He’s Looking For A Suitable Place To Be Born Again!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A

St. Mary of Assumption Church, Whittier, CA

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Friends, today we celebrate the Fourth and the last Sunday of Advent. In today’s Gospel (1:18-24), Matthew emphasizes the fact that Jesus was born through the action of the Holy Spirit. Mary became pregnant without the involvement of Joseph, whom she was betrothed to. When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he planned to divorce her quietly. Why quietly? As an upright man, he did not want to make a public ridicule and spectacle of Mary. He did not want to expose her to shame, disgrace and possibly death by stoning. It was a terrible man’s world where women were hardly regarded nor respected. But before Joseph could carry out his secret plan, God intervened and saved the situation. Through an angel, God told Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary into his home as his wife, that even though she was pregnant, her baby boy will save his people from their sins. The angel also communicated to Joseph the name the child should be given: “…you are to name him Jesus.” Matthew then adds that the birth of Jesus will fulfill what God said through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” 

In the ancient time, people believed that God was hidden and distant. They believed that God was unknown, his actions and involvement in world affairs were unknown too. In one sense, God is indeed hidden because he is a Spirit that cannot be seen physically (John 4:24). The idea of God as hidden and distant can even be seen in the Sacred Scripture: “Awake O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rise up! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face; why do you forget our pain and misery? For our soul has been humiliated in the dust; our belly is pressed to the earth. Rise up, help! Redeem us in your mercy” (Psalm 44: 24-27). In times of difficulty, we want to see, by sight, the glory and presence of God. But God is a Spirit Being that cannot be seen through the sense of sight. Only those who possess faith can see God. “Walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), St. Paul urges us.

Our faith teaches us that God is with us. The good news is no longer that God is coming, but that God is now here. The almighty God is with us. In Jesus, God has migrated from heaven to earth. In Jesus, God has manifested and revealed himself in human flesh to humanity. Through Jesus, he has made the earth, an extension of his Kingdom. In Jesus we see the love, the compassion, the mercy and the holiness of God. With the coming of Jesus, the time of guessing is over, and the time to believe has come. Jesus came to expose us to the truth about God. God is not distant. He’s not unknown and hidden. He is with us! 

What’s God’s mission on earth? Did he come to punish us? Did he come to act like a cop? Did he come to stare us in the face? None of the above. God comes to save us. The name given to his begotten Son is “Jesus” which means, “God saves!” We are not damned people. We are B.A.D people— Blessed And Delivered people. God comes to love us, not because we are lovely, but because he is lovely. Even before we love him, he has loved us. God is with us in every step of the way. We can never walk alone or be alone. He’s always with us to save us. But we have to let him! We should not keep him waiting. It was when Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem, the city of David, for census, that Mary went into labor. Unable to find a suitable place to give birth to her Son, they went into a place where animals were kept. It was there that Jesus was born. Today, Jesus is still looking for a suitable place— human hearts, where he can be born again. Are we going to make our hearts a suitable, pure and holy locus for the Son of God to be born again? The first place Jesus was born was not suitable at all. A place where animals were kept cannot be suitable for an adult to stay, let alone a new born child. The manger, where Mary placed him, after wrapping him in swaddling clothes cannot be comfortable too. But we can provide him a more suitable and comfortable place  to be born again— our hearts!