseph was within his rights to expose Mary’s “unfaithfulness,” and break the engagement; though it could expose Mary to shame, and possible punishment, even death.  Yet, Joseph was not just a righteous man; he was a holy man, a compassionate man.  He was going to protect Mary from public exposure, and quietly divorce her.  It is then that the angel of God speaks to him.  Joseph learns that child will be a son, conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit, that he is the Son of God.  Joseph is being called by God, to accept this child, care for, and protect this child, who will be the salvation of all humanity.  Now Joseph could have waken up from this dream, and his reaction could have been, “I really have to be careful of bad goat cheese,” or “This calling is too much for me, I cannot accept this.”  But he does accept the calling, because he trusts in the love of God, he believes in the prophecy of Isaiah, he believes that God will be with him, as he accepts this new responsibility.

So what about us, what would be our reaction to an encounter with God?  And let us not fool ourselves, each one of us continuously has an encounter with God, we just might be too busy, too anxious, too stressed, or too self-centered to hear him speaking to us.  And he is speaking to us, through his Word.  He is present to us through the Eucharist; he feed us and strengthens us through the Body and Blood of Christ, in communion.  He is in each of our hearts, through the Holy Spirit; calling us as he called St. Paul; “to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.  Through the Holy Spirit “we have received the grace of apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, “ Emmanuel “God is with us;” Jesus: “Yahweh is salvation;” Christ “the anointed,” “the Messiah.”

In the days remaining before Christmas, let us all try for just a few minutes to be still; Yes, I know, easier said than done!  But we really need to prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord, to see the signs of His Presence among us, and within us; and to accept the call to be holy and receive the grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily For The 20th Sunday In Ordinary Time - 2013

Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10

Hebrews 12: 1-4

Luke 12: 49-53

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”

“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”

It is a little jarring to hear these words coming from the mouth of Jesus Christ.  Where is the gentle Shepherd? The one who welcomed little children? The one who talked about turning the other cheek?  Where did this rabble rouser come from?  But should we be surprised by this?  After all, early in the Gospel of Luke, we see John the Baptist, speaking of the coming Messiah, declaring; “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

I think that we sometimes forget that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Christ the King, Christ the ultimate Priest, is also Christ the Prophet.  He is coming from a long line of Jewish prophets.  And these prophets did not just predict the future; their main role was to speak the word of God, the word of Yahweh.  They spent most of their lives calling the people of Israel back into a loving relationship with God.  Among these prophets was Jeremiah.  He lived during a time when the empire King David and Solomon built up had been shattered, the northern tribes of Israel had been dispersed and exiled.  Only the southern kingdom of Judah was left.  The king of Judah, to insure his kingdom’s survival entered into an alliance with a powerful and ancient Egypt.  Now the price of this alliance was to allow the worship of the Egyptian gods in Judah, which also allowed the resurgence of the worship of the ancient Canaanite gods.  The king of Judah was no longer turning to Yahweh for help and protection.  Along comes Jeremiah, telling the people that salvation lies not in earthly alliances, but in remaining faithful to the covenant with God. He is trying to shake the people up, to bring them back to God.  Reading the signs of the times, he predicted that this alliance would ultimately lead to the destruction of the nation.  The king and his advisers do not want this kind of talk getting around, so they initially try to silence Jeremiah …permanently.  God inspired a court official to convince the king to save Jeremiah; but we see that being a prophet, especially one with an uncomfortable message, has its consequences.  But Jeremiah was committed to reigniting the fire in the hearts of his people, the love for God, to call them to conversion.

Jesus’ coming has changed the world, the old ways of humanity, the old ways of relating which each other, of relating to God the Father, were to be wiped away, and a new heaven and a new earth was to come into being.  His message was not popular with many people, especially those who had a lot invested in the old ways of doing things, in the old structures of power.  They put Jesus to death, hoping to silence the message, but the Father raised Him from the dead, and his message blazed out throughout the world, carried by his followers.  The Gospel of Christ was, and still is controversial, because it threatens the way many see the world and their comfortable relationship with it.  We have seen the negative reactions that many people expressed about Pope Francis’ comments about capitalism, the world economy, and the needs of the poor.  And, yes, when the Gospel is authentically lived; it has the potential to cause divisions among family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.  Anyone who is so comfortable with the way society is, the way the world is, the way their lives are, they do not want to change.  Even though the society, the world is so full of injustice, pain and suffering; even though their lives may be empty and at times full of pain; they feel threatened by the Gospel, the call for conversion.  So they try to make the Gospel irrelevant, they try to keep the Word of God in a box. 

And we need to ask ourselves, where are we in all of this?  Has the fire gone out of our faith communities, has it been extinguished in our hearts?  A scholar of the Christian religion, Martin Marty, has called Europe and North America the “Ice Belt,” because he sees the fire of Christianity dying out.  Are we willing stand by and just let this happen.  Our Church, our Holy Father, our Archbishop says no, and they are challenging themselves and us to rekindle that fire which first disciples experienced with Christ, and let it burn anew in our hearts. Let us recommit ourselves to, with the help of the Father’s grace, the inspiration of the Word of God, and the light of the Holy Spirit; to live, really live the Good News.  Let us, as St. Paul wrote, “Persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”  Let us set the world ablaze!