4th Sunday of Advent Year A 2013

4^th. Sunday of Advent (A)

(Isaiah 7:10-14; St. Paul to the Romans 1:1-7; St. Matthew 1:18-24)

The People of Israel had only come into existence by God's own call: from a motley gathering of enslaved ethnic groups they became a people by God’s choice; and as the People of God they could only prosper in existence by growing in their trust of the God Who had called them into being.  As the prophet Isaiah would tell them: 

Thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet and in trust your strength lies.  (30:15)

Ahaz, king of Judah the homeland of God’s Chosen People, was, however, a selfish and unreliable individual and, consequently, a faithless, indeed disastrously faithless king.  He sacrificed to the gods of the Canaanites and, when pressed by  enemies, would not trust in the Lord God of Israel as Isaiah, God’s prophet, urged him to do, but rather turned to the current super-power, the Assyrians, for more immediate and sensible help.

In the Old Testament, and in the Mediterranean world of that time, the King of a country was regarded as son of the country’s God: whoever the god of a nation might be, the king was regarded as his son and his chosen instrument to bless, guide, and protect the nation.  This was also the common understanding of the relationship between Yahweh the one true God, and the reigning king of Judah and of God’s Chosen People.  However, the faith of Israel would not tolerate any suggestion of such a son arising from the copulation of gods, or from any carnal intercourse of a god with the queen mother; for Israel, only a relationship as ‘adopted’ son of God was admissible for the proclamation and confirmation of a new sovereign on the occasion of his coronation.  Thus the words of Yahweh in Psalm 2 verse 7:  

            You are My son, today I have begotten you. 

You can imagine then the disgust Isaiah felt for this present king Ahaz who -- supposedly a ‘son of God’ for Judah, an instrument of God for the blessing of His Chosen People -- was, in reality, faithless before the God of Judah and indifferent to the well-being of his people, being entirely devoted to his own self-interest.  Therefore Isaiah prophesied in the name of the Lord as you heard:

Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God?   Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. 

The Great King who was to come, the Messiah, Emmanuel, would be, quite literally, GOD-WITH-US.  Ahaz, had neither the faith, nor consequently, the trust, to live in difficult times as God's instrument of blessing for His People.  The King to come however – Emmanuel -- would be God's very presence, not simply on the basis of human faith and fidelity, but on the fact of His divine origin and dignity: truly, the only Son of the only God; no mere instrument of blessing, but God’s very Blessing Himself.

He would be no descendent of Ahaz the unworthy, because His mother would be a Virgin.  She would, indeed, be totally unlike Ahaz who was most miserably and cynically failing his people through distrust of God, for she would have such full and perfect trust in the Lord, that Elizabeth -- under the impulse of the Spirit of God -- would declare such faith and trust to be Mary the Virgin’s supreme characteristic:

Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. (Luke. 1:45)

Let us now, therefore, look at both Ahaz and Our Lady and learn what they, in their very different ways, teach us about the meaning of Emmanuel, God-with-us; for God is with us not only as Saviour for all mankind, not only with us as Head of the Body which is His Church, but also with each and every one of us who believe, for the right-living and fulfilment of our earthly lives and the attainment of our ultimate reward in heaven.

Despite the Lord's promise of divine blessing and help made through Isaiah the prophet, Ahaz perversely put his trust in the military might of Assyria, opting for a quick-fix that would provide personal advantage and security at the cost of crushing taxes for the people as a whole.  Mary, for her part, would ignore her own precarious personal standing with her neighbours and look to the Lord alone, putting her total confidence and trust in His word given her by the angel Gabriel.

Ahaz feared for his throne and his life; Mary consecrated her humility and her virginity to the Lord, despite thereby -- according to the Law – putting her life at risk.  Ahaz’ faithless gamble turned out predictably -- or should we say prophetically -- to be disastrous both for himself and his people.  Mary’s total trust that God would protect her was vindicated, and she has been proclaimed blessed above all women on earth ever since.

