The Woman, the Man and the Angel

 (Homily on Matthew 1:18-24, Fourth Sunday of Advent)

The time for the Messiah to be born had come, and God needed three people: a woman to accept the challenge of being a mother; a man who would protect both mother and child, respecting the chastity of the mother and the divine dignity of her Child; and an angel to dispel the darkness of doubt in Joseph, an angel with a message of consolation and joy, an angel bringing clear indications of the way forward.

1. The woman receives an honor from God, but also an immense challenge… It was an honour for Mary to contribute with God’s plan of saving human beings. God, who created all things by Himself, did not want to restore His creation without the help of a woman. He Who could have saved us by Himself, did not want to save us without Mary’s yes. Because God loved Mary, He associated her to His work of Salvation, and made her the new Eve, the new Mother of all the living, that is, of all those who participate in the life of grace through baptism.

Every woman who conceives receives an honour from God. God knew all along how many human beings He wanted in Heaven, and He could have just made them all, from clay, since the beginning. As He made Adam, He could have made all of us at once. But He preferred to associate human beings to the work of creation, and he decided to make every mother the new clay from which He forms new men and women, new possible recipients of His love and grace… Being a mother is an honour. It means that God decided to entrust a woman with the mission of forming and caring for a new child, a child that God already loves as His own. Being a mother is giving happiness to God Himself, is giving God a new person to love, and giving humanity and new sign of hope, a new agent of change, of that change that we may have not been able to achieve so far…

But Mary knew that her Son would suffer. She probably knew the book of the prophet Isaiah by heart. She not only remembered the words, “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son…” (Isaiah 7:14), but also the words, “We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter…” (Isaiah 53:6-7). She knew what she was getting into: she would have to accompany her Son in His suffering for us sinners. She had a decision to make. She decided to love. God wanted to make the world a better place, and she decided to be at God’s disposal. She decided to say yes to what God wanted, even if that meant suffering for her. Out of love for God, she loved us as well.

God wants to be born today in human hearts. But He does not come without a yes. It is a painful yes sometimes, but it is the yes of love, the only yes that can make you happy. It is the yes that will allow you to become God’s dwelling place; the yes that will allow you to be a co-worker in God’s team, an agent of salvation for your brothers and sisters.

2.  God needed also a man, Joseph. The man receives a mission, but a mission in which he is meant to focus on other people’s needs and renounce to his desires. Not all of his desires, and certainly not his deepest desires; but his life was going to be very different from the lives of the men of his time. People sometimes do not accept the challenge of their mission… Other times people forget too much about themselves… Giving yourself to others implies taking care of yourself, otherwise you will have nothing to give. You are not God: you need some food and rest and, sometimes, you need an angel to help you. God knows what you need. This is why preparing the way of the Lord is not that bad… Sometimes we are afraid of what the Lord may take away from us if we accept the mission. As pope Benedict XVI said, Jesus does not take away anything relevant for human happiness, and instead gives us all we really need, all we are looking for. Following Jesus is not self-destroying, but self-cleaning, a purification.

3.  Angels are those called to the mission. God still sends angels to prepare human hearts for His coming. I think this applies particularly to those who consecrate themselves to the Lord and to His work of salvation. But we all, in some way, must become at some point angels of consolation for our brothers and sisters. We prepare the way of the Lord into people’s hearts when we give them a message of light and truth, when we point them in the right direction, when we encourage them to not lose heart, when we give them answers and hope.

The Lord is coming to us. He offers glory and challenge, He comes with a mission and a promise. What is the “yes” that God is expecting from me? What is my challenge and my honour? As we hear the voice of God, in our conscience, deep down into our hearts, let us offer to God our own selves, with our uncertainties and weaknesses, so that He may heal our hearts and strengthen us to say “yes.”