December 22^nd 2013. FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-24

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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This week we pray for the people of Syria, in particular for the many Christians that are suffering terrible persecution while the world ignores their plight

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

GOSPEL:                                Matthew 1:18-24

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.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary  . . . . Joseph finds himself in a predicament. Should he denounce Mary for being pregnant or should he take her as his wife? This Gospel is a Gospel about a process of discernment. Our entire generation is afflicted by problems of discernment. The fabric of our society has become so relativistic that we no longer know right from wrong. When everything seems right then we find ourselves in situations in which we do not know what course of action to take. This problem afflicts men in particular. The male instinct is to be strong, resolute and decisive. But nowadays men are often more preoccupied with doing that which keeps people happy rather than doing that which is right. Joseph too is irresolute. He decides to take an escape route out of his dilemma, neither taking Mary as his wife, nor denouncing her publicly as required by the law. But then he has a dream. God touches Joseph in the deepest part of his being during this dream, just as God took Eve out of the side of Adam while he slept. In the dream, Joseph is asked to overcome his fear and take Mary as his wife. He is asked to put aside his own preoccupations and instead take a course of action that will lead to the salvation of everyone. We too ought to base our decisions on the noble and beautiful dream that the Holy Spirit has ignited inside us. We must use our intelligence as well for discernment, but it is also fundamental that we be silent before God and open ourselves to his extraordinary action in our lives.

This Gospel is about human discernment and the role of God in it

After the genealogy of Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew tells us the story of how Jesus Christ came to be born. This story of the incarnation of Jesus is the central adventure of human history. The passage we are reading on Sunday tells the story from Joseph’s perspective, and it is a story about discernment. Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant and he must make a decision. Life is all about making choices. Everything we do every day involves the constant business of deciding to do one thing over another. Some of those decisions are dramatic and definitive. Joseph must decide what he is to do with this pregnant girl. If this were an ordinary situation, then the decision would be straightforward: the girl should be sent away. But this is a far from ordinary situation. Joseph knows Mary and he is well aware that she is not the deceitful or unfaithful kind. So he is presented with a decision between two things that seem equally wrong. How simple life would be if our decisions were always between what is definitely right and what is definitely wrong! But here the choice is between taking a girl as your wife who is already pregnant, or sending her away to be publicly stoned, when all the indications are that she is a girl that does not deserve a punishment of this sort.

Our generation is a generation that struggles to discern right from wrong

Joseph tries to find an intermediate way between these two extremes. His predicament is the predicament of our entire generation which suffers from a chronic inability to make clear decisions. We lack the parameters that are necessary to make decisions. The fabric of our thought is so relativistic that many young people no longer know what is right and what is wrong. They are afraid of things that are not frightening at all, and consider plausible ideas that are not credible in the slightest. People of thirty, thirty-five, forty years of age, don’t know what to do with themselves and are unable to make basic decisions. This Gospel passage can be read as a passage on marriage discernment. “Am I to marry or not?” There is always something disquieting about the decision to marry. In the case of Joseph the situation is even more difficult. The text contains a play on words: “Being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity .   .  .” A man of honour for the Jews was a man who observed the law, and a man who observed the law was obliged to publicly denounce marital infidelity. But Joseph knows that Mary is not unfaithful, so he seeks a way out, an escape clause. Large numbers of the modern generation of men find themselves in the same boat. A man is someone who should be able to act decisively. Marriage is something that requires firm resolution in the face of obstacles. Male virility (in the sense of strength and resolution) is a wonderful thing when it is administered correctly, but instead of doing the right thing we often become preoccupied with doing that which keeps everyone happy.

When we seek to discern the right course of action, we must be silent before God. We must allow God to touch us in the deepest part of our being and awaken us to what is most noble, most beautiful and most upright.

How does Joseph escape from this quagmire of doubt and inactivity? How can the modern male escape from the hesitancy and indecision that plagues our generation? Joseph was considering the course of action he would take when an angel appeared to him in a dream. This messenger of God touches Joseph in the very deepest part of his being. In a similar way, it was while Adam was sleeping that God took the rib that formed Eve. In the weakness and vulnerability of sleep, when he is silent and unable to decide anything, Joseph receives enlightenment from God. Dreams are very positive things in life. We manifest incredible imaginations while we dream. Often they put us in touch with what is beautiful. What is revealed to Joseph in his dream is something that is the highest, most beautiful and noblest of all! He is asked to overcome his fear and act in a sublimely noble way, taking Mary as his wife. Joseph is asked to put aside the preoccupations he had for his own life, and instead do what must be done so that the people will have salvation. All of this will bring to fulfilment what the prophet Isaiah foretold: the extraordinary response of God to our impoverishment – a young girl will become pregnant and give birth to a son whose name shall mean “God with us”.

We will achieve nothing in life if we are not faithful to the noble and beautiful dream that has been placed in us by the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes we struggle to discern the correct course of action in our lives. We remain bogged down until we open ourselves to the work of God. All of us need to wake up, as Joseph did, and be obedient to the enlightenment that comes from God. It takes courage to follow a way that appears irrational or unconventional. But let us be honest. Can a marriage be saved unless the spouses are obedient to a beautiful ancient dream that they once shared? Is it possible to maintain a vocation in life unless we are faithful to that immensely noble flame that burned within us when we began our particular vocation journey? Is it possible to construct a church or to do anything worthwhile in the world if we do not believe in the good? If we are to do anything then it is essential that we believe in the supreme good! If the human being is just reason and will, then he will not get very far. We can walk forward taking our longest strides, but the things we do will always be small. The solutions we come up with will always be mediocre, the compromises and escape routes that were the ways of Joseph until he was obedient to the dream and opened himself to the extraordinary. The Lord wants us to use our intelligence for discernment, but we have to be conscious of its limits, and we must always remain open to the extraordinary. Christmas is upon us now and we are right at the doors of the extraordinary!