Fourth Sunday of Advent-Cycle A

My Dear Friends in Christ,

We have come to the final Sunday of Advent, and thus the beginning of the final week of preparation for the coming of the Savior at Christmas. We have entered the drama of these four weeks and like all good dramas, it has had its moments of mystery, difficulty and joy. We began this Advent Season with a lesson on awareness, being told that we must be on watch so that we might be ready to respond to the invitation to take part in what C. S. Lewis called a great campaign of sabotage devised by our God in order to rescue the world from the powers of darkness and death (Mere Christianity, Harper Collins, 46). On the Second Sunday of Advent, we were told of our need to repent in order that we might be able to follow the plan of the One Who desires to save the world. Having been made aware of this need we were then fitted for our role in this great campaign by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which enable us to participate more fully in the life of the One Who Is Virtue Itself, Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 1:24). Last Sunday, we were exhorted to remain steadfast in our preparation to take part in this great plan, for though the preparations we make are difficult, the joy we shall experience in its fulfillment will far outweigh the difficulties we face now, making of the struggles themselves happy reminders of the energy we put into pulling this off! This weekend, as we prepare to welcome our leader a week from now, we gather together for one last team meeting, as it were, so that we might have our faith deepened by knowing that our roles have been well thought out beforehand, and we need only execute them.

Some of the most memorable moments of sports history are the locker-room pep-talks given by coaches to players to prepare them for a big game. Think here of Knute Rockne’s “Go Go Go” speech, or of Herb Brooks’ speech to the 1980 US hockey team (dramatically portrayed by Kurt Russell in the 2004 film “Miracle”). Both men were known to be something like great showmen, or statesmen, able to paint a picture for their players that detailed how their preparation had gotten them to this moment in time and it was up to them to seize the deciding moment before them. Kurt Russell begins his portrayal of Herb Brooks’ speech by saying, “Great moments are born from great opportunity and that’s what you have here tonight boys; that’s what you’ve earned here tonight.” These words echo Rockne’s, who, near the beginning of the “Go Go Go” tells his players, “These are the fellows they say are pretty good; but I think we’re better! And I think if we get ourselves keyed up to a point, and when we’re confident of that … why-y-y the results will take care of themselves.” Both men go on to tell their players that their preparation will enable them to reach victory, and that if they but play their respective roles, they will be successful. Rockne reminds his men that “the success of any team men is based on team-play — the same as you’ve shown all year –: Sacrifice; unselfish sacrifice!” For his part, Brooks reassures his team, “Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world.” He quickly proceeds to rhetorically prove this to them by telling them, “you were born to be hockey players, every one of you, and you were meant to be here tonight! This is your time. Their time is done…this is your time!” Rockne speaks in a very similar way when he tells his players, “today is the day we’re gonna win. They can’t lick us — and that’s how it goes… The first platoon men — go in there and fight, fight, fight, fight, fight! What do you say, men!” You see, these leaders knew that if they were going to lead their teams to victory, the players must be reminded that they had been prepared for this moment, because only this faith would instill in them the confidence to play up to their capabilities, and seize victory.

We might look at the readings we are given today as God doing something similar through the voices of his messengers. For example, our first reading from the book of Isaiah takes place during a crisis period in the history of the people of Israel. The kingdom had been split in two after the reign of Solomon. The Northern Kingdom becoming known as Israel and the Southern Kingdom as Judah. Divided, the two nations now jockeyed for position on the international stage separately as Assyria threatened to take over the entire region. In order to defend themselves from Assyrian invasion, Israel formed a coalition with Aram, a coalition which Judah refused to become part of. Because of their refusal, Israel and Aram had turned their sights on Judah, planning to invade and set up a puppet king who would join the coalition. This is the context of the conversation we see taking place between King Ahaz and Isaiah today. 

Isaiah comes to Ahaz to remind him that God intends to protect his plan for a son of David to reign in Jerusalem. However, Ahaz is placing his hope on his fidelity to Assyria and not God to protect Israel. For this reason, when Isaiah asks him to name a sign that God will give to reassure him, Ahaz responds that he will not tempt the Lord (Isaiah 7:12). Ahaz is not being pious, he is being faithless and for this reason Isaiah responds, “Listen house of David! Is it not enough that you weary human beings? Must you also weary my God?” (Isaiah 7:13). Isaiah goes on to give Ahaz a sign that will be proof of God’s presence and faithfulness anyhow, saying “the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Biblical scholars note that the text here proclaiming a virgin conception and birth has been altered by the Greek translators in order to correspond more directly with the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, and that the original Hebrew reads “young woman,” thus possibly indicating Isaiah’s wife. However, the Church has always read the text as foretelling the conception and birth of Christ in the Virgin Mary.

The prophecy therefore takes on a double-dimension of sorts. In the first place, it is important to read the text in its historical context. Thus, in all likelihood, Isaiah had the birth of his own child in mind. However, this does not negate further exegesis of the text through the use of what are known as spiritual senses. Thus, while the prophet had one thing in mind, the Holy Spirit, Who Is the Divine Author of the text, knows that both the words and the actual historical event of Isaiah’s wife contain a deeper spiritual significance as well. This becomes clear if we read the text figurally in the light of Christ. When we do, we find that just as the childbearing of Isaiah’s wife was a sign of God’s salvific plans for Judah, that plan is definitively fulfilled in the virgin birth of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, from the Virgin Mary some 700 years later.

