(Fourth Sunday of Advent (A): This homily was given on
December 22, 2013 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourth Sunday of Advent 2013]
That’s an expression that St.
Paul uses in today’s second reading, which is taken from the first chapter of
his letter to the Romans. He writes,
“Through [Jesus Christ] we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring
about the obedience of faith.”
Now we know that this idea was
very important to Paul because 16 chapters later—at the very end of Romans—he
uses the exact same expression. He says, "To him who can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages but now manifested through the prophetic writings
and, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all nations to
bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God,
through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
It’s the thought he begins the
letter with, and it’s the thought he wants to leave us with as we finish the
epistle.
My question is: Was he thinking
of Mary and Joseph when he wrote it? When
he was writing about “the obedience of faith,” were Mary and Joseph on his
mind?
They certainly could have
been—and I dare say they should have
been—because I can’t think of two people who demonstrated faithful obedience to
Almighty God more completely than they did.
Remember, neither Mary nor Joseph
understood all that we understand concerning the events surrounding the birth of
Jesus. Neither of them saw the complete
picture. Neither fully understood what God was doing in them and through them. But whenever Mary and Joseph did come to
recognize what God wanted them to do in a particular situation, they obeyed
God’s instruction—immediately, and regardless of the cost.
Joseph, for example, as we heard
in today’s gospel, did not initially understand how Mary got pregnant. But once he did understand, he acted as God
wanted him to act—even though it probably tarnished his image in the eyes of
other people.
The same was true for Mary. She was pregnant during the betrothal period, which typically lasted
for several months. During that period
of time a couple was actually considered married according to Jewish
law—although they did not live together as husband and wife.
Which means, quite simply, that Mary
was pregnant at a time when she should not have been!
Can you imagine what the talk
around Nazareth was like concerning this situation? The gossip must have been flying around all
over the place!
“I always thought Mary was such a
good girl. Do her parents, Joachim and
Ann, approve of this? Do they know
what’s going on?” “And how about
Joseph? Why is he still with that
woman? Why didn’t he do the honorable
thing and divorce her?”
Obviously, for both Mary and
Joseph, the obedience of faith was much more important than the gossip of their
neighbors.
And this is what we see
throughout the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke: constant obedience
rooted in trusting faith. After Jesus’
birth, for example, Joseph was told by the angel in a dream to take our Lord
and his mother down to Egypt and to stay there.
Matthew describes the scene in this way (and here I quote): “Joseph got
up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt.”
The implication there is that Joseph
acted IMMEDIATELY! He didn’t even wait
until morning. Once God’s will became
clear to him, he carried it out without any hesitation whatsoever.
He acted just as quickly and
decisively when the angel told him to take Mary and Jesus and to go back to
Israel after Herod had died.
We see the same faith-filled
obedience in Mary:
Gabriel said, “Mary, Almighty God
is asking you to be the instrument through which his Son, Jesus, will be born
into the world.”
Mary answered, “Be it done unto
me according to your word.”
And, of course, given the fact
that our Blessed Mother was without sin, this was her attitude in every
situation of her life, not just in the events surrounding her Son’s birth.
“Be it done unto me according to
your word.” In other words, “Whatever
you want, God, I want.”
The kind of faithful obedience
that we see in Mary and Joseph is something we don’t see enough of in our world
today—as Pope Francis has been reminding us in many of his recent talks and
writings. There he’s been making the
point that Christians need to act according to what they say they believe!
Our Holy Father is well aware of
the fact that, nowadays—unfortunately—faith and obedience are often treated as
if they are separate and distinct realities.
So people think they can profess faith without having to obey: “I
believe, but I hate that person who hurt me;” “I believe, but I steal from my
employer;” “I believe, but I cheat on my wife;” “I believe, but I don’t pay my
employees a just wage;” “I believe, but I contracept;” “I believe, but I don’t
care about the less fortunate;” “I believe, but I won’t forgive”—and on and on
the list goes.
And you’ll notice that those who
say these kinds of things will always have a “good excuse” for the
disobedience!
Is it any wonder that so many
people do not experience great blessings from the Lord?
The obedience of faith is what eventually brings us God’s greatest
blessings.
Because of the obedience of faith
that was present in the lives of Mary and Joseph, the world was blessed with
the birth of its Savior—and through that Savior we have been blessed with the
hope of eternal salvation! We’ve been
blessed with forgiveness and mercy and the truth that sets us free—the truth
that leads us to eternal life!
And these blessings that come
from the obedience of faith can come to us even after we’ve first been
disobedient (which is very good news, since all of us are disobedient, at least
from time to time).
It reminds me of a young woman I
know, who, 18 years ago—back in 1995—got pregnant out of wedlock. She was (and is) Catholic; she has good
Catholic parents, so she knew the right thing to do in that situation. And she did the right thing—what her faith
required her to do: she took the child to term, and gave birth to a beautiful,
healthy baby boy named Eric.
Then she made another difficult
decision and gave Eric up for adoption, believing that it would be better for
him to be raised by two loving parents in a good, stable Catholic home.
She arranged the adoption through
Catholic Social Services, with the understanding that, if the adoptive parents
and Eric were in agreement, there could eventually be some contact—but it would
have to be through the agency.
Thankfully, there was some
contact over the past 18 years between them all (letters and such) and it was
all good.
But over the last several months,
a whole new dimension has been added, by the grace of God.
(Eric, by the way, graduated from
high school this past June, with honors.
From what I know of him, he’s a fine young man with a very bright
future. He’s now a freshman in college
with a double major!)
But anyway, several months ago,
his birth mom sent him, through the agency, the journal she kept during her
pregnancy, in which she wrote about her experience, and about her love and
hopes for her child.
Well, it seems that Eric was so
moved by what he read that he said, “Forget about the agency, I’m going to
contact my mother directly!”
And he did, via Facebook (yes,
Facebook does have some good uses!).
Since then there has been
personal, face-to-face contact and visits—and many blessings for everyone
involved: the birth mom, her parents, the adoptive parents, and, of course,
Eric himself.
Let me close my homily now by
reading to you the brief note that Eric sent to his birth mother this past
Mother’s Day. This shows how her
“obedience of faith” 18 years ago, has been the source of countless blessings
from God—and continues to be so. This
was written, obviously, before they had physically met. Eric wrote:
Though I have never met you, I know that you love me more than anything
in the world. I just wanted to let you
know that I love you too. I am grateful
for your decision 18 years ago when you became a mommy. And you gave me up so that our lives would be
fulfilling. Look at where we are now and
what we have done. Separate paths slowly
becoming one. Happy Mother’s Day,
mommy!!!
Somewhere in heaven, my brothers
and sisters, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mary and Joseph—and Jesus—are
smiling.
