Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/121910.shtml
When I was in the Seminary, I was told that one of the neat things about Catholic Liturgy was that there are elements that are always the same and there are others that change from day-to-day, week-to-week, season-to-season, year-to-year. The elements that are constant give the liturgy continuity – what happens every Sunday is not a total ‘surprise,’ while the elements that change keep us awake, keep us from getting bored. We find ourselves at a Sunday when both these sets of elements are present to us in a nice way.
First, we are in the Season of Advent. So we have the Advent wreath, we have the four Advent Candles. And the Readings each year for the Sundays of Advent follow familiar themes. The Gospel Reading from the First Sunday of Advent sets the mood. It reminds us of how long the Prophets and the People of Israel waited for the arrival of the Anointed One, the Messiah. Then the Gospel Readings of the 2nd to 4th Sunday focus on the Biblical figure who immediately preceded the birth of Jesus. The 2nd and 3rd Sundays of Advent focus on John the Baptist. The 4th Sunday generally focuses on Mary BUT (and here comes the exception) THIS YEAR, because our Gospel Readings come from Matthew, Mary is present in the Reading but only through how eyes and thoughts of St. Joseph, as HE grapples with the news that Mary gives him, that she finds herself pregnant with a child that clearly was not his. So while WE USUALLY remember that the 4th Sunday of Advent is about Mary, EVERY THREE YEARS (whenever we use the Gospel of Matthew in the Sunday Liturgy) we focus on the OTHER immediate predecessor to Jesus that we can at times forget – St. Joseph.
And it’s good to remember St. Joseph for all kinds of reasons, first among them that HE TOO, like Mary, was asked to believe the impossible. He too was being asked to be exposed to shame and ridicule (being thought of as a chump), and he _did_ have the opportunity to walk away from the situation.
But we find that he didn’t find the decision to “walk away” or a way to do it to be easy. And we can probably understand a bit why because we ourselves would find such a situation difficult to resolve. Why? Because while FROM THE OUTSIDE the situation could often seem rather “cut and dry” (“She betrayed you. Dump her...”).
Inside the relationship, however, the situation is more complex. It’s obvious that Joseph cared for Mary. They had been getting married after all. Given what we know of Mary, _her_ suddenly coming to Joseph with the news that she’s pregnant (and obviously _not_ by Joseph) would have been wildly uncharacteristic of her. Sure one could answer sarcastically “Well, ya _never_ know about people..,” and “It’s often the ones you _least_ expect ...” but at minimum that would have been enormously painful to St. Joseph to hear that, and it would have utterly blown his previous understanding of what kind of a person he thought Mary was. Without much doubt St. Joseph would have been utterly shocked and confused by the matter.
Then let us remember that at the time of Jesus’ birth, the “morality code”/”the morality police” were far stricter than today. Adultery was punished by stoning. A young woman, found pregnant prior to marriage was to be stoned to death as well, but with the added horror to both her and her family. Instead of being taken outside the village to be stoned to death there (outside the community), the young unmarried mother would have been stoned to death on the doorstep of her parents’ home, so that the parents would be left to clean up the mess. (Deut 22:20-21) How’s that for “deterrence?” And all this was to have been done “in the name of God / God’s law.”
So it is no surprise that it was written of St. Joseph that he was a just man who didn’t want to expose Mary to shame (Mt 1:19), was already seeking to find some way to do the right thing and minimize the damage when he went to “sleep on it.”
We can probably relate to St. Joseph because all the tough advice that we may give to our friends finding themselves in relationship difficulty, if we ourselves would find ourselves in a crisis situation in our relationships, we ourselves would probably be doing the same as St. Joseph was trying to do. This is because we also _don’t_ want to give-up on a loved-one who has hurt us or disappointed us.
That St. Joseph’s story made Matthew’s Gospel indicates to us, that GOD is telling us that OUR “hope despite the evidence” (faith?, love?) is okay. AND IT IS OKAY BECAUSE GOD IS SIMILARLY PATIENT AND HOPEFUL WITH EACH OF US AS WELL.
Indeed, St. Joseph’s story completes our 4 week journey through Advent this year:
In the 1st Sunday, we’re reminded that Israel was waiting for the arrival of an Anointed One, a Messiah who’d make things right. In the 2nd Sunday, we’re reminded of St. John the Baptist’s preaching about he coming of that Messiah and we remember that John the Baptist was tough on everyone – on the people of his time, on the leaders of this time, even tough on himself (living out in the desert, eating nothing but insects, wearing nothing but a hair-shirt and calling out to the people simply “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”).
In the 3rd Sunday, the tone changed. We heard that John the Baptist appeared disappointed in Jesus sending his disciples to ask Jesus if he really was the “one who is to come should we wait for another?”
Why was he asking this? Because John was expecting fire and brimstone, judgement, vengeance. Instead, Jesus was giving sight back to the blind, healing the sick, curing lepers and giving hope back to the poor. In the Gospel Reading last week, we heard Jesus reminding John’s disciples that THIS HEALING MISSION was ALSO PART OF THE JOB DESCRIPTION OF THE MESSIAH. (We always seem to get stuck on focusing on the fireworks ...).
This 4th Sunday of Advent, we listen to this story about St. Joseph, the one who would be Jesus’ step-father in this world and of Jesus’ mother, Mary. It’s a story not of righteous anger but of making do, forgiveness, accepting perhaps the impossible for the sake of the relationship, FOR THE SAKE OF THE ONE WHO IS TO COME INTO THE WORLD (the baby Jesus).
It’s remarkable really – GOD ENTERED INTO THE WORLD BECAUSE TWO PEOPLE CHOSE TO _LET HIM_ DO SO. And Jesus could well have learned a lot about his future reconciling mission through their soft example.
Jesus then becomes _not_ a vengeful Messiah but a reconciling one, preaching that God is Our Father, who just wants us all back together at HIS TABLE at HIS HOUSE.
Last week, I started talking about the possibility that the Second Coming of Jesus could well be much like the first, that is NOT like a FIRESTORM but rather as another (final? who knows, maybe not final. What parent ever completely gives up on his/her kids?) invitation to simply come home.
And therein perhaps lies the key to our preparation during THIS YEAR’S SEASON OF ADVENT.
Like it or not, Christmas time is when families get together and with that old hurts and resentments can resurface. True.
But Christmas time also offers an annual invitation to let bygones be bygones to both finally forgive and to say that one’s sorry.
What a great way to celebrate the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Christmas, in simply saying “I’m sorry” or “welcome back home.” We are all God’s children after all and who among us do we really believe, no matter how much he/she may have hurt us, really deserves to be _eternally cast out_, eternally exposed to shame?
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