Fourth Sunday of Advent, A December 22, 2019
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
How are you at giving gifts? What about accepting them? Some people have a knack for getting the perfect gift for every person in their lives. Me? Not so much.
But you know who does give the perfect gift every time? God does. He knows what you want, he knows what you need, he knows everything. Humanity as a whole, however, isn’t very good at accepting gifts, like children who don’t appreciate the gifts of food, shelter, education and everything else more important than the latest video game. Still, when a child does ask for something, they appreciate it more when they receive it.
So that’s one reason we still pray, even though God knows what we need. The reality is that it’s not until we pray for something – often repeatedly and for a long time – that we begin to understand what we truly want and need. And this is why Isaiah is so exasperated when the king puts on false humility and refuses to ask for something from God. “I will not ask, I will not tempt the Lord.” What a crock. He isnt’ worried about “tempting” anyone. He’s afraid that if he asks, then God will answer and then he’ll have to do what God is asking him to do.
You see, the context is that Israel is under attack. The king is on the verge of making an alliance with Assyria to protect the country. God, however, told the king to trust him and not rely on human help. Isaiah comes to say God will even give him a miraculous sign to prove his protection is enough. So, you see, King Ahaz isn’t being humble, he’s being stubborn. He’s acting like the fickle girlfriend who really is angry at you but refuses to tell you why because then you’ll fix it and she doesn’t want you to fix, she just wants to stay mad. “Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God?”
God wants to give a great gift to his people. He wants to give his protection to Israel and his son to the whole human race. But he also wants Ahaz to ask for it so that he is able to recognize the gift for what it is. But Ahaz refuses. In the end, Assyria ends up betraying Israel and doing even more damage to them than the other enemy would have. But being the generous husband and father that he is, God still knows what his family needs and works to give it to them, though they remain ungrateful and ignorant. So we are given the great sign of a virgin birth, the promise of Emmanuel – God with us – that isn’t fulfilled until Mary and Joseph come to Bethlehem.
And even Joseph struggles to accept the gifts of God, though his humility is real. We are told Joseph is both righteous and unwilling to expose Mary to shame. The word for “yet” is the same word for “and;” there is no opposition between Joseph’s compassion and righteousness. Many saints have interpreted this passage to say that Joseph didn’t think Mary committed adultery but was instead overawed by what she told him about what happened, that he felt unworthy to act at husband to her and father to her child. So he seeks to remove his unworthy self from the picture. He was unwilling to accept the gift he was given. Unlike Ahaz, however, when he is told to accept the gift of Mary and her child, he obeys, taking her into his home and his heart and serving both worthily. He gives the best gift he can to both of them, his very life.
What about you? How are you at giving gifts? And receiving them? Christmas, just two days away, is the time of God’s greatest gift. St. Augustine teaches that God would have given his son to save even a single person. God’s gift is to you. Do you accept him, do you accept the gift of God-made-man, the gift of divinity humbled to share our humanity? When God asks you to ask him for what you need, do you refuse? Are you afraid that asking God will mean that he answers, which means you’d have no more excuses not to follow him more closely?
It’s one thing to go around frivolously telling God to shoot lightning bolts or rain down money from the sky. It’s quite another when that God says to you “ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” Much more than Isaiah’s command to Ahaz, Jesus’ own words command you to ask good things from God. God’s very nature is love, which cannot help but give good things. He has given us the greatest gift of all time, a gift we celebrate first on Wednesday and then in a deeper way on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But he’s not done giving gifts!
I told you two weeks ago of the gifts of the Holy Spirit – wisdom, knowledge, fear of the Lord, and so on – have you sought these out? Have you asked for the things that God has commanded you to ask for and promised to give you? Over and above these seven gifts, every single baptized soul is given spiritual gifts to serve the Church. Supernatural gifts of healing and prophecy and teaching and even administration can all be manifest in souls open to God’s generous Spirit. Why don’t we see them? Because we don’t ask! And the worst part is that these gifts aren’t even for you; they don’t just hurt you when you don’t receive them. They are meant for the whole Church!
Isaiah’s offer of a sign is not for Ahaz alone, but the whole country which was being attacked. His refusal, his trust in merely human power didn’t just hurt him, but all Israel. Our hesitance to ask, our refusal, our trust in human ideas hurts the people we love and the many souls who won’t come to the Church without the help of these gifts.
So whether you excel at giving Christmas presents or not, make this the year you learn from St. Joseph what Christmas really means. It’s not just ham, pie, gifts, and music. It’s the start of divine generosity that extends to Easter and on through Pentecost. Like Joseph, obey the Lord’s command to receive Mary, and her divine son, into your home, your heart. Hear Mary’s command to “do whatever [Jesus] tells you.” Hear Jesus’ command to ask, seek, and knock so that you receive, find, and open doors to profound spiritual gifts and the generous, love-filled holiness that is the only hope for your happiness, your soul, and the souls of so many others.
Be bold this Christmas. Do not weary God with your fear of asking. He has already given us himself at Christmas and will give himself again in just minutes upon this altar. If He gives gifts like that, why wouldn’t we ask for more?