FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
21 DECEMBER 2025
In
the first reading, we meet King Ahaz, who is faced a difficult decision in the
8th century BC. Syria and
Israel, the two kingdoms north of the kingdom of Judah, were trying to subdue
Judah and redeploy their troops to do battle against an unstoppable Assyrian
army. Ahaz must decide. Should he align Judah with Syria and Israel,
or should he join forces with Assyria?
Isaiah approaches the king to offer him what prophets had always
done: to help him ascertain God’s will
in engaging in military action. Isaiah
tells the king that God wants him to do nothing. And he even offers a sign to the king. But Ahaz refuses a sign, piously insisting
that he does not want to tempt the Lord.
He does not want a sign, because he has already made up his mind. Isaiah gives him a sign anyway. As a Davidic king, Ahaz should side with no
one. Instead, he must trust that God
would be with his People in the time it takes for a woman to conceive, bear,
and name a male child. According to
Biblical custom, this would have been forty weeks plus eight days. The young Jewish woman would name the child
“Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.”
Isaiah’s prophecy became a timeless challenge to God’s Chosen People to
trust in God’s abiding presence, especially amid hardship.
In the
Gospel, we meet Joseph, another descendant of King David. He also faces a difficult situation. He has discovered that the young woman to
whom he is betrothed is pregnant. He
knows that he is not the father and must decide. Should he have her stoned, as the law
allows? Or should he divorce her quietly
and step aside so that the real father can take her into his home? He decides to divorce her quietly. But then God speaks to him in a dream, as God
has called the young Samuel in a dream to be a prophet. God had spoken to Joseph in Egypt to
interpret the choices for Pharaoh to proceed in a famine. Now God speaks to Joseph in a dream to tell
him that Isaiah’s prophecy to Ahaz has been fulfilled in an extraordinary and
incredible way. God has entered into the
human race through the humble consent of his betrothed. Joseph follows the instructions of the angel
and takes Mary into his home.
Because
Joseph trusts in God’s abiding presence, his life is changed. He and his wife will embark on a long journey
to Bethlehem to participate in a census.
Finding no room in an Inn, he takes his wife to a stable, where she
gives birth to a son. He is amazed with visits from angels and shepherds. He obeys another dream and tells the Magi not
to return to Herod. Then he saves his
family by fleeing to Egypt as immigrants and refugees. Later, he and his wife will find their
12-year-old child in the temple and will return to Nazareth to raise him. In all of these actions, Joseph completely
trusts in God’s abiding presence. Joseph
speaks no words in the New Testament.
His actions speak loudly of his trust in God’s abiding presence.
As we
prepare to celebrate the Lord’s birth this Thursday, Joseph invites us to trust
in God’s abiding presence in our lives. Christmas
reminds us that God is involved in our daily lives and speaks to us to make
significant changes. Sometimes, our
lives are suddenly changed by a tragedy, or a death, or an illness. Widowed people know how their lives are changed. The same thing happens to families when they
must care for loved ones who can no longer function on their own. At other times, God speaks to us in unexpected
changes. I am convinced that the Lord
spoke to me in retirement and spoke through Bishop Rhoades to let go of a
suburban parish of 3,000 families to become part of a very different parish of
150 families in the inner city. When our
dreams are interrupted, we are lost. We ask
for the intercession of Saint Joseph. In
following God’s command, he had to let go of whatever dreams he may have had
for a more normal family to embrace God’s dream. We can do the same.
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