December 18, 2009
Reading 1 Jer 23:5-8
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;
As king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
“The LORD our justice.”
Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD,
when they shall no longer say, “As the LORD lives,
who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt”;
but rather, "As the LORD lives,
who brought the descendants of the house of Israel
up from the land of the north”–
and from all the lands to which I banished them;
they shall again live on their own land.
Responsorial Psalm
72:1-2, 12-13, 18-19
R. (see 7) Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous deeds.
And blessed forever be his glorious name;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory. R.
Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Gospel Mt 1:18-25
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“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 be with child 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.
He had no relations with her until she bore a son,
and he named him Jesus.
………….
In the first reading today, we hear the prophet Jeremiah look back to the great journey of the Children of Israel from Egypt through 40 years of wandering in the desert to their promised land. And then he looks forward to their taking another journey from exile in Babylon, around the desert and back to their own land.
These were great journeys in salvation history, journeys which formed and changed God’s people.
In the Gospel today we hear the middle part of the story of Jesus’ birth. We have already heard about Mary. Now we hear about Joseph, and how he too follows the will of God by accepting Mary mysteriously pregnant as his own wife, a leap of faith and the beginning of his great journey.
Our Journey through Advent is almost over. One week left only; a week from today is Christmas. Will our journey be over then, on December 25th ?
For Joseph and Mary, as their time of waiting wound down for the birth of their child, they had to begin a journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, to register for the census. As the roads went, this would have been about 80 miles, a four day journey for a healthy couple traveling briskly. But for a woman about to give birth traveling on a donkey without shock absorbers or a McPherson strut suspension system, and traveling on roads choked with many people heading off to their ancestral homes for the census, their journey would have taken a week or more. By now, one week to the day before Jesus birth, they would have been on the road in the midst of the journey which would change lives and even history.
Journeys are like that. They can change lives. You never know what to expect on a journey; any one can be full of surprises.
Surely Mary and Joseph expected to find in Bethlehem a decent place to stay, where Mary would be comfortable. But that’s not the way it turned out. There was no room in the inn. The worst things I ever had to do as a hotel employee or manager was to send people away who arrived late and we had no room. In New York I once had to send people to Newark, New Jersey because every hotel in New York City and closer was absolutely full. That Bethlehem manager was sharp. Mary & Joseph got to stay in the garage. I never thought of that solution.
It was no surprise the baby Jesus came in the midst of their travels. They surely expected that. But when a group of shepherds came into the garage to pay their respects, that had to have been a surprise. But not as surprising as 3 strange magi from the East bringing valuable gifts.
How long Mary and Joseph stay in Bethlehem we don’t know, but we do know they had to quickly change plans and take a long detour of distance and time to escape into Egypt. That surely was not in their original itinerary, but made quite necessary by the circumstances. And only made possible because Joseph again listened to the angel’s message.
What a strange Christmas journey.
Our Christmas journeys are more predictable. Our flight may get delayed, cancelled or rerouted. There may be a snowstorm which closes sections of the highway we are on. Annoyances, inconveniences.
But perhaps something else may happen on your Christmas journey. It did to me once.
Every year I would drive home for Christmas, about 450 miles, from Washington DC to Rochester NY. The hotels were slow, so I could take time off. I find long drives relaxing, so I looked forward to the 9 hour drive through the growing hills of Maryland up into Pennsylvania and along the Susquehanna River Valley until I turned north up into the Mountains taking winding roads into southern New York State, and then through the Finger Lakes region into Rochester.
The scenery was majestic. There was always snow and the little towns along the way looked like Christmas cards or Currier & Ives prints. On my long drives I would pump up the volume & listen to music. Even though I had long ago left the Church and Christ, I still liked Christmas and Christmas music.
So this one year I was listening to parts of Handel’s Messiah and Christmas Carols as I traveled on a narrow stretch of road pinned between the mountains and the Susquehanna River, when a thundering thought entered my mind, and gripped my attention. It was a question I could not avoid. I tried to but the thought became more insistent and demanding. This thought was demanding to know…what did I really, honestly, think about Jesus Christ ? I was so uncomfortable but I couldn’t escape answering, and I knew my answer was important. So I did answer, and admitted to myself and that voice in my head that I truly believed Jesus Christ was God. Once I admitted that, I knew I had to act on what I believed, and come back to His Church. That journey changed my life.
Journeys are like that. They can change lives. I have heard about one of you, how a journey last summer to California changed your thinking about your life and changed the course of your education.
For us all, all of you…your journey through advent is almost over. One week left only; a week from today is Christmas. Will your journey be over ? I hope not.
Our whole life is a journey toward God, toward realizing and being with fully with God. That doesn’t happen if you stay at home bound up in your self. Have you really begun your journey ? If not, what are you waiting for ?
For your journey, pack intelligently; don’t over pack. Carrying around too much baggage is exhausting, especially if you have to change plans or make a detour. Travel as light as you can. Luggage often gets lost. And on the way don’t overspend on souvenirs or seeming bargains from all those outlets.That stuff loads and slows you down.
You don’t have to travel alone. There’s strength in numbers. I was lucky. I went out on my own in my life’s journey, got lost, but God came after me.
Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. That is what we celebrate on Christmas; and what we prepare for during Advent especially, but every day, for God to be with us, you and me, God with me…each of us.
Therefore all of us here can travel together and help each other; if we stick together no one gets lost. That’s what the Church is all about. And we get a group rate.
Last night we- the Church-began the serious final week preparation for Christmas. We sang the first of the O Antiphons, each of which comes immediately before we sing Mary’s hymn…“My Soul filled with the wonder of God rejoices in God my Savior.” Each of these antiphons teaches us something about God the Savior of which we should be filled. The first Antiphon is “O Wisdom.”
It is Wisdom that gets us through life’s journey safely. It was wisdom that persuaded Joseph to accept those counterintuitive directions of the angels. Wisdom is a road map. Wisdom is traveling lightly. Wisdom is staying together. Wisdom in not panicking if you take a wrong turn, because with Wisdom you will know how to get back to where you belong. Wisdom isn’t book smarts or First Honors; Wisdom is walking the walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem rejoicing all the way.
Each of us has our journey. Each of us has our Nazareth from which we set out. Each of us has our Bethlehem in which God will be born in us in this world. Each of us will be – if we stay on the road of our journey – another Christ; a healer, a teacher, a warrior, a prophet, a king or a priest. Each of us will have our cross and each of us our resurrection. And we will all end up – if we follow our journey to the end- in the same place, in the eternal bliss of shared unity with the Triune God and all those other saints who have seen their journey through to the end.
Christmas is seven days away. Bethlehem is 80 miles away. We had better be on our way.
May you arrive safely, joyfully and find rest in our Lord Jesus Christ who was born to save you and to be born again in you. Come, let us adore him.
Laus Tibi Domine.
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