King Ahaz and the tribe of Judah were terrified about the possibility of being attacked. They did not know where to go for help. In desperation, they turned to the Lord in their distress. The Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of (me), the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” Ahaz responded that he would not put the Lord to the test. The prophet Isaiah told Ahaz that as a sign, the Virgin would conceive and give birth to a Son who would be called Emmanuel. That would be his sign. That sign, that a virgin would give birth to a son, was prophecy given to Joseph by the Angel Gabriel in our Gospel today, foretelling the birth of Jesus.
We also have signs that God gives to us: signs of the season all around during Advent. We light candles on the Advent wreath to count down the days of waiting. We do works of charity as signs of the season, signs of our faith. We see such generosity and kindness from so many of our parishioners in helping out others in need as a part of our Angel Tree outreach and our outreach to the Born Free Program of Catholic Charities. We’re called by the Church to partake of the sacrament of reconciliation during Advent as a sign of our repentance and transformation. And we sing “O Come O Come Emmanuel” during Advent as a sign that we yearn with expectation for the coming of the Lord. But, we might want other signs as well. We might want a sign of hope in our lives during Advent in the midst of the reality of life. We might want to hear the Lord’s voice, loud and clear, for a specific purpose: to tell us the answer to our prayers, to heal a loved one who is sick, to help us or a family or a friend to finally overcome an addiction after a long struggle. We might want the Lord to speak to us in a dream like the way he sent an angel to speak to Joseph, to come into our hearts to make us whole, to heal the wounds and problems that plague our lives.
However, the sign we receive from the Lord might be totally unexpected. In today’s Gospel, Joseph had already figured out how he was going to solve the situation he faced with Mary, doing so not by shaming her, but by treating her with dignity and respect by divorcing her quietly. Joseph wasn’t looking for a sign from God, but the Angel came to him anyway, giving him instructions to take Mary into his home to be his wife. Joseph was a righteous man who listened to God's will. He said “yes” to God, becoming an integral part of God’s plan of salvation for all.
Wonderful signs of hope are the devotions and traditions of the Church that help us, lead us, and guide us on our journey of faith. Any of you who attend daily Mass with me as the priest presiding know that I very often talk about the saint of the day, as we have so much we can learn from them. In addition, as you know, I have started a monthly evening of adoration here at our parish, celebrate the First Friday Mass dedicated to the sacred heart of Jesus, and now, beginning with the first Sunday of Advent, we have started praying the prayer of St Michael the Archangel at all of our weekend Masses. In fact, the project I am working on in the liturgical leadership program at the University of Notre Dame is trying to apply the traditions and devotions on the parish level in order to strength the sense of Eucharistic community in our parish.
Recently, I saw a painting of St Joseph that was painted by Frenchman James Tissot over 100 years ago. He shows Joseph at his carpenter’s bench with tools strewn about. There is clutter all around his workshop, with its window’s looking out at the busy streets of Nazareth. In the middle of this busy scene, Joseph is resting at his table, his chin leaning on his hand as he is deep in thought. We normally think of Joseph as calm, patient, and strong, but this painting is entitled, “The Anxiety of Joseph.” Whether this painting depicts Joseph the day before the dream with the Angel Gabriel, or the day after, we can only imagine the anxiety Joseph was feeling in his life. Yet, in the midst of his reality, Joseph had a message of hope – he had assurances from God, he had the upcoming birth of his son.
Our age is also characterized by a lot of anxiety as well. Like Joseph, in the midst of our anxiety, we await Christ’s birth with hope. In recent years, our Church has called us to a new evangelization, something that has more urgency now than ever with the pandemic that we experienced, with a lot of people not coming back to Mass on a regular basis. We want to reach out to our fellow parishioners in faith and hope. We want to be a sign of hope in our community and in our Diocese. We have the example of Mary and Joseph living out their lives of faith in a humble unassuming way. Mother Teresa once said: “We ca do no great things, only small things with love.” And: “ I believe that God loves the world through us - through you and me.” May we remember that through the everyday moments of life, at home, at work, with our friend, in our community, we can be the love of God for others, we can do those everyday things in life with great love for the glory of God. Blessings to all of you on this last week of Advent.
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