Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A

This Sunday, as well as being the Fourth Sunday of Advent, is also a Day of Prayer for Expectant Mothers.  You can understand why, given that the Gospel today is about St Joseph discovering that Our Lady is pregnant.  In the psalm today it sets before us the example of those who are clean of hands and pure of heart, whose soul is not set on vain things.  We can surely say that this is true of Our Lady.

She is the example for us, as the sinless One who was worthy to be Mother of God.  Whilst St Joseph wasn’t sinless, we can assume that he also was someone who was pure, focused on the things that really matter, rather than distracted by the things of this passing world.  It’s so important that our hearts, too, are correctly ordered, that we have the right priorities and are focused on what is necessary and important.  If, instead, our hearts are focused on vices, such as excessive gambling and drinking, then our lives, our families, and even our society suffer.  But even if that disorder is in our hearts, we know that there is hope with God, hope of renewal, forgiveness and healing.

The early married life of Our Lady and St Joseph reminds us that family life is something beautiful, and it’s sometimes called the Domestic Church, a place where we grow in love, with all that that involves, including having to develop skills of self-control and working to eliminate selfishness in our lives.

Yes, the lessons begin when we are young!  We can’t eat all of the cake – we have to share it.  Learn to share your toys.  We can’t expect to always get our own way.  As we grow older, we have to learn to take others and their opinions into consideration.

As we grow and mature, we have to leave certain childish ways behind.  If you’ve seen the Disney film “Robin Hood”, you’ll know that King John sometimes gets into a temper and even sucks his thumb.  When we are no longer children, we can sometimes still throw a disguised temper tantrum, and it takes a while to unlearn these things.  St Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:11:  “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I gave up childish ways”.  Our mind needs to be in charge of our emotions.

Take a look at St Joseph today.  Can you imagine the turmoil that must have been going through his mind?  There is no temper tantrum, no harsh words.  Initially, using his limited knowledge, he comes to the wrong conclusion and the wrong decision.  But he didn’t rush to action, and God reveals to him in a dream the full story and what was really happening.  You can imagine his relief and joy.  We know this anyway, but we so easily forget, and St Joseph reminds us of the importance of avoiding jumping to conclusions and the need to think with a clear head, rather than being an erupting volcano, where it takes ages to clear up all the mess.

For us, not every apparent crisis will have such an easy and wonderful ending.  But we can take home the message to be level-headed and stay close to God, no matter what the real truth turns out to be.  Ask for the prayers of Our Lady and St Joseph.  God will help us through it all.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk