Breaking Open the Word - Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A – Sunday, December 22nd
This Sunday, it’s as if the Church can’t help herself – she’s so excited about the coming of her Lord that she is already giving us readings about Christmas day! One Sister opened our discussion by noticing an interesting difference between the First Reading and the citation of that same text in the Gospel. The former states that “she [the virgin] shall name him Immanuel,” while the latter renders this line as “they shall name him Immanuel.” For Sister, this drew attention to the importance of St. Joseph’s role: he is allowed to share in the prerogatives of the Virgin Mother by joining with her in naming God’s Son. By doing so, Joseph accepts Jesus as his foster Son and thereby performs the important role of connecting Him paternally to the “line of David.”
Another Sister also focused on St. Joseph, contrasting his reaction to God’s revelation with the reaction of King Ahaz in the First Reading. Though both were asked to accept surprising messages from the Lord, Joseph humbly obeyed while Ahaz resisted and tried to justify himself with good-sounding reasons. Sister reflected that these different degrees of openness to God are really determined by the kind of life each man led: Joseph was “a righteous man,” while Ahaz had a history of defiance towards the Lord (just read his “track record” in 2 Kings 16!). This can be a lesson to us – do we live our everyday lives in such a way that we will be ready to hear God’s inspirations and respond with “the obedience of faith,” as St. Paul urges us in the Second Reading?
Our Lady featured as well in our sharing this week. A Sister was struck by an easy-to-miss parallel between her role in the Nativity and in the Passion: both Joseph and the Beloved Disciple are described as “taking Mary into their homes.” These two moments truly were some of the most vulnerable in the Blessed Mother’s life – in one she was pregnant and unmarried, and in the other she was all alone and known as the mother of a criminal. Yet, in both instances we see God protecting her in His providence. We can only imagine how great her trust in Him must have been! Sister also saw this insight as a call to pray for those women throughout the world who are in similarly vulnerable situations and do not have a “Joseph” or a ”John” to “take them in” and protect them from exploitation.
We then discussed the strangeness of how God chose to come into the world. Couldn’t He have selected a less “messy” way? Of course He could have, but in His mysterious wisdom He chose (as He still does) to grant those He loved the most a special share in His sufferings. Indeed, for Joseph, the trials involved with being the foster father of Christ were his main opportunity to share in the Passion, since tradition tells us he died before the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. One Sister also noted that perhaps God was even allowing Our Lady (possibly St. Joseph as well) to “bear the sins of others” by appearing guilty when she was innocent! All of this just serves to prove what Venerable Fulton Sheen wrote in his great classic, The Life of Christ, “the Cross was there from the beginning, and it cast its shadow backward to His birth.”
The days of Advent are drawing to a close, and those of Christmas will soon be upon us! We join with all of you in prayer and expectation for the imminent arrival of the Desire of Nations . . . Come, Lord Jesus!