Sit back, relax and listen
by Father Francis P. DeSiano, CSP
December 19, 2013

The following is a homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Dec. 22.

What shall I get so-and-so for Christmas? Or where will we go for our Christmas break? These kinds of decisions take some thought, but they are not earth-shattering. Other decisions loom much larger: Where will I go to college? Or, even more, what will be my chosen career? Or, yet more still, whom will I marry?

There are various methods for making decisions – asking advice, writing down lists of pros and cons or getting out the calculator to figure out costs. But sometimes, the best way is to let things sit – to pull back, to do nothing – in order to listen to the deeper voices inside of us. Sometimes it takes a lot of inner reflection to see what is really in our hearts or what is the best thing to do.

Joseph is in a dilemma in the Gospel today. He is obviously a man of integrity and faith; but he finds the woman to whom he is engaged now is with child. What should he do? He figures out one plan that makes sense for him, if not for Mary. Then he goes to sleep, and an angel of the Lord helps him know what he should do. He gives it a rest and then makes his decision.

“Wow,” we say, “I’d love to have an angel of the Lord help me figure out what to do.” But, when we think about it, maybe we do. Because what Joseph’s angel helped him see was God’s deeper hand in the confusing events of his life. He came to see possibilities for God where he did not see them before. The angel, in other words, helped Joseph get to the better senses that his faith in God would have led him to. The angel helped him see what, deep down, he already sensed.

This is a huge invitation for us in this crazy Christmas season – especially the last days before Christ, with last-minute shopping, a few more parties, food shopping and preparation, packing for a trip or getting a spare room ready for visitors. Slow down. Chill out. Pull back. Let some deeper voices emerge inside our heads. Let’s give ourselves the time to see what God is telling us, what the deepest layers of our faith want to say.

I’m sure the message is a little different for each of us, depending on what we are dealing with in life. God’s wisdom, after all, is shaped toward the particular burdens we have. But the underlying message applies to all: God will not leave us alone, isolated, abandoned, as if we were meaningless creatures in a meaningless universe. God is preparing to come among us; in doing that, God changes everything about us – who we are, who we think we can be, and what we think about our ultimate destiny.

So take some time, sit back, turn off the Christmas music, close the eyes, open the heart, and see what God is saying to us. God speaks wonders to Mary, written in her own flesh; God speaks hope and promise to Joseph, even in his anxiety. What will God speak to us? We’ll find out if we give God, and the angels, time.