Fourth Sunday of Advent
Fr. Ben Riley
In my junior and senior years of high school, I started seriously thinking about my vocation. I started to ask, “What does God want for my life?”, instead of, “What do I want for my life?”. But contrary to what you might think, this was not a happy time for me. It wasn’t a time of spiritual consolation, deep religious experiences, and hours spent in prayer and spiritual ecstasy. No. When I was in high school, I was anything but religious. I didn’t pray much, I went to Mass so I wouldn’t disappoint my parents, and my friend group was leading me away from God, not closer toward Him. My life was steeped in sin, and I deeply regret this time I spent actively rejecting God’s presence in my life. I felt empty with no purpose or direction. And I knew something had to give, I just didn’t know what.
In hindsight I can see that God sent me to exactly the right person. The guidance counselor at Catholic High school just happens to also be a Franciscan brother, and Brother Richard gave me a wakeup call. I told him about how I was feeling: so lost, anxious, and empty. Brother Richard told me, very simply that I felt that way because I didn’t have a relationship with God, and that until I let God into my life, I would always feel that way. These meetings with Brother Richard were the beginning of my discernment toward the priesthood, and more in general, it was the beginning of my relationship with God. No longer something I was told, but something I came to believe.
The truth is, I am not unique. There is a God shaped hole in all of us, and all of us, try to fill that hole, with these things that just don’t satisfy. At Christmas we tend to assume that the idea of God coming into our life is always an attractive concept. However, that’s a bit naive. Having the almighty creator of the universe come into one’s life could also be an upsetting prospect. I have often spoken with people about God, doing some evangelization, and I have encountered people who understood very well the concept of letting Jesus into their life, but they didn’t want that to happen, because it might upset the status quo. God living within you, well, He might want to change a few things. And are we really ready for that? In this Sunday’s readings we encounter situations in which people found the invasion of God into their lives to be a little bit distressing. The readings remind us that Jesus is not a passive presence within us. He came into the world as a meek and humble baby, yes, but also a challenging Lord.
First, we hear about King Ahaz. Now, King Ahaz was not a very good or pious man. He often dabbled in idolatry and pagan worship. But nonetheless, Ahaz was the son of King David, and God was not yet willing to let the Kingdom of David be destroyed by the Syrians. So, God sent Isaiah to bolster Ahaz’s courage even going so far as to offer the king a miraculous sign to strengthen his faith as God had done for Gideon and others in ancient times. To this offer, Ahaz responds with false piety saying, “I will not tempt the Lord.” But Isaiah is not having it. He says to Ahaz, “Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God?” Ahaz is being invited into a deeper relationship with God, and he understands the importance of the gift God is giving him through the prophet Isaiah. But he refuses.
In our gospel, Joseph is also given an invitation. The Angel comes to him in a dream and says, “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.” Unlike Ahaz , Joseph accepts God’s invitation and welcomes Mary into his home.
When we step back and meditate on these readings, we see that a common theme is the invasion of God’s presence into the lives of His people. God offers to intervene in the life of Ahaz, and the king’s response is “Thanks, but no thanks.” In the gospel, God invades the lives of Mary and Joseph with His presence. Perhaps their aspirations were nothing more than to lead quiet and peaceful lives, trying to raise a family in Nazareth, while awaiting the fulfillment of God’s promise to their ancestors through the prophets. Little did they know that God would use their lives to fulfill all those promises they had heard or read about.
But the presence of God in their lives means an end to the comfort of ordinary life. Joseph is disturbed to find his fiancé pregnant, and he fears to marry her, either because he suspects wrongdoing on her part, which is a more modern view, or because he is hesitant to marry a woman so holy as to be set apart for the conception of God, which is a more traditional view. Mary and Joseph’s hopes to be just an average middle-class couple living a simple Jewish life are dashed. Their lives are not going to be normal and typical. Not anymore. The angel guides Joseph to his next step, completing his marriage to Mary. We know that the coming months involved more strain and stress, a long journey to Bethlehem in the late stages of Mary’s pregnancy, followed by a midnight flight from Bethlehem to Egypt to get away from the persecution of King Herod.
Mary and Joseph’s lives would never again be average and comfortable, because when God invades our lives, He incorporates us into His plan for the salvation of the world. That’s right, when you invite God into your life, you become a part of his Plan for the Salvation of the world, and as such, to partake in the suffering of Christ. Resurrection cannot happen without death, death to self, death to false God’s, death even to our will.
At this altar we prepare to receive the divine invasion of the Eucharist, when God again will enter into our lives as we receive His body, blood, soul and divinity. Are we ready for that? Are we ready to let our lives go off course, into a new direction, perhaps even an uncomfortable direction, because God is now living within us? It is one thing to recognize the coming of Christ at Christmas, but are we ready to recognize and invite the coming of Christ into our own lives? Not part way, not with conditions and exceptions. But fully, unconditionally, and right now.
I was not a faithful person in my teenage years, and I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit, working through Brother Richard, helped me to see what was missing in my life. But I am not a priest because I chose to welcome Christ into my life once. It is a choice that I try to make every day. I am not always successful. My pride, sinfulness, and selfishness sometimes get in the way. But that doesn’t bother me, because the difference between a saint and a sinner is someone who continues to try. Do not be discouraged by your sinfulness. Continue to try, to fight, to strive for a deeper relationship with the Lord. Desire to give all that you are, all that you have, over to Him, and trust that He will take care of the rest.