This reading is confirmed by the words of the Angel Gabriel to Joseph in our Gospel for today from Matthew. As the text tells us, upon hearing the Mary was with child, Joseph was concerned about what it is that he should do (Matthew 1:18-19). Of course, Joseph knew the child was not his. However, we are told that because Joseph was a righteous man, a just man, he did not wish to expose Mary to public humiliation, and thus, decided to divorce her quietly (Matthew 1:19). We see the virtues of prudence and justice wonderfully exemplified by Joseph here. In contrast to King Ahaz, who made decisions based on his trust in the Assyrians, Joseph keeps his eye steadily on his relationship with God. Consequently, he prudently discerns what course of action conforms to Christian justice, which can be briefly summarized by the twofold command to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40). Having every right by the worldly standards of the day to humiliate Mary, and worse, by exposing what he at the time assumed was a gross act of infidelity, Joseph chooses the path of Divine Love. In Joseph’s plan to dismiss Mary quietly (Matthew 1:19), we see something of Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery foreshadowed. One day Jesus would challenge the woman’s accusers by asking the one who was without sin to cast the first stone (John 8:7). Similarly, the just man Joseph, by the grace of God knows he is not without sin either, for even the just man sins seven times (Proverbs 24:16). Accordingly, he casts not even a verbal stone at Mary. Instead, as his adopted Son does for the woman caught in adultery, through his actions Joseph says to Mary, I do not condemn you, but “go your way, and from now on do not sin again” (John 8:11).

What a difference from what we might expect from men or women today! Wronged by their spouse (and Joseph had not reason to believe that anything less had happened), many today are happy to drag the other’s name through the mud, believing that somehow defaming them upholds their dignity. However, as a righteous and just man, Joseph strove to play his part in the order with which God created all things. And, because he thought with the mind of God (Philippians 2:5), he realized that setting himself over and against Mary by her gained nothing for anyone. Moreover, it is precisely because Joseph is already seeking to do God’s will in this situation that he is ready and willing to hear God’s message spoken to him through an angel. And thus, when he hears that God had designed this plan in which he asked Joseph to play a part in, he quickly discerns his role by obediently responding to the message of the angel. “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, he took [Mary] as his wife…” (Matthew 1:24).

The idea that God has a plan for saving the world through the Incarnation, Passion, death and Resurrection of His Son played a central role in the theology of the Church Fathers. For several, this idea is expressed in terms of what they called “the economy of salvation.” The word “economy” here is taken from the Greek oikonomia, meaning household management. Thus, when thinkers like Irenaeus of Lyons, Cyril of Alexandria, or Maximus the Confessor speak of the economy of salvation, they have in mind God’s providential ordering of His work from creation to re-creation, or salvation. Accordingly, Irenaeus writes that though God lacked nothing, realizing that creation could not exist save in communion with him, “sketched out, like an architect, the plan of salvation…” (Against the Heresies, Bk 4.14.2). Moreover, these thinkers wanted to reassure their listeners that though God had executed the plan of salvation in the Son, they too had an irreplaceable role to play in order for God’s plan unfold within history. Cyril, likewise calling God an architect, writes that it is imperative to believe in the Incarnation of the Son if ‘we are to continue down the royal road’ (On the Unity of Christ), a road which the Son has paved for us and which only leads to one place, unity with Him.

My friends, this weekend God reminds us that he has a plan for the salvation of the world, a plan which continues to be carried out by Christ in our time and place through the Church, His Body. And just as all the members of a body must act as a team in order to carry out the plans made in the head, we too must play our role in order that all those around us might come to the only place that they might have the fullness of life, in loving unity with our Creator. God always brings salvation to His people in cooperation with human agents. The whole of salvation history testifies to this reality, think here of Noah, Moses, and David, who each in their own unique roles bring God’s plans to fulfillment by harmoniously cooperating with His will. The Season of Advent has presented us with even more examples. Just think, if John the Baptist, Joseph, or Mary had said no, God’s plan would not have been executed in the way it was, and the whole of salvation history would have been altered. That’s how much God entrusts to our efforts.

So, what do ya say folks! God has been preparing us to play our role in the economy of salvation over the last four weeks and the time to give ourselves totally to it is now, the time to seize the moment is now, the fullness of time is before us now! Next week we will commemorate the fullness of time in God’s economy of salvation, the time when our God became man, ‘taking all that was ours to be his very own so that we might have all that was his’ (St. Cyril of Alexandria, On the Unity of Christ). Our God has a game plan, and make no mistake about it, He has a role for you in it. The world’s time is over, now is Christ’s time, your time, the time to give all you have to the Love that comes to meet you bringing with him the fullness of life, his very self, as your gift of victory!

Your servant in Christ,

Tony