Sunday, December 22, 2013

Homily: 4th Sunday of Advent - 3 Lessons from St. Joseph



It is so fitting that on this  4th Sunday of Advent, with the DRAMA of Christmas so close, that we concentrate on a person without whom the Christmas story we so cherish would not be possible.  But a person often ignored in our Christmas celebration: St. Joseph. 

We are very familiar with the story of the archangel Gabriel coming to Mary; every time we pray the Hail Mary, we are borrowing the words of the archangel Gabriel, when he came to announce God’s will that Mary of Nazareth become mother of God incarnate.

Today we heard in Matthew’s Gospel, how the archangel also announced to St. Joseph how it was God’s will that he take this pregnant virgin into his home and care for her. 

I propose we can learn three important and practical lessons from St. Joseph in these final days of Advent as we prepare for the coming of Christ.

First, St. Joseph is a man of silence, he teaches us the importance of silence.  How many words recorded from the lips of St. Joseph can we find in Scripture?  None!  Not a word.  He doesn’t say anything.  He is a man of silence.  Mary does all the talking.  Maybe that’s why St. Joseph is the patron saint of husbands…
Reminds me of the story of the Irishman who died.  He had two sons.  One lived in America, the other in Ireland.  When the son in America heard his father was dying, he made haste to his family home in Ireland only to find that his father had already died.  He asked his brother, did dad have any last words?  And the brother said, what do you think, mom was with him to the very end!

St. Joseph teaches us the importance of silence because God loves silence.  You know who hates silence and loves noise?  The devil!  He loves shouting, clamoring, arguing, blaming, complaining. Our culture too abhors silence.  it always needs to be distracted and noisy.  These new iphones and portable electronic devices are so dangerous because we fail in learning how to sit in silence.  But God loves silence, and the saints, especially Joseph teach us to love silence. 

Someone once asked St. Padre Pio, “What language does God speak?” And Padre Pio said, “God speaks silence”.  The person said, but what language should I pray in, what language does God understand best, and Padre Pio said, “silence”.

Pope Francis this week celebrated Mass with a group of American Priests.  And in his homily he said, ““May the Lord give us all the grace to love silence”

You’ve probably heard the story about St. John Vianney, in his little parish Church in Ars, France.  He would often see this humble man who would come in to the church every day and just sit there in the back pew and stare at the tabernacle.  Fr. Vianney was very moved by this and approached him one day, and said, “tell me my son, what do you say to the Lord when you pray?”  And the man said, I don’t say anything, I just look at Him and he looks at me.

There is a danger in our prayer lives where we do more talking than listening.  Praying the rosary can be so powerful, offering novena prayers can be so powerful, praying the Church’s liturgy of the hours is powerful, but we also need prayer time, every day, where we just sit in silence, turning our heart and mind to God.
One of my favorite times of the year is on Christmas Eve, after the craziness of early Mass in those quiet hours before midnight Mass, to enter into the calm and the peace of the holy night, entering into the silence where God speaks his Word.  The song ‘Silent Night’ still remains one of the popular Christmas hymns, which reminds us the need to become silent as we contemplate the Christmas mysteries.

In these final Advent days, we do well to imitate St. Joseph, the quiet man, standing and gazing upon Mary holding the newborn savior in her arms, in ineffable silence.
So lesson number one.  Do not be afraid of entering with St. Joseph into the silence in order to encounter God.

Lesson number two.  St. Joseph teaches us that actions speak louder than words.  

Jesus himself gave a teaching on this when he said, not everyone that calls out “lord, lord” will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my heavenly Father.  I wonder if Jesus was thinking of his earthly father, St. Joseph, a quiet man, but a man of great action, when he gave that teaching. 
In the Gospel today we hear how Joseph awoke from his dream of the archangel, and immediately did as the Lord had commanded him: he took Mary into his home. 

St. Joseph reminds us that the Christian life isn’t about giving God lip service.  That when the Lord calls upon us to reach out to someone in need, we are to respond generously—that all of our  time, talent, and treasure is to be put into God’s service, holding nothing back.

Finally, God asked some very difficult things of St. Joseph.  He was to take this pregnant women into his home, not knowing who the father was, he was to protect her as they journeyed to Bethlehem; he found shelter in a stable when no inn would admit them, protected the holy family as they fled Israel as refugees to Egypt when King Herod sent his soldiers to slaughter the Christ child. 

Tough things that God asked Joseph to do, just as he often asks tough things of us.  But we are reminded that God never calls us to do tough things without giving us the grace to do them.  God’s grace, his closeness, his comfort is there in those tough times, when we need to resist temptation, when we need to speak the hard truth to a loved one who is making poor choices, when we need to fight against an injustice, when we need to adjust to the death of a loved one.

I think of married couples going through a particularly rough patch in their marriage.  Through the Sacrament of Marriage, God grace assists husband and wife to remain faithful to their wedding vows, in loving each other in good times and in bad in sickness and in health.

St. Joseph reminds us that through those rough times, we learn to trust in God all the more, and he refines us like gold in a furnace. 

St. Joseph truly helps us to prepare for Christmas, by teaching us to enter into the silence, challenging some of our complacencies, and learning to trust in God’ 



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