Homily
for December 23, 2007
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
4th Sunday in Advent
By Fr. Andrew Moyo Topic:
Do not be afraid.
+ + +
Joseph son of David do not be afraid to
take Mary your
wife into your house. As we draw near to the celebration of
Christmas, we now
turn out attention to the events that happened before Jesus was born.
Joseph is
the main character and he is engaged to Mary. The engagement was
binding and
was considered to be marriage. If the relationship was ended for any
reason
during this period, it was necessary for a divorce to be decreed.
Joseph finds himself in a dilemma. He has to
decide what to do with Mary. Joseph is surely dejected and frustrated.
However,
being a just man, we are told, he decided to divorce Mary
quietly. God intervenes through the messenger
exhorting him to keep Mary as his wife: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid
to take Mary as your wife into your home.”
In other words, God was saying to him, “Trust in me. Trust in my
plans.” Joseph wakes up from his dream and takes Mary
as his wife. Like Joseph we all have fears in life.
+ Some like Joseph feel betrayed by
their partners. This generates anxiety, “How to face the
future alone?” + Some are still mourning the death of
their loved
ones. Loneliness and fear to live by
oneself after many years of a good marriage becomes a reality. + Some are facing uncertainties about
their health. We
are so much afraid, what will life be like in the future? Fear kills and
cripples and prevents us from doing the
will of God or from experiencing the love of God. How can we deal with our fear? We can honestly deal with our fears,
when we accept the
reality. Accepting whatever the situation is in our life- like Joseph.
He
accepted the fact that his fiancée was with child. When he was told in
a dream
that this is by the Holy Spirit and this was God’s work, he
accepted-without
any questions and without any doubt. We
are told clearly that he woke up from the dream and took Mary as his
wife. The same is true with us, my dear
friends. We need to identify the
fear. We have to accept the reality no
matter how sad it is and live with it. +Acceptance means making a decision
that we are not going
allow our fears to run and dominate our lives.
Paul Tillick called it "The Courage to Be" in spite of fear,
the courage to affirm, to go on, to say "yes" to life in spite of all
the threats and uncertainties and fears. + Acceptance is the realization that
there are some
things we cannot change in our lives but we can change our attitude
towards
them. We can be positive. We cannot
prevent the birds of prey from hovering
over our heads but we can prevent them from pitching on our heads. +Acceptance gives us the courage to
stand up against that
depressing situation and find ways of dealing with the reality or that
fear. More importantly and correctly, we
should bring our fears
before the Lord. Tell the Lord openly
what our fears are and how we feel. The
angel said to Joseph, “Do not be afraid.”
The same words were also addressed to Mary. These words are
addressed also to us, “Do not
be afraid.” That is, trust in my word:
During the Eucharist the priest frequently greets the people with the
words,
“The lord is with you.” And the people
reply: “And also with you.” These are the words that give us courage,
because they
celebrate that we are ultimately not alone.
This is the Christmas message. Jesus is Emanuel - God is with us. He
comes to save us from our sins, to save us from our fears. “Do not be afraid” and “If God is with us who
can be against us!”
Be not
afraid:
for I have redeemed you; Be not afraid: I
have called you by name. When you pass through the waters, I
will be with you; When you pass through the floods, they
will not sweep
o’er you; When you walk through the fire, you
will not be consumed;
You are mine; you are precious in my
sight. My love for you is everlasting, My love for you shall have no end.