Fourth Sunday Of Advent, Year A

Sometimes dreams are prompted by impressions and “residues” of the previous day that we take into our sleep, thus Joseph’s dream consists in his waking, conscious desire to protect Mary, preserve his own honor and resolve the dilemma of Mary’s pregnancy by divorcing her quietly. God uses Joseph’s dream to instruct him through the angel who told him what to do.

Joseph went to bed that night not after a heated argument of denouncing Mary or pronouncing to everybody what he intended to do with the outrage of her unexplained pregnancy. In fact, Joseph never even speaks. Character in the midst of confusion; he kept his calm.

To illustrate:

A monk said that sometimes there would be a rush of noisy visitors and the silence of the monastery would be shattered.

This would upset some of the monks; not the Master, who seemed just as content with the noise as with the Silence.

To his protesting disciples he said one day, "Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self."

Joseph’s example tells us to wait on God when things don’t make sense. In the waiting rooms of life we discover what we really believe about God.

2. Our Readings this Sunday deliberately make a comparison between Ahaz and Joseph through their respective “annunciations.” There is a little bit—to— a lot of Ahaz in each of us.

To illustrate:

There was once a one-legged dragon who said to the centipede, “How do you manage all those legs? I have to do all that I can just to manage one leg.” “To tell you the truth,” said the centipede, “I do not manage them at all.”

Joseph accepted what God had in store for him and moved forward in faith. Joseph had previously made up his mind to divorce Mary quietly, but he changed his plans after the angel visited him in his dream.

In contrast, King Ahaz tries to solve his problems by himself without God’s help. So, in our First Reading, the king has gone out to observe what is being done to secure the city’s water supply in case of a siege. This offers the Prophet Isaiah the perfect opportunity to challenge the king to consider what he is doing to secure his kingdom’s relationship with God.

Isaiah says, pick any sign at all that will convince you of God’s love and protection over the city. That is even a better offer than a dream because the solution offered here is happening during waking moments and not during dreaming moments!

Isaiah wants the king to trust that the attack he so much fears will never materialize.

Surprisingly, the king refuses the invitation to trust.

The king already has his plans in place and feels that asking for a sign from God will be an imposition. But the king is making everybody tired and weary with his fears and alarms.

Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen once said, “All worry is atheism, because it is a lack of trust in God.” Why is worry a form of atheism? Because it stems from a focus on earthly things, one’s security and self-protection. Worry is rooted in a self-centered life.

The same sign given to Ahaz and Joseph is given to you and me. "The virgin has conceived and has given birth to a Son. And He is Emmanuel. God with us." His name is Jesus.

How often do we listen to God and allow God to speak to us?

The two reactions between Joseph and King Ahaz to God helping shows that we may wrestle with the different ways God’s love is seeking to save us and empower us in the midst of our struggles and challenges.

Joseph shows us that the path through problems does not lie a bottle or tobacco. It is first of all in following God’s law and to be open to any new initiative God might be attempting in us, and whether we listen to our intuitive side, our dreams.

In Ignatian Spirituality it is often said that God’s deepest desires for us are our own deepest desires.

E.g. A Jesuit priest wrote:

Sometimes in Jesuit life, you might find yourself lacking the desire for something that you want to desire.

Let’s say you are living in a comfortable Jesuit community and have scant contact with the poor. You may say, “I know I’m supposed to want to live simply and work with the poor, but I have no desire to do this.” Or perhaps you know that you should want to be more generous, more loving, more forgiving, but don’t desire it. How can you pray for that with honesty?

In reply, Ignatius would ask, “Do you have the desire for this desire?” Even if you don’t want it, do you want to want it? Do you wish that you were the kind of person that wanted this? Even this can be seen as an invitation from God. It is a way of glimpsing God’s invitation even in the faintest traces of desire.

Amen.