Homily: 4th Sunday in Advent – Cycle A
I
think that we all know what it feels like to be afraid. Fear is something that we experience whenever
we sense a threat to our security or well-being. Due to the order of the natural world and to
the nature of human beings, threats to our security and well-being are nearly
always present, looming just below the surface of the securities we’ve built
into our daily lives that keep fear at bay.
Winter in Indiana is a perfect example of this. Because most all of us have heated homes in
which we live and heated cars in which we travel, we do not fear the threat to
our well-being that the severe cold of Indiana winters poses. If our furnace breaks down or our car leaves
us stranded on a deserted rural road in the middle of a cold-snap, suddenly the
threat emerges and fear manifests itself.
This is natural and good, because fear is a powerful tool to help us
respond to a threatening situation so as to preserve our lives.
In
a way, we can see that trust is the feeling that keeps fear at bay. I trust my car to be reliable and to be able
to transport me from point A to point B safely.
Therefore, I do not fear to use it.
I trust my furnace to work reliably and to keep my house at a safe (and
comfortable!) temperature. Therefore, I
don’t check it multiple times a day to verify that it’s working properly. I trust other people in my community to abide
by the laws of our land, which demand that we respect one another’s person and
property. Therefore, I move about freely
without fear of others whom I encounter.
This is also natural and good, because trust is a powerful tool to help
us transcend mere survival and to pursue a truly flourishing life.
Fear,
however, is the more fundamental emotion.
Trust is something that we can build and work towards, but fear is
something that is always present in us, ready to manifest itself when the
situation calls for it. For this reason,
fear can be inimical to faith. To have
faith is to put your trust in something that appears to be reliable and for your
good. Therefore, you simply cannot have
faith in something that you do not trust.
Your fear of being harmed (or, at least, unprotected) by that thing will
keep you from doing so. We need look no
further than our readings today to see an example of this.
Ahaz
was the king of the southern kingdom of Judea at the height of the Babylonian
empire. The Assyrian army was spreading out and
conquering nations so as to grow the empire, and they had surrounded Judea on
all sides. Ahaz was afraid. He did not have an army to confront the
Assyrians and he was convinced that, should the Assyrians conquer Judea, he
would be killed and the great Davidic dynasty would come to an end. Thus, he was considering an alliance with
Egypt to help him resist the Assyrians.
Isaiah,
the prophet, brought a message from God that would challenge Ahaz to abandon
his fear and to trust in God. Isaiah
said, “Surrender to Assyrians. Do not
fear for your life or that this will be the end of the kingdom, because God has
not forgotten his promise to sustain the throne of David forever. The Assyrians will conquer you, but you will
not be killed and the Davidic dynasty will survive. God wills to give you a sign that he will not
abandon you and that you can tell him what that sign shall be. Let it be anything! This is how much God is asking you to trust
him.” Ahaz did not trust God. He let his fear overcome his faith and he
refused to ask for a sign. In defiance
of Ahaz’ lack of faith, Isaiah declares the sign that God will provide
anyway. Ahaz, however, never lived to
see it. He made his alliance with Egypt
and was soon conquered and killed by the Assyrian army.
Contrast
this to the stories of Mary and Joseph in the Gospels. Both Mary and Joseph were presented with
fear-inducing situations: Mary to become the mother of the Son of God through
supernatural conception, and Joseph to accept Mary in spite of the fantastical
stories surrounding her pregnancy. At
the revelation of the angel, Mary trusted God, even given the fearful
uncertainty of what this would mean for her life; and so she conceived Jesus in
her womb. And Joseph, fearful of being
found unrighteous according to the Law, nonetheless trusted the revelation of
the angel and received Mary into his home.
In doing so, he gave Jesus a patrimony—that of being a Son of the House
of David—so that Isaiah’s prophecy to Ahaz would be fulfilled.
Both
Mary and Joseph were instructed by the angel, “Do not be afraid” (which really
means, “Trust, in spite of your fears”), and both responded. Thus, God’s great promises to his people were
finally fulfilled when these two poor Jews from Galilee conquered the power of
their fears by putting their trust 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 the 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, 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 that 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 Advent season calls us to return to this obedience
of faith. 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.
Therefore, he knows 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 of his second coming with the celebration of the birth of the
Christ Child: it makes it easier for us to make a place for him and to trust
him.
In
this final week before Christmas, may we each finish well the good work that we
have begun to overcome our fears and to give God the obedience of faith that we
owe him. Thus will our hearts be
prepared to receive him and to acknowledge him for who he is: Emmanuel, God
with us.
Given at Holy Trinity Parish: Bryant, IN and Immaculate
Conception Parish: Portland, IN – December 17th & 18th,
2022
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