Fourth Sunday of Advent
Intention: We pray for a faith-filled and transforming Christmastime for our world, one that fills it with peace, justice, and good will toward all.
Today’s 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 be with child 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.
A Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Advent
In today’s Gospel, we read a Nativity narrative that focuses on Joseph, the husband of Mary. In it, Joseph is struggling with the news that Mary is expecting a child that he knows he did not father. Something else that he knows is what will be the community’s outrage toward Mary at this violation of the Law of Moses. His angst over how best to conduct himself and also to protect her says much about Joseph’s heroic and compassionate character. It also says much about what it means to be challenged to deeper faith. Joseph was being called not just to religious piety, but to radical self-abandonment to God’s providence. Like Mary, he was being called to enter into the mystery and exigency of God’s often inscrutable ways, and then to choose whether or not to say ‘yes.’ In one way or another, this decision eventually confronts us all. When God comes to us in unexpected forms and from unknown directions, what will be our response to his divine surprise? Will we make excuses for having limits to our faith or will we find it in ourselves to meet the demands of true discipleship? Author Enuma Okoro writes, “Openness to God requires our growing acceptance that we cannot create blueprints for our own lives. Though God’s character is unchanging, the ways of God are unpredictable.” The time of Advent is a time to explore what it really means to welcome Jesus into our hearts.
Prayer
Eternal Father, our days are filled with making things ready to celebrate the coming of your Son. In all of our hurriedness, may we make time to be still. Help us to recognize his approach in the persons and events of our lives. May our greeting be one of gratitude and of welcome, giving praise that we have been so generously blessed. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”