Therefore God-is-with-us means that He is always with us to lead us into, and protect us along, the right way if – setting aside both our human fears and our personal pride -- we will, with confidence and trust, accept His guidance.   God-is-with-us to enlighten, watch over, and help us, in all our needs; but such grace and power can only flow into us through our faith and trust in Him and our obedience to His Spirit.

Finally, we can say the God-is-with-us means precisely what it says: He wills to be with us as our constant companion: always sharing, and involving Himself with us and for us, in every aspect of our experience of life.  In all situations, He wills to be at our side -- whatever we may have made of ourselves thus far -- if only we will turn to Him, humbly open ourselves up to Him, and trust Him.  As the negro spiritual puts it most beautifully: “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus”.

He is there, moreover, not only for our guidance, comfort, and strength throughout our earthly pilgrimage, but also to lead us to the Father, our eternal destiny: that we might to learn to love Him as Jesus loved Him Who was, indeed, the supreme love of Jesus’ being-human on earth.  To that end we have the Scriptures of Mother Church where the very words and actions of Jesus respond to and fulfil the preparations and anticipations of both the Law and the Prophets, and inspire the writings of those disciples who most closely shared His public life and deeply understood the meaning and purpose of His sufferings and death on the cross.

However, He is with us supremely in and through the Gift of His Holy Spirit to Mother Church, and through her sacraments -- above all of Baptism and the Eucharist -- to each and every loving disciple or humble searcher.  In this aspect we do not so much imitate Jesus, His words, or His deeds, but rather He draws us -- often enough unknown to our conscious awareness -- by the gift and the power of His Spirit; for it is the work of His Spirit to form us in Jesus for the Father.  In that work we are largely being carried along, so to speak; spending all our effort to remain close, and indeed, to get ever closer, to Jesus through intimacy with the Scriptures and through prayer and the sacraments.  Then, looking most hopefully for the Spirit to guide us, we try to be attentive and understanding, responsive and obedient, to Him in all things. In that work there is so much to rejoice in and be thankful for, but also, so little, so very, very, little to boast of, since God’s prolific goodness is also most humbling.

Soon we will be able to celebrate with true joy and gratitude the birth of Emmanuel -- Jesus Christ, the Co-eternal Son of God the Eternal Father, become Son of Man.  It is eminently fitting, therefore, that today we celebrate her from whom the Son of God took flesh in order to become the Lord and Saviour of mankind.   Moreover, it is truly fitting that today, we celebrate Mary precisely as the one who most perfectly surrendered herself in trust and faith to the promise made her by the Lord, since it is in this regard, supremely, that she is our model as well as our Mother; for St. Paul tells us that faith and trust in God's word is the very essence of the Christian life for all in Mother Church, when -- as you heard in our second reading – he declares:

Through (Jesus Christ our Lord) I received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of His name, among all the Gentiles.  

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, that we may have the grace both to live faithfully and to die peacefully trusting in the goodness of God Who, in His great compassion, has already gifted us with faith to believe in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, and has, thereby and above all, endowed us with His Holy Spirit, to form us in the likeness of our Our Lord and Saviour and lead us to that heavenly home which is  already prepared and waiting for all who will prove themselves His own true disciples, and, in Him, children able to eternal glory to their heavenly Father and rejoice the heart of You, the Mother of all believers.

           

Third Sunday of Advent Year A 2013

Third Sunday of Advent (A)

(Isaiah 35:1-6, 10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Advent prepares us for the celebration of our Lord’s coming on earth as one of us: as an Infant destined to reveal and make manifest something of the intimate Glory of God; and as Redeemer, to save His chosen ones and all who learn to invoke His most holy Name.  However, our celebration is not meant to be a merely fond reminiscence; for it offers us an eye-piece, as it were, whereby we might be able to prepare for, and appreciate, something of what is otherwise hardly known and totally unprecedented for us:  His future coming as the glorious Lord and Judge of mankind.

