What the Poor Shepherd Said...

(Fr. Andrew’s Homily for Sunday, December 24th, 2023)

Christmas is around the corner. Most of things are probably already planned, organized for welcoming family members in our homes. Last preparations are perhaps under way, or soon to come, and some of you may have come to this celebration with a lot in your mind and a great deal of stress... Let us try to pause. Let us try. God understands if you cannot. His Blessed Mother and St. Joseph were very worried with their own last minute preparations.

In Advent we have tried to get ready for Christmas, and this Sunday is our last shot. Too late? It is never late. A thief could get ready in one hour for heaven: the Good Thief. We have more time than him. And we are not expecting death, but the birth of Life. The Church proposes as today, on the fourth Sunday of Advent, the example of Mary. How did Mary welcome Jesus in her life?

1.  She discerned the message. Mary realized perhaps immediately that the message was coming from God, but She did not know what it meant for Her. “What does this greeting mean?” Mary would have never accepted a message which was not from God. We sometimes do not even realize that some of the messages we hear in our minds are not coming from God. Temptations look always like good ideas: that is why we feel tempted. But temptations come from the devil and therefore we should not follow them. My point is, we must discern seemingly good ideas (even when they are not temptations) if we really want to do the will of God.

Suppose you already know a good idea comes from God. “It is in the Bible,” you may say, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But, still, what does that mean for you, in particular? Does it mean that, for example, you have to give this much money to the poor and take away something from what your own family really needs? I am just giving an example. What is important is that we need to discern not only if a message comes from God or not, but what that message means for us in particular. This is what Mary did: “What does this greeting mean?”

2.  She discerned also the way to fulfill Her mission. Once Mary knew what God wanted for her, that She be the Mother of God’s Son, She asked how to go about it. She didn’t ask, like Zechariah, for a miracle to proof the Angel’s veracity. Mary asked for instructions as to how She would become the Mother of the Lord. Mary knew how children come about, but She also knew that God had called Her to consecrate Her virginity to Him. So, “how can this be?”, She asks.

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” said the Angel. Sometimes we know what God wants from us but we do not do it because we lack strength. We know that God would like us to come closer to Him, but we feel too weak to accept the challenge... “How could this be? How could I do that?” We also should hear the Angel’s message: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you... Nothing will be impossible for God.” You cannot do it, you are not strong enough: you are right. God knows. But He wants to send the Holy Spirit upon you to help you.

In God’s plan, our job is, first of all, to realize that we are not going to make it without God. “How can this be?” Not without God’s help! The Blessed Virgin could not be the mother of God without God’s intervention: we sinners will not bring forth the good works which God has prepared for us without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. We need to open ourselves to His action through prayer, through the sacrament of Reconciliation, through a greater openness to God’s word for us.

3.  She accepted God’s will and gave Herself entirely to it. Suppose that you know what God wants for you and you also know how to do it. This is not enough: you need to step in the game. The Shepherds knew that the Messiah was born: Angels had told them so and had told them also how to find Him. They ran to meet Him. They were asleep, like we are sometimes asleep in our comfort zone, in our superficiality, in our sins. But the Savior of the world was born, and the Savior of the world had sent angels to wake them up: they felt touched. A shepherd could have said:

“God Himself wants me to see with my own eyes His salvation. The Messiah wants me to visit with Him. He could have sent angels to Herod or to the High Priests but He sent them to me, a poor shepherd in the middle of nowhere: He sent His angels to the outskirts to find me... They say He is a little boy, someone who will not hurt me. I have hurt God, perhaps, with my own sins, but the Lord does not want to hurt me back: He wants me to visit with Him. O Lord, how good you are! Let me rise from my sins and walk toward you! Tell me what to do, show me the way, I want to take it!”

May the Lord send his Holy Spirit upon all of us, today, so that we may walk towards Him and meet Him this Christmas.

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