HOMILY – 4th SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Mt 1: 18-24
Fr. Joseph Dinh, O.P
CONFORMING TO THE LORD’S WILL
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Today we are coming to the 4th Sunday of
Advent, the last Sunday before the Christmas Season. In the previous weeks,
John the Baptist was introduced to us, and He taught that everyone must prepare
their souls for the second coming of Jesus. However, in the last Sunday, the
Bible gives us another man who had a direct influence opon Jesus. This is
Joseph, Jesus’ foster father. What are we learning from Joseph to celebrate the
birth of Jesus?
1. A silent person who contemplated God’s
will
At that time, Joseph had been betrothed to Mary but they
had not lived together yet. It happened that Mary was found with child by the
Holy Spirit. Of course, Joseph did not know how and when Mary had become
pregnant and who was the father of the child?
Ordinarily, every man will become enraged and terribly
troubled when he discovers his fiancee having a child with another man. A
similar situation seems to have happened with Joseph. Therefore He intended to
divorce Mary privately, because he was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace
her. Joseph had the right and the evidence to denounce Mary before the
authorities, but he did not. He kept everything for himself and it was God who
revealed His will to Joseph and explained the whole mystery of Mary’s
conception.
If we know how to keep silence and contemplate the will
of God when facing something that we cannot understand or explain, then we may
have a chance to hear God’s voice; when we give up our own ideas, we may
have an opportunity to know the Lord’s
will.
2. A humble man who conformed himself to
God’s will
As soon as Joseph decided to leave Mary, an angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a dream. The angel said: “Joseph, son of David, do
not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is
from the Holy Spirit.” The angel not only revealed to Joseph the truth of
the child but also told him about the child’s mission: the child was to be
named Jesus, He would save his people from their sins. This all happened to
fulfil what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “The virgin will
conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel.”
We do not know how difficult it was for Joseph make a
decision after waking up. Of course at that time, Joseph still did not know
clearly about the child Jesus. However, he surely knew the word of the Lord
through the prophet Isaiah, because the majority of the Jews knew the prophet
and his books. Therefore, believing the angel’s message, Joseph totally trusted
in God’s will. He was willingly to take Mary to his home.
Joseph had his own plan and intentions when he knew Mary
was pregnant. However, he gave up his intentions and conformed to the Lord’s
will. Similar to Mary, Joseph also said Yes to God and obeyed the Lord’ plan.
Although he did not say any word, he did what was revealed to him in his dream,
fully placing himself before the Lord as His faithful servant, and his duty was
to be willing to follow God’s command.
Dear sisters and Brothers,
The Christmas season is at hand. We are going to
celebrate the greatest feast of the year that we have spent a long time
preparing for. In addition to other outside activities for Christmas day we
also need to prepare our souls to become a warm crib for the New Born Child
Jesus. I think the best way to do this is that we should imitate Joseph’s
behaviour. It means that we should let the Lord guide us and show us how to do
God’s will. In other words, we should become a humble person willing to follow
what the Lord wants us to do. Then, our family would receive the most precious
gift from God on Christmas Day, this is the Baby Jesus, Christ our Lord. Amen.
