Homily: 4th Sunday of Advent – Cycle A
Fear is a powerful thing, and rightly
so. Fear is one of the essential tools
that all animals use for survival. When
we find ourselves in a dangerous situation, fear of dying causes us either to
fight what is in front of us or to run away from it in order to preserve our
lives. For example, if I’m walking
through a neighborhood and am confronted by an unfriendly looking dog, I have a
decision to make: either I’m going to stand my ground and try to fight him off
if he attacks me, or I’m going to run away, hoping that he doesn’t catch
me. Without fear, however, I might be a “sitting
duck” to the dog’s attack. We fear
things that threaten us.
We also fear things that we don’t trust. In other words, the possibility that what is
in front of us might harm us makes us guarded and unwilling to engage with it
for fear of what might happen to us. For
example, I might be asked to climb a ladder to hang a decoration or to clean out
the gutters, but one look at the ladder might tell me that it might collapse
under my weight and so fear of injury makes me say “no” to the request. Perhaps even my fear of heights—which is not
really a fear of heights, but rather a fear of falling from those heights—would
cause me not to trust the ladder, even if it was the sturdiest ladder ever
made. This also applies to people, of
course, as a lack of trust in an individual—the pilot on your airline flight,
for example—could cause you to skip your flight. Fear, indeed, is powerful: it has the power
to decide what actions you take in life.
For this reason, fear can be inimical
to faith. We need look no farther than
today’s Scriptures to see an example of this.
Ahaz is the king of the southern kingdom of Judah. His kingdom has been surrounded on all sides
by his enemies and he is trying to figure out what to do: should he try to
fight them (invoking the assistance of the Egyptians to the south), or should
he run, or should he just give up? The prophet
Isaiah comes to speak the Lord’s message to him. He tells him: “Surrender to your
enemies. Do not fear that this will be
the end of the kingdom, because God has not forgotten his promise. In fact, God wills to give you a sign that he
will not abandon you. You tell him what
that sign shall be.” Ahaz, however, didn’t
trust God and so, in a sign of false piety, he refused to ask for a sign. He allowed his fear to overcome his faith.
Both Mary and Joseph had the
opportunity to respond like Ahaz to the revelation of God. At the revelation of the angel, however, Mary
trusted God, even given the fearful uncertainty of what this would mean for her
life; and so she conceived Jesus in her womb.
Joseph, too, fearful for being found unrighteous according to the Law,
trusted the revelation of the angel and so gave Jesus a patrimony—Son of the
House of David—so that the prophecy of Isaiah would be fulfilled. Both were instructed by the angel, “Do not be
afraid”, and both listened. Thus, God’s
great promises to his people were finally fulfilled when two poor Jews from
Galilee conquered the power of their fears and put their faith in God: submitting
themselves to his will.
These are examples for us of the “obedience
of faith” that Saint Paul spoke about in the beginning of his letter to the
Romans. Obedience of this type is not
blind servitude that we think of when we think of slavery as it was often
practiced in the early years of this country; rather, it is loving adherence to
the will of one, who has authority over you, yes, but who also has
responsibility for your well-being. The
obedience of faith, therefore, is the obedience that can say “yes” in spite of
a fearful unknown, because the one who asks is trustworthy. The obedience of faith can say “yes” even in
the face of a certain danger, because the one who asks has promised to carry you
through. More than all these, however,
the obedience of faith is a readiness to respond in love to the one who has
already poured out his love on you, which is exactly what God did when he sent
his Son to become one with us and to die for us. In fact, because of this, the obedience of
faith is something we owe God, which is why Saint Paul saw it as his apostolic
responsibility “to bring about the obedience of faith.”
My brothers and sisters, this
obedience of faith is that to which we are being called to return during this
Advent season. Our remembrance that Our
Lord came to us as a little child to then go forth to suffer and to die so that
we might be saved from sin and death forever, and that he reigns now in heaven as
King of the Universe until the appointed time when he will return to bring
about the fullness of his kingdom, is meant to remind us of our need to examine
our lives and to ensure that we are truly prepared to receive him when he
comes. This is the work that we should
have been doing for the past three weeks.
And if we haven’t been doing it, then it is the work we are being called
to take up in this last week of Advent (and thanks be to God that there is a
whole week left!).
Our Father in heaven knows us well,
however. And so he know that, if we have
been struggling to trust him and to overcome our fear of the unknown—or of the
certain danger—that might come from our obedience, there is nothing more
fear-conquering than a little child who needs to be welcomed into a warm
home. This is why the Church ends this
great season of expectation with the celebration of the birth of the Christ
Child: it’s easier to make a place for him.
In this final week before Christmas, my brothers and sisters, may we
each finish well this good work that we have begun to overcome our fears and to
give God the obedience of faith that we owe him once again. Thus will our hearts be prepared to receive
him and to acknowledge him for who he is: Emmanuel, God with us.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – December 17th & 18th,
2016
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