Fourth Sunday of Advent

On this 4 ^th Sunday of Advent we stand at the threshold of Christmas.  Our time of preparation for the birth of our Lord is almost complete.  Let us pause for a minute – to take a breath, to consider the wonder of Christ coming into our world for us! When we reflect on the wonder and miracle of a new born baby we start to fully comprehend the wonder and love of God.  We also see God when we see the love of parents as they gaze on their newborn child.  When we see a newborn – we also begin to see a hint of the overwhelming love God holds for each of us. Advent and Christmas remind us about the importance of families. We all belong, we need to embrace families of all kinds.  We all belong to a kind of family whether it is traditional, unique, or part of a faith community family!  God is present within all and is with us in a special way as we gather together.
 
  I want to share this image of the Holy family with you.  I know it may be difficult for you to see from the pews, you may have seen it posted at church.  I will leave it by the ambo here and please take a look at it after Mass if you have a chance.  The image is wonderful of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – the Holy Family – With the image is a quote from Pope Francis “How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith”  God, Faith and family all joined together!  We know very little about Joseph life beyond the little we hear in the Gospel. However, the story of his, and Mary’s faithfulness, is part of the very fabric of our Christian faith.  
 
 
In the Gospel we hear how Joseph responded to God’s vision and mission for him. I don’t think today we fully recognize how difficult Joseph’s response was.  Joseph took a leap of faith and went against the norms of his society based solely on the message from God in a dream.  No one at that time could have blamed him for leaving Mary.  Her child wasn’t his and he would have experienced great pressure from society to abandon,  leave her alone and helpless – but he didn’t.  Joseph and Mary were family and answered God’s call faithfully.
 
I want to share with you that I am an amateur wood worker.  I am not great at this, but I like crafting things out of wood.  I have a tradition of making some simple wood working gifts as Christmas presents for my family, Carol my wife and Christopher and Michael our two adult sons. This year I have been working on several items.  What sometimes bothers me is that often when I am completing the item I notice small flaws in my work. Most people wouldn’t notice them but they bother me because they aren’t perfect.  As I reflected on this it dawned on me that the flaws were an important part of what makes these gifts special, what makes them uniquely from me.  Families and people are also gifts – we are flawed and special. We are the way God made us. These flaws or perhaps better put these “uniquenesses”, are really part of the whole of who we are as people and family.  It makes me think about as individuals and families and how all are flawed, unique – none of us are perfect, but we are all loved by God. I am sure we all could share stories of our own family’s uniqueness. They may drive us crazy at times but we love them, don’t we?  There are no families that are perfect, no families like those on the Hallmark channel,  and that is the way God intended.  God wants us to embrace our own family especially at Christmas time to offer and accept forgiveness. We are also called to recognize and embrace our parish and faith community as family to bear with it, to cherish, support, and love it.  We all are unique, flawed, imperfect, but we are all children of God, called to love and support one another.
 
 
Responding to this call to love and support one another as God’s family does not exempt us from pain and suffering.  Joseph and Mary experienced much pain and suffering in their lives.  You couldn’t call their family situation perfect.  If they had ignored God’s call for them their lives would have been simpler. But as family they responded and said yes to God.  The theme of family is at the core of our faith!  As a parish, as a community, as the Body of Christ we are family.  A Family with joys, struggles, pain and losses but we travel with God and toward the completion of Advent and Christmas.  
 

I invite you to sit back, and reflect deeply on the image portrayed in the Gospel,  the image of Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus.  Reflect on the scene from the Gospel –  the faithfulness of Joseph and Mary:  

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,  because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel, 
which means “God is with us.” 
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.” 

 
 This scene with Joseph and Mary  - the Holy Family’s great faith, a faith in which they put aside fear, put aside their own agendas, and demonstrated deep faith in God.  This is a model of how we are called to respond to God’s voice within us.   

Joseph and Mary responded – their example helps us understand what Advent and Christmas are truly about.  We all know it's not about materialism, it is not about the baking, presents, the hustle and bustle, the perfection, all the material things our society emphasizes, the things that make us weary.  What it is truly about is how we respond as a family, putting aside pride, selfishness, and fear, offering forgiveness. Advent and Christmas are about reaching out to others, accepting other’s uniqueness, about responding to God’s call.  We are called to “be not afraid” to have the courage to follow where God is calling us. The picture of Joseph and Mary welcoming a newborn into the world is a powerful image of our faith, the story of Emanuel – God is with us, a story of how as family, Joseph and Mary were called and were faithful to God’s call despite the cost in their lives.

Like Joseph who in the Gospel awoke with a message from God we are too all called to be awakened from a kind of sleep.  To be awakened from sleep to hear the call of the Lord.  To shake off our attitudes of selfishness, of being self centered, of ignoring God’s call.  We are called to be awakened to the true values of the Gospel.  To reflect and act on what God is calling us as family to do.  To consider how Mary and Joseph responded to God’s call without question, despite how they might be perceived by society, despite how it might disrupt their lives.    We to are all called!  We are all called to listen to God’s voice within us and to respond faithfully to what God is calling us to do in our lives.   

As we respond to God’s call no act of kindness is too small, every act we take in responding to God’s call – even if it seems insignificant to us is a movement toward God, toward increasing our faith, toward living out Christmas.  Don’t worry about our flaws, imperfections, mistakes or missteps for God is with us! No person or family is perfect.  As we prepare to share the Eucharist let us use these last few days before Christmas to prepare our hearts for Emmanuel – God is with us! 

Let God lead us to be family together, to reach out and share our love and faith with all we encounter.  Let us be family together!