In today’s Gospel reading John the Baptist is about to acknowledge the Bridegroom’s presence to the Bride in a way that brings his faithful witness to Jesus to its glorious fulfilment: for the forerunner is about to die alone in the lowest dungeon of Herod’s prison for the Truth of the God Who will be lifted-up high, to die alone on Rome’s criminal Cross.  

John was in prison awaiting his executioner and he was not absolutely sure about Jesus.  The prophets, as we have just heard in our reading from the book of Isaiah, had foretold the coming of God: 

Say to those whose hearts are frightened:  Be strong, fear not!  Here is your God, He comes with vindication; with divine recompense He comes to save you.  Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe.

John was the one chosen not only to announce the Messiah but actually to introduce Him to the people, and John was well aware of this:

I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is mightier than I.   I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

John had been greatly impressed by what the prophet had foretold about God’s vengeance and retribution, and he duly forewarned the expectant people that the Messiah will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  However,

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism

he addressed them directly with words of divine truth indeed, but spoken with a vehemence  that was his own, saying (Matthew 3:7-12):

You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.  And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’  For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.    Even now the axe lies at the root of the trees.  The One Who is coming after me is mightier than I; I am not worthy to carry His sandals.  His winnowing fan is in His hand. He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.  

Such words showed something of John’s human weakness.  For though the prophets as a whole foretold the truth, they rarely knew the ‘when’, or the ‘where’, or ‘how’ their words would be fulfilled; and even the immediate forerunner of the Lord Himself, not seeing clearly the whole plan of God, was obliged at times -- as on this occasion -- to use the veiled language of metaphors in order to express what he experienced most surely and needed to proclaim so urgently.    When, therefore, John looked at Jesus and saw no direct manifestation of, nor heard any promise threatening, an imminent ‘day of vengeance’ or of awesome ‘retribution’ for sinners, his human weakness showed itself again and he was puzzled; indeed, perhaps he was even a little disappointed, because the pride and arrogance of the Pharisees and Scribes and their disdain of the poor and needy did not ‘sit well’ with him.

Jesus, however, sent him a message telling him to accept, embrace, the light which had already been afforded him:

Go and tell John what you hear and see:  the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. 

In other words Jesus was saying, ‘Accept what has been given you; that is enough for you, for now.  As for the rest, God’s retribution will come in God’s good time; take the fulfilment which has already been given you and realize,

            Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.’

Well, People of God, Jesus did not declare John to be the greatest of all the children born of women without good reason: John proved the truth of those words by persevering in faith and dying in the peace of complete trust in God.  Even though he could not see or understand all that he would have liked to have seen and understood, nevertheless, he knew full well that God is beyond all human comprehension, giving light enough to guide our footsteps surely and bestowing grace sufficient to keep us safe along His ways so that we can be free from all solicitude about self and thus able to open up our hearts and minds in total commitment to Him in return.  Now, there can, of course, be no such gift of self-dedication where comprehensive foreknowledge of the outcome is wanted, expected, or required.  John was being offered sufficient light; and, when asked to back it up with all his love, he did not turn back, but was willing and able to enter into the valley of the shadow of death fearing no evil.  Trusting in the word of the Lord and in the faithfulness of the God of his fathers, he was allowed to foreshadow with sublime fidelity Our Blessed Lord’s own end: 

“Father, into your hands I commend My spirit”; and when He had said this He breathed His last.  (Luke 23:46)

Jesus admired and loved John:

As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?  Then what did you go out to see?   Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces.  Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.”

Note carefully here, People of God, that Our Lord’s words about John concern Mother Church also, and as such are addressed to all who, along with us today, will and do take the trouble to go out and seek for God’s truth: who are prepared to set aside, at times, worldly pre-occupations in order to look more closely for the God and Saviour Who promises eternal life to all who will open when He knocks on the door of their spiritual awareness.

Yes, John was indeed a prophet, he was the greatest, and in that respect he was like our Mother Church which is the consummation of the prophets of old.

