\u00c2\u00a0 December 23, 2007<\/p>\n
Homily<\/p>\n
4th<\/sup> Sunday of Advent<\/p>\n Is 7:10-14; Rom 1: 1-7; Mt 1: 18-24<\/p>\n Dc. Larry Brockman<\/p>\n Whatever happened to Obedience specifically, religious obedience?\u00c2\u00a0 It seems to be missing from today’s vocabulary.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Many people nowadays pick and choose what they will accept as part of their faith.\u00c2\u00a0 Abortion, the Real Presence in the Eucharist, the need to come to Mass weekly, the Immaculate Conception, divorce for convenience, are all good examples.\u00c2\u00a0 There are Church teachings in each of these areas that are matters of faith. \u00c2\u00a0Yet somehow our society has changed our way of thinking about Faith.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe it’s because our educational system teaches us to question everything as individuals, especially to question authority.\u00c2\u00a0 We are not taught to just believe and be obedient any more. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Yet, when it comes to matters of Faith, that is exactly what we are supposed to do.\u00c2\u00a0 God wants us to be obedient to him just because he says so.\u00c2\u00a0 That obedience is essential because only through obedience can we accomplish God’s will-\u00c2\u00a0 the establishment of the Kingdom of God.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, we can never know the mind of God;\u00c2\u00a0 So, we should have no expectation to fully understand the why, how, and intricate details of God’s law or will.\u00c2\u00a0 God just wants us to believe, and to be obedient.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s readings emphasize that kind of obedience, the kind of obedience that follows faith.\u00c2\u00a0 As Paul says: “Through him we have received the grace of Apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith”.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, when you have faith in God, then you love Him and trust Him.\u00c2\u00a0 John’s Gospel emphasizes that if you Love God, then you do His will.\u00c2\u00a0 That means you are obedient to Him, whether you understand his law or not and whether it’s convenient or not.\u00c2\u00a0 That is the obedience of faith.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Contrast the events in today’s two readings- OT and Gospel\u00c2\u00a0 First, Joseph’s story is a wonderful example of the obedience of faith.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine being in Joseph’s shoes.\u00c2\u00a0 You find that your betrothed is with child.\u00c2\u00a0 Your culture says that you can dismiss her.\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed, Joseph was going to quietly divorce her rather than expose her shame.\u00c2\u00a0 But then, Joseph had a dream.\u00c2\u00a0 He was told by the angel that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.\u00c2\u00a0 Joseph believed, and accepted Mary and the child.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, there is no way that Joseph could have understood the supernatural nature of Mary’s pregnancy. \u00c2\u00a0Jesus conception through the Holy Spirit has been studied by the great theologians for 2000 years.\u00c2\u00a0 And in all that time, nobody has fully understood how it could happen.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, many have questioned it, and fallen away in faith.\u00c2\u00a0 But Joseph did not question it.\u00c2\u00a0 He believed, and was obedient to God’s will as given by the angel.\u00c2\u00a0 Joseph did not challenge the angel for an explanation.\u00c2\u00a0 He did not have to understand why.\u00c2\u00a0 For Joseph, it was enough that God had communicated His will.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Now consider the story about Ahaz.\u00c2\u00a0 Ahaz was a king of Judah in Isaiah’s time.\u00c2\u00a0 Ahaz had seen the Northern Kingdom of Israel consumed by the Assyrian enemy.\u00c2\u00a0 Isaiah prophesied that everything would be OK as long as the Southern Kingdom of Judah believed and followed the Lord.\u00c2\u00a0 But Ahaz did not buy it. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0In fact, he made an alliance with the Egyptians to protect himself.\u00c2\u00a0 In short, Ahaz did not trust in the Lord, he had no faith, and he was not obedient.\u00c2\u00a0 Ahaz did not ask for a sign because he had his own path plotted to follow.\u00c2\u00a0 And he didn’t want to consider an alternative.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet, the Lord gave him a sign- confirming that the Lord would be with him if he put his trust in the Lord.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a sign Ahaz and his successor ignored none the less.\u00c2\u00a0 So, this lack of obedience led to the Babylonian exile.\u00c2\u00a0 And a permanent rupture in the Jewish Kingdom on earth.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n These two readings make a very clear point.\u00c2\u00a0 We must accept the whole of our faith, and be obedient to the Lord.\u00c2\u00a0 Because only through obedience do we build the kingdom of God.\u00c2\u00a0 Joseph believed, and through his obedience, Jesus was born and He established his Kingdom.\u00c2\u00a0 Ahaz did not believe, was not obedient, and the old kingdom fell apart.\u00c2\u00a0 At this special time of the year, we will be gathering to celebrate that coming of Christ the King at Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 It is a time for us to resolve to believe in the miracle of the incarnation.\u00c2\u00a0 And not only the incarnation, but the whole of our faith; and then to resolve to be obedient, as a Church, to our Faith.\u00c2\u00a0 As a community, we can and will be able to build the Kingdom of God.\u00c2\u00a0 We cannot envision how; but we don’t have to.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s God’s vision that is important.\u00c2\u00a0 And that same God, through Jesus, will direct us, his co-workers to build the Kingdom.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n During World War II, a church in Frankfurt, Germany, was heavily damaged by bombs. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0At war’s end the parishioners began repairing. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0One badly broken object was a statue of Christ. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0They finally found and put together all the parts, except the hands. \u00c2\u00a0After considerable debate and discussion about engaging a sculptor to make a new pair of hands, the people of the parish decided to leave the statue without hands. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And they put a plaque beneath it that reads: “Christ has no hands but our hands.”\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00c2\u00a0 December 23, 2007 Homily 4th Sunday of Advent Is 7:10-14; Rom 1: 1-7; Mt 1: 18-24 Dc. Larry Brockman Whatever happened to Obedience specifically, religious obedience?\u00c2\u00a0 It seems to be missing from today’s vocabulary.\u00c2\u00a0 Many people nowadays pick and choose what they will accept as part of their faith.\u00c2\u00a0 Abortion, the Real Presence in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}