Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B

Advent Is An Adventure

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, December 24, 2023

To understand the importance of Mary, who is significantly an Advent figure, we have to look at the story of Adam and Eve. In the Book of Genesis, we are told that God placed our first parents in a garden and gave them practically free reins to eat all the fruits in the garden except for one. The garden stands for science, philosophy, literature, sports, business, politics, and all the things that make human life on earth rich and wonderful. God wants us to be fully alive. In the words of the Church Father St. Irenaeus, “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.” God wants us to flourish. Sadly, the secular mindset hyper-stresses the prohibition of eating from one tree over the permission to enjoy the garden completely. Why does God order Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?, the secular mind asks. In their calculation, God does not want us to be fully alive. God wants to limit us. In fact, God is a rival and if you eat of that tree, you will be like God and God will resent it. Who is the origin of this kind of mindset, the mindset of total freedom without any interference? The devil. In the Book of Genesis, that is precisely how the devil interprets it. Coming to the woman (Eve), the devil argues, “God knows well that when you eat of it (the forbidden fruit in the garden) your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). In other words, God is jealous of you. God does not really want you to be really free. Hence, you must grasp from him or else he dominates you. You must take what God does not want to give you. But the reason for God’s prohibition of one tree is that the best things in life come to us, when, at the end of our striving, at the end of what we can accomplish, we receive them as gifts. God is not keeping anything from our first parents— that’s the old false myth. Rather he wants them to be fully alive, and that can happen only when they accept the gift. What is Original Sin? It is to grasp things originally meant to be received as gifts. That’s Original Sin and from it comes all the sufferings of the human race.

In today’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel greets Mary, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” Sensing that Mary is troubled by the greeting, the angel assures her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” As she is about to take a breather, the angel drops a spiritual bomb on her, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” At the end of the story, Mary surrenders, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” In the most popular Catholic prayer, we say, “Hail Mary full of grace.” The word grace, “gratia” in Latin means a gift freely given. Mary is addressed as someone who is out to receive gifts. She is full of grace. She is someone who is ready to receive. What is the problem of Adam and Eve? They grasp at God, but Mary says, “Let it be done to me.” She is ready to receive gifts. Upon hearing that she is going to become the Mother of the Son of God,  Mary’s questions, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” Notice that the angel’s promise raised the curiosity of Mary. Her mind is alive. God wants us to fully use all the powers of our mind, and that’s what Mary did. Attending Mary’s curiosity, the angel tells her something, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” I tell you, that’s the language of grace. It means, Mary, you will be taken somewhere you cannot go on your own. God is not trying to put us down or to suppress us. God is trying to elevate us to the place where we cannot reach on our own. Mary is allowing herself to be carried by a higher power. What’s in your life that is preventing God’s grace from carrying you to the place you cannot go on your own? What’s causing you spiritual paralysis, unable to move to Christ and the Church? Is it doubt? Fear and anger? Resentment and bitterness? Is it ignorance of the faith or self-reproach? Like the Blessed Mother Mary, open wide your mouth and say, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done for me according to your word.” Remember, the heart of the spiritual life is knowing that your life is not about you. If you live according to this principle, your entire life will change for the glory of God. 

Speaking further, the Holy Spirit said, “And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” The Danish philosopher and theologian, Soren Kierkegaard said, “Faith is the passion for the impossible.” It does not mean passion for the irrational, rather a willingness to be entertained and to be fed that which my mind cannot grasp on its own. It is a willingness for adventure. Things you never believed are possible are possible by the power of God. Mary is the paradigm of Advent faith. The beautiful story of Annunciation ends with Mary’s fiat, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done for me according to your word.” Eve grasps, but Mary surrenders to the alluring power of the Holy Spirit: “Let it be done to me.” Mary’s power was not suppressed, rather she got herself ready for adventure. And Advent is an adventure. We are waiting for the arrival of the Son of God. We must be willing to be taken by the Son of God where we cannot go on our own. 

Merry Christmas, everybody!