FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT Year "A"

                               FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT Cycle “A”

Mathew 1, 18-24

Today’s Gospel is focussed very closely on Joseph. He was an “upright” man, a “Tzaddik”, one of those quietly decent people who, in Jewish thought, keep the world from coming apart. You must have noticed that Joseph says not a word in the Gospels. Yet, with Mary, he was to be charged with the task of bringing up, nurturing and protecting the Saviour of the world. He was most probably between the ages of 17 and 26 when engaged to Mary. As a devout observer of the law, he could not take Mary as his wife. Whatever qualities he possessed, it is clear that he loved Mary, for he refused to subject her to the public shame of her unforeseen pregnancy by disowning her openly. He would take upon himself the responsibility for the divorce. His heart must have been heavy and his dreams of marrying the girl he loved shattered as he prepared to take this course of action. His response to this deeply distressing and puzzling situation was generous and openhearted. In refusing to condemn Mary in public, he knew he was leaving himself open to the criticism of being weak and ineffectual in the gossip which would have inevitably followed the cancellation of the marriage. Happily he was saved that embarrassment by a special intervention of God. Here we can also see that Joseph was a deeply spiritual man, with the Holy Spirit speaking to his subconscious mind. Joseph’s plans for divorce are interrupted by the appearance of a messenger from God in a dream. The angel comes to reassure him. In spite of the mystery of Jesus’ virginal conception, Joseph has a role to fulfil. He is immediately obedient to the divine message, despite the continued problems that his unusual situation must have presented.

We might think that Joseph’s obedience was a sort of automatic reaction on his part. But knowing his obvious sensitivity and kindness, we can deduce that he struggled with his emotions in dealing with this strange command. His obedience, though unquestioning, cannot have been without cost.

In the Jewish tradition, membership of the family is established by legal recognition, not necessarily by biological descent. Joseph, of the house of David, adopts Jesus into the family. Jesus was not the son of Joseph by blood. But thanks to Joseph, Jesus can be called “son of David.” Luke’s, genealogy, on the other hand, traces Jesus’ lineage through Mary (his natural bloodline) who also was a blood descendant of King David. Thus, Luke presents David’s actual physical descendants, one of whom was Mary. Hence, Jesus was of the line of David both by title and by blood.

The evangelist Mathew cites the prophet Isaiah to show that the birth of Jesus is the fulfilment of the promise made by the Lord. The phrase “Emmanuel” (“God with us”) is a reminder of the covenant between the Lord and his people. The inclusion of Jesus among the descendents of David is also a sign that God is faithful to his promises.

The name Jesus is the anglicised form of “Jehoshua”, a combination of two words, “Yahweh” and “Hosea”. “Yahweh” means God, “Hosea” means Saviour. So Jesus means “Saviour God.”

There wasn’t much that was cosy and familiar about Joseph’s decision to hear and obey the word of God. It was a lonely decision. All the big decisions in your life and mine are taken in utter solitude. And while new life brings hope, the birth of a child must have filled Mary and Joseph with the same fears and worries that any parent feels. The message of Christmas is not that God became a member of an impossibly perfect family, but that he shares all the fears and feelings we have, some of which can be pretty shattering. As members of our own families, we might think that whatever things are like the rest of year in our homes, Christmas is the one day of the year when it’s reasonable to expect things to be perfect. Yet that is hardly the message of the Gospels regarding the birth of Jesus. The first Christmas was pretty messy!

As Christmas draws closer we keep hearing God’s promise of sending us Immanuel. But life is such a mixture of sorrows and joys that we are left in confusion. Different people ask different questions that arise from an anguished heart. Has God really sent his Son when my child is crippled and maimed? Where is Immanuel when my husband drinks and wastes our family’s resources? Where is your Immanuel when I shuffle through the streets looking for a job and coming home empty?  Nor should we believe that messy families are somehow inferior to tidy ones. What was remarkable about the Holy Family was not that they didn’t have problems, but that, like Joseph, they dealt with them graciously. Even if our Christmases don’t go as we might like, we can still, with the help of God, who “arrives”, cheerfully capitalise our troubles as opportunities to demonstrate God’s omnipotence. For God has said, “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be called Immanuel.” Only faith and hope are the final solutions in our anxiety. Let us renew more profoundly our faith and hope that will make the coming of Christ more meaningful. As one of the poets has said, “Grow old with me, and the best is yet to come.”

PRAYER (author unknown)

If every part of my life is with you,

And in you, Lord,

Then everything is made good:

Even the things I struggle not to resent,

Even the draining and hurting encounters.

Let every moment of my life be your moment,

Whether or not I consciously remember you;

And make me more open

To the pulse of your life

and the breath of your love.