What did you go out – out of your warm and comfy homes – for; why did you disturb your pleasant rest, leave your happy gatherings, interrupt your holidays, and the like?  Why did you go to Church?  To find a reed swaying in the breeze?  That is, a Church whose teaching changes in accordance with every contemporary doctrine of supposed science, with every whim of popular conceit, and with every plaint of human self-love and solicitude?   A nice Church, perhaps even a very nice Church, which says you can believe and do what you want so long as you have a sizeable number of people thinking along the same lines as you? 

NO, People of God, you surely do not want such a Church, whose priests simply preach and proclaim what you find least stressing or most comforting to hear!!
 

Then what have you gone out and come to Church for today?  To find someone wearing fine clothes?  That is, preaching a doctrine that will fit you really comfortably, indeed, ‘down to the ground’: not restricting or restraining any of your lower desires, but rather ‘dolling them up’ with modern fancy phrases which might enable you to think that really they are good desires, about which past generations have been sadly mistaken.  Or again, that the Church in her ancient ignorance and simplicity does not understand that Scripture’s apparently plain words and open condemnations really need to be approached with the whole panoply of modern pseudo-scholarship, so that they can be understood and adapted in accordance with the dictates of faithless self-seekers and the exigencies of ‘natural’ longings which demand free expression! 
 

No, no!!  I don’t think the vast majority of you here -- indeed, I hope that none of you here -- want that!

Then what do you go out of your homes each Sunday and come to Church for?  To see a prophet?  Yes, and much more than a prophet.

You have come to a prophet, that is, to the Church which is our true Mother and which dares to proclaim to us the saving truth of God whether it meets with popular approval or not.   Indeed, you have come to much more than a prophet, for you have come to Jesus Christ Himself, Who promised to be with His Church to the end of time; and this Church, the Catholic and universal Church, by His gift our Mother, is the only place where He has promised so to be.

This theme of ‘going out’, looking for a prophet who proclaims divine truth, this awaiting, searching, longing, for the Messiah to bestow on us personally the Salvation He brings for all, is the whole theme of Advent.  Blessed are you who have allowed yourselves to be moved by such a desire today.  

Our Christmas celebration of Jesus’ coming to us as Saviour has always held a unique attraction for us!  What humble peace, simple joy, and deep human fulfilment, have ever and always emanated from that Holy Family bound together by unbreakable bonds of mutual love and reverence, and  cherishing in its embrace the Child of divine promise and most sublime expectations!  All that now serves, as I said, as our eye-glass for appreciating and preparing for what we can hope to find when He comes again, this time in divine glory and as Judge to reward the faithful and condemn the sin of the world.  It will be most awesome and far in excess of our imaginings, expectations, or anticipations, and that is why we were given the experience and example of John the Baptist today: for, though our weakness will be tested, our faith must not be shaken, for our hopes will not be disappointed, as Isaiah said:

(You) will see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God.  Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!  Here is your God, He comes with vindication; with divine recompense He come to save you!

Or, as St. James tells us:

Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.  Behold, the Judge is standing before the gates.  Take as an example of hardship and patience, brothers and sisters, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Dear People of God, as we look around us today, Christmas has become what has been long threatening, Xmas.   I pods and tablets, televisions and computers, technology of all sorts, are being constantly produced and promoted, sold and sought after … and all are worthy of praise for their testimony to humanities’ ability to overcome, master, use and administer the world in all its complexity and wonder.  But, without the gifts that only Jesus Himself -- the Lord of Christmas – brings, they make up what is but a soulless celebration of human wit without wisdom, fullness without fulfilment.

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says, “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw.  But for you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.  (Malachi 4:1–2 NLT) 

Both aspects of Christmas are there; John the Baptist is there and Jesus is there. Indeed, all aspects of Christmas are there, for I love to see what I regard as a delightful reference (metaphoric, of course) to our own, very human, spirit of Christmas rejoicing, in those final words:

 And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture!!