December 18^th 2016. Fourth Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Matthew 1:18-24

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

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

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GOSPEL: Matthew 1:18-24

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel story tells us of the dilemma facing Joseph. He knows that Mary is pregnant, but what should he do? The Law demands that he renounce her and hand her over to possible stoning. He does not want to do this because he knows the character of the girl who is engaged to him - he cannot easily accept that she has been unfaithful. But neither can he ignore her unexplained pregnancy and do nothing. So he decides to take the middle way: renounce her, but keep it all secret. This problem of discernment reminds us a bit of the malady of the modern world. The fabric of our society is so relativistic that people have difficulty discerning right from wrong. We encounter people of forty years of age that have difficulties making life decisions of a fundamental sort. As well as that, there is a general malaise that afflicts males in particular, and that is the reluctance to make commitments and take responsibility. As a result, the modern man lacks virility and fecundity. Instead of doing the things that he ought to be doing, which involves firm decision making, he sits on the fence trying to keep his options open and everyone satisfied. The solution for this modern affliction is the very same solution that presented itself to Joseph. While Joseph was sleeping, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him to overcome his fear and take Mary to be his wife. It was when Adam was sleeping that God removed a rib and gave him his spouse. Sleep represents a state of impotence and openness before God. It is when we are still that God is able to intervene in our lives. And a dream represents something that is beautiful and extraordinary. Openness to God and a willingness to believe in the dream is what each one of us needs if we are to permit the extraordinary intervention of God in our lives! We cannot maintain a marriage, follow a religious vocation, build up the church or do anything worthwhile in the world unless we believe in the dream, and open ourselves to the extraordinary power of God to act in our lives. If, instead, we insist on acting using our own logic and our own efforts, all we will achieve is the mediocre solutions and “middle ways” that lead nowhere.

The Gospel is a story about discernment. Joseph is in a predicament and must do that most human of things – make a decision

Following Matthew’s genealogy, which shows how Jesus is rooted in the history of Israel, the Evangelist goes on, “This is how the birth of Jesus came about”. The story of how the Saviour is born is then recounted. “When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.” Though we are being presented with the stupefying fact of the Incarnation of the Son of God among us, the Gospel recounts the story in a simple way, from the point of view of an act of discernment of Joseph. This passage, in fact, is a passage about discernment. Joseph must come to a decision. Decision-making is an action that is distinctively human. Our lives every day are made up of a succession of decisions. Life is the business of successively opting for certain things in the place of others. Some of the decisions that we make can have dramatic significance. Joseph is presented with a decision of this sort. What should he do with this pregnant girl? If it was simply a matter of pregnancy, then his way would have been clear: he would be obliged to reject her. But she is his betrothed and he already knows the kind of girl she is. He cannot simply accept that she has been dishonest.

Joseph has two options, but neither one seems right. How often today our young people find themselves caught between two options! They find it difficult to choose either one because the relativistic fabric of our society has dissolved the parameters of right and wrong.

Often our decisions are not simply between an evident good and an evident evil. Often we must decide between two things that seem equally good, or in this case, two things that seem equally bad. It does not seem right to condemn her and to expose her to the risk of being stoned to death. Neither can he ignore the fact of her pregnancy. Joseph seems to be caught in a genuine predicament with no means of escape. Real problems of discernment are often of this sort. In today’s world we encounter many young people who take endless amounts of time to come to a life decision. They lack the parameters by which to make a decision because the fabric of our society has become so relativistic. People no longer know how to tell good from evil. They fear things that are not risky in the least and they give credence to ideas that are not the slightest bit plausible. Nowadays we find people of thirty, thirty five or forty years of age that cannot make up their minds about basic things.

Joseph looks for the middle way. Our generation of males is a bit similar in that it is a generation that is sitting on the fence, a generation that lacks virility and abdicates its responsibility to make clear and firm decisions

Joseph is supposed to get married, and this text is principally about matrimonial discernment. The decision to marry is something that is daunting for the human being even in normal circumstances. Here, Joseph finds himself in an even more difficult situation. The Gospel tells us that he was a righteous man. The word “righteous” is a technical term, and refers to someone who was obedient to the Law. To the extent that he was obedient to the Law, he would be expected to denounce Mary in this condition. But the word “righteous” has a double sense, and also refers to the fact that he was a man who wanted to do what was right. He could not denounce Mary without feeling that he was making a mistake. Was there a middle way that he could take? This is how we tend to respond to situations of the sort. We want to take both decisions at once and keep everyone happy. So Joseph decides to reject Mary but to do it in secret so that she does not have to suffer the consequences. Our generation of males is a bit like this. Men want to keep all their options open and keep everyone (especially themselves) happy, but in the end this means that they do not exercise their virility in the proper manner. They end up failing to be truly fecund, abdicating their responsibilities to be husbands in the true sense of the word. Instead of doing what they ought to be doing, they remain in the stagnant state of not making a commitment of any sort.

Joseph’s dilemma is resolved by the action of God. While he is asleep God works in him through a dream. The estate of sleep represents a state of complete impotency, a state of openness to God. When we place ourselves before God in this way, then he is permitted to act, and then we no longer have need of our “middle ways”, the mediocre solutions that are of our own making.

How does Joseph escape from this quandary? How does the modern male escape from the dilemma that besets his contemporaries? Joseph has a dream in which an angel of the Lord appears to him. During sleep we may be impotent, but do not forget that it was in sleep that Adam had his rib removed so that when he awoke he discovered that he finally had a companion. It is a curious thing, but to allow God to act it is necessary to be quiet, to be in a receptive state, to be available to the point of total weakness. The word “dream” is also used for things that are idyllic, things that are the fruit of our imagination. In dreams we often exhibit the most incredible imaginations. To believe in the content of a dream is often to believe in beauty. Joseph escapes from his dilemma by believing in something that is the most beautiful, most good, most noble and most supernatural of all. He is to overcome his fear and welcome Mary into his home. Mary is to be “his” and he is to take possession of her. He is told that it is through the Holy Spirit that this situation has come about, and that what is happening does not simply regard the narrow life of Joseph: this child will do nothing less than save his people from their sins. All of this will fulfil what the prophet Isaiah foretold: that a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son - the extraordinary response of God to our poverty.

To do anything worthwhile – to maintain a marriage, to pursue a religious vocation, to build up the church – each one of us must be like Joseph and believe in a dream, believe in the extraordinary intervention of God into our affairs once we allow him to come in.

From mediocre solutions to believing in the eruption of God into history! Joseph tries to make a choice between two options, but discovers that he achieves nothing until he opens himself to the intervention of God. He must awake and be obedient to a dream. It takes courage to conform one’s life to something that is so irrational, something that goes beyond our human parameters. But how can any marriage survive if the spouses are not obedient to an ancient dream that they once shared? How can someone be true to a religious vocation if they are not obedient to an instinct in their hearts that is immensely noble? How can we build up the church if we do not believe in something supernaturally sublime? How can we hope to do anything worthwhile in this world if we do not believe in goodness – in fact, if we do not believe in the supreme Good? Using logic and rationality alone, no matter how much effort we expend, all we can achieve will be small and mediocre things. All we will manage are compromises, like the decision that Joseph took when he resolved to renounce Mary in secret. But look at what happened once Joseph opened himself to the extraordinary! We are on the threshold of Christmas, the threshold of the appearance of the extraordinary among us. The extraordinary has a power of its own. All we need to do is to be open to it and let the Lord act according to his own designs. This does not mean that we do not need to use our intelligence. We must use our head in order to appreciate its limitations.