The Lord is calling you - are you listening?

Homily for 4^th Sunday of Advent Year A 2013-2014

Isaiah 7:10-14 Romans 1: 1-7 Matt. 1: 18-24

Introduction

Some friends recently became first-time parents.  I could see their great joy as they shared the news about their newly adopted daughter, especially as they had been waiting for a child for a long time.  But I could also see their anxiety.

·        There was the usual worry about sleepless nights, changing diapers and what to do when the baby was ill.

·        More serious was the anxiety of taking on the commitment to care for another human being for at least the next eighteen years.

And yet they eagerly took up this challenge with joy, trusting in the Lord’s help and guidance.

Scripture and Theology

In today’s gospel we have just heard how God called Joseph for the special task of being the foster-father of his Son.  Like my friends, Joseph was probably anxious at hearing this news.

·        Let us leave aside the usual anxieties that come with having a baby.

·        Let us leave aside the issue of an Angel is talking to him!

·        Let us leave aside the fact that the baby is not even his!

Joseph was taking on the great responsibility of raising the Saviour of the world.  We have to remember that Jesus was truly God and truly human.  That means that as a human being, he had to learn things just like any other human being.

·        It was Joseph’s job to teach him how to walk, talk and eat. It was Joseph’s job to teach him the Jewish prayers, commandments and the Bible.

·        It was Joseph’s job to teach him the trade of carpentry.

·        It was Joseph’s job to teach how to be a man, a Jewish man.

But Joseph is the not first person in the Bible God calls with heavy demands!

·        Seventy-five year old Abraham was going about his business in what is now Iraq, taking care of sheep and goats, and farming the land!  And then God comes and says: “Hey you, leave your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house and go to a land that I will show you. I promise to bless you and make you a great nation.”

·        Then there is Moses whom God calls to liberate his people from Egypt, but to do that he has to pass through the Pharaoh!

·        And then you have the Prophets, whom God calls to speak truth to power and the whole nation, delivering messages that people don’t want to hear.  In today’s reading, for example, King Ahaz does not want to hear Isaiah’s prophecy that a Messiah will be born of a virgin.

And so, as a faithful Jew, Joseph must have been aware of how God operates.  And that is why, even if he is a little reluctant, he takes up the challenging job that God is giving him, taking pregnant Mary as his wife into his home.

And we know that Joseph carried out this mission as a father faithfully, accepting the usual challenges of a new born baby and far more serious ones.

·        It was their luck that Caesar was carrying out the census during Mary’s last trimester!  And they had to travel all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  According to Mapquest, this is a distance of 100 miles and it would take you two hours by car, four and a half hours by public transport and 34 hours on foot!

·        And after going through the ordeal of travel, they get to Bethlehem and the hotels and hospitals are full!  I remember when my youngest brother was born in Uganda!  My mother and father walked to the hospital, thankfully two miles, not 100 miles, but there was no one to care for them.  So they returned home and a neighbour assisted my mother to give birth in our house.  Joseph and Mary did not even have that luxury of giving birth in her own home.  They had to give birth in a cowshed!

·        After the birth of Jesus, their problems did not end.  Now, with a new born child, they had to flee to go Egypt, a foreign country, rather than return to the comfort of their home in Nazareth. Think about the Syrian refugees today or any other refugees for that matter!  That was the call of Joseph!

Christian Life

Friends, God has not stopped calling people for his work, nor has he stopped asking a lot from those he calls.  Like he called Joseph and Mary for their special job of bringing the Saviour into this world, God also calls us too!  I can think of two challenging calls for us today: the call to marriage and the call to priesthood.

The call to Christian marriage is a call from God to lifetime commitment to each other, and to the task of raising children in the faith.  Those of you who are married will surely agree that this is not always an easy task!

·        What do you do when the romance in the marriage has died out?  What do you when you no longer recognize the person you said “Yes” to at the altar all those years ago?  What do you do when your husband or wife is seriously ill for a long time?  Like God demanded much of Joseph and Mary, God demands of you total fidelity and commitment to each other, even in difficult situations.

·        And then there is the commitment to the children.  Like he did to Joseph and Mary, God places a great responsibility in your hands as a mother and father, of raising a child or two or three, not just by feeding, clothing and generally keeping them healthy, but also raising them to know and love God and their neighbour.  This job of parenting, of teaching God’s ways has never been easy, but is made more difficult today by the often competing media messages that glorify materialism, drugs and sex.

And yet you carry on as married people and as parents, knowing that this is a call from God, who always demands much from those he calls.

Sometimes people think that the grass is greener on the other side!  Married people might think that the life of priests, sisters and brothers, who are not married, must be easy!  Well, not exactly.

·        If God calls the married people to be mothers and fathers of two or three or four children, he calls the priest to be the Father of all his parishioners!

·        If God calls the married people to be faithful spouses to each other, he calls the priest to be a faithful bridegroom to his bride, the whole Church.

And so like Joseph, the priest has to take up this challenge and be faithful to it!  He has to respond when one of his spiritual children calls him at three in the morning to go and anoint them in the hospital. He has to respond when his bride the Church asks him to celebrate several masses a day, even when he does not feel like doing so.  The priest like Joseph has to care for children who are not his biological children, feeding them with God’s word and sacrament!  And he does this without the comfort of his own wife and children, because God has provided him with another wife and children!

Conclusion

In a few days we will be celebrating Christmas, because Joseph and Mary did their work, of bringing God’s Son into this world.

The Lord needs more people to do his work for him.  As St.Theresa of Avila reminds us, we are the hands, the eyes, the ears and the feet of Christ.

For those who have already responded to the call, how are you living out?  For those, especially the young people, are you listening to the call of God, for you to be another Joseph or Mary, being a part of God’s work?