Homily: 4th Sunday of Advent – Cycle B
Because of the way that marriages were
arranged in the Ancient Near East, it is generally believed that Mary was
around fourteen or fifteen years old when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and
told her that she was going to be pregnant.
Think back for a moment, whether you are male or female, to when you
were fourteen or fifteen years old. I’m
guessing that almost all of you here, while perhaps thinking that you might someday
get married, were not yet promised in marriage; and certainly were not facing
the prospect of having a baby.
No, you were probably living like
ordinary teenagers: going to school, playing sports or being involved in clubs
and activities, and maybe working a part-time job. “Going steady” or dating someone might have
been the closest you had gotten to the idea of marriage and having a baby. Imagine, then what it would have felt like to
have been promised in marriage and then to receive a message that you would have
a baby. I’m guessing that, for most of
you this would have been quite a scary prospect. Yet, that’s what Mary had to deal with when
she was, at most, fifteen years old.
But that wasn’t all, however, because
the angel continued to say that the child that would be born from her would be
conceived by the Holy Spirit and that he would be a great king that would rule
over the Jewish people forever. You have
to remember that at that time the Romans occupied what we know today as the
Holy Land. And at the time the Romans
did not look kindly on anyone who had aspirations of being a king. The king, for them, was Caesar and anyone
else claiming to be a king was a revolutionary. About thirty-three years later, we would see
what the Romans would do to a man who was accused of being a revolutionary when
they crucified Jesus. Mary knew this and
so the prospect that this son—the one for whom she wasn’t ready, remember—would
be hailed as a king in the line of David, the great Jewish king, would have
frightened her even more.
Still further, Mary was a virgin and,
although young, she knew what happened to women who were caught being
unfaithful to their husbands (even if they hadn’t begun to live together
formally with their husbands): those women were killed! Thus, the prospect of becoming pregnant by
someone other than Joseph (her husband to whom she had been promised)—something
that she wouldn’t be able to hide from him and which would make it appear that
she had been unfaithful to him—not only ran the risk of ruining her
relationship with him, but also put her life in jeopardy!
And so, added to the prospect of
being, at most, fifteen and pregnant, Mary had to face all of this… and what
did she say? She said, “I’m confused,
but I have faith in God. And so, if this
message is truly from God, then let it be done to me according to your
word.” Mary did not let all of the bad
things that could happen stop her from agreeing to follow God’s will for her
life. Rather, she chose to say “yes”
because she believed that God was trustworthy.
Today, of course, God is not calling any
of you to conceive a child by the Holy Spirit who will be a controversial
leader of nations; but he has called you.
He has called you to take responsibility to be a Christian in today’s
world. This calling, of course, has its
own dangers. The world is very hostile
to the values that are essential to being a Christian: piety, temperance,
chastity, modesty, purity, obedience, and faithfulness (just to name a few),
and so it is a fearful thing to accept this calling. Nevertheless, God has called each of you to
take this responsibility (and it is a responsibility—that is, something that
demands a response from you); and not just for yourself, but rather to be a
witness to others, too.
King David recognized that God had
been very good to him, giving him victory over his enemies (before he was king)
and over the enemies of his people. As
he settled to reign over the people of Judah, he wanted to do something good
for God: something that would show God his appreciation for all that God had
done for him. Therefore, he proposed to
build God a temple: a fitting house to honor God’s presence among them. Through the prophet Nathan, however, God
revealed that he would have nothing of it.
God was not to be “repaid”, if you will, by David, but rather determined
to finish his work with him.
God, therefore, revealed to David that
not only would David not build a house for him, but that God would make David
into a house: a kingdom that would last forever. In doing so, God revealed something
important: that he, who had been with David throughout all of his trials, would
remain with him to continue to guide and strengthen him, until his final days
and even beyond them, as he would guide and protect David’s descendants for
generations to come. In this we see God’s
promise to those whom he has called: that if he calls us to a responsibility,
then we can trust that he will be with us as we seek to follow his will.
Of course, some of that support comes
in the form of the people who surround us here today. By being here, we are all promising to
support each other as we make the choice to take responsibility for being a
Christian in today’s world. Our task is
to help each other make the right choices in our lives and in our relationships
and to pray for each other and with each other, so that each of us will have
the best chance to fulfill this calling that God has given to us. This, in a sense, is the work we are all
trying to renew in our lives during this Advent season: that, as we prepare to
celebrate the coming of our Lord, we do so by making sure that we are
fulfilling this calling to Christian discipleship that we have all received.
Sometimes, however, the hardest part
is saying “yes” to God. At fifteen years
old, Mary was able to do so because she believed that God was trustworthy and because
he proved that he was. My brothers and
sisters, no matter how old each of us is today, God is asking us to say “yes”,
also. Let us not be afraid to say “yes”
to God, for he is a Father who loves us and who is very proud of us; and he
will never leave us alone. Let us not be
afraid, because with the help of Mary and the saints, and with the help of our
brothers and sisters here, each of us will fulfill God’s will for our lives: our
happiness. The happiness that, in some
sense, we experience when we celebrate the great feast of Christ’s birth, and
which is available to us when we receive him, even now, from this altar.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – December 23rd & 24th,
2017
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