N.B. This homily refers to the readings for the Vigil Mass of Christmas, found here.
We are united by our faith, but we come here in different places and at different moments in our lives. Some of us, praise God, have come with smiles on our faces, with warmth and cheer in our hearts and good will towards men. But others of us are struggling. Perhaps some of us have come *because* we are struggling, asking for some hope and peace in the midst of our difficulties. We face physical ailments and illnesses, financial struggles, problems in our workplace, relationship difficulties, spiritual desolations, worries about the future, emotional fatigue and mental health challenges, and much, much more. There’s a good chance that all of us are facing something right now that feels exhausting, overwhelming, incapacitating, either in the world out there or in our own little worlds, and for those that aren’t, we probably soon will be.
Maybe that puts a little damper on our cheery mood this evening, but believe it or not, that is good news. Because while our struggles are not fun or easy, the fact that we are facing them means that we are in good company. The Virgin Mary knew what it was like to face hardship; she was asked by God to give birth to his Son, without a home or a husband and only a fiancé who may or may not have understood. Joseph, too, faced difficulty: his own fears and a sense of unworthiness to take such a holy lady into his home, most likely enduring the scorn of his friends and the gossip of his neighbors in doing so. None of us – not even those called to be the parents of Jesus – are exempt from facing things that are scary, worrisome, perplexing, and exasperating.
The Good News, however, is that God is not silent in all of this. He has something to say to us, and his message comes through the angel Gabriel, first to Mary, and then to Joseph, and then also to us in whatever struggle or sorrow is currently weighing on us or that ever will do so. He says to us, “Do not be afraid.” Don’t be afraid. Why? Because fear is often the first step away from faith – a temptation toward trying to figure things out ourselves, or to abandoning hope and belief altogether. And so that’s why God says, “No, stop, don’t be afraid” – to nip in the bud that temptation to doubt, and to assure us that he is with us.
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| The Dream of Saint Joseph (c. 1640) by Georges de la Tour |
Last Sunday, if you recall, we heard pretty much the same Gospel as the one that we heard tonight, with only two differences. The first is that, in the longer form of this Gospel, we have the genealogy of Jesus. Saint Matthew gives us the long litany of those men and women who were Jesus’s ancestors as a way of showing us that God’s idea to send us the Savior was not one that he hatched overnight. The plan of our salvation was carefully prepared, and it played out slowly, through good people and some not-so-good people as well.
But the second change in the Gospel this week is the very last verse, Matthew 1:25, which tells us that after Joseph took Mary into his home, she bore a Son, who was named Jesus. That’s the most important part of the whole long Gospel! That one verse makes all the difference between last week and this one, between the promise and the proof. Jesus is the reason we need not be afraid. His presence is the confirmation that God was not lying when he told Mary to trust in him, when he had told Joseph to trust in him. When God tells us to trust in him, no matter what our sorrow or struggle is, Jesus is our proof that God is trustworthy. Why? Because Jesus is Emmanuel, “God-with-us,” born for us. He has come to dwell with us, not only to share our dysfunctional world but to redeem it and transform it and to elevate it by his grace.
One of the most powerful messengers of this truth was Pope St. John Paul II, the Polish priest who was pope a couple of popes ago. If you know his story, you know that he certainly was familiar with sorrow and struggle. His mother died when he was nine; his brother, when he was twelve; his father, when he was nineteen. The Nazis forced him to work in a factory; he had to study in secret in the seminary; and when he was a priest and later a bishop, he endured opposition and persecution from the communist regime.
With all of these sufferings and challenges, you might expect John Paul to have been stern and severe. But the opposite is true! He was a man of great joy and laughter and hope – not because he didn’t suffer, but because in his sufferings he knew the Lord Jesus was with him, as his Savior, as the One can transform this fallen world. And wherever he went, St. John Paul preached that the same relationship was possible for others, often by repeating some words he had borrowed from the angel Gabriel: “Do not be afraid.” In the first homily he ever gave as pope, he said: “Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power… Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ... So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life.”
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| St. John Paul II, addressing the crowd in St. Peter Square on the day of his election as pope, October 22, 1978. |
That, my friends, is what the Lord wants us to hear tonight. It is his message for us – not just for our present concerns and worries and difficulties, but always: “Do not be afraid.” Whatever you may be facing, today or tomorrow or anytime, don’t give in to your fears, but instead find your strength in Christ the Lord. Open wide the doors of your heart, and let him enter. Let him transform your world: this Savior, Emmanuel, born of Mary this night for us, whose name is Jesus.
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