20231218 INTERIOR SILENCE A PRE-REQUISITE IN MAKING CRITICAL DECISIONS
18 December 2023, Monday, 3rd Week of Advent
First reading | Jeremiah 23:5-8 © |
I will raise a virtuous Branch for David
See, the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks –
when I will raise a virtuous Branch for David,
who will reign as true king and be wise,
practising honesty and integrity in the land.
In his days Judah will be saved
and Israel dwell in confidence.
And this is the name he will be called:
The-Lord-our-integrity.
So, then, the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when people will no longer say, “As the Lord lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt!” but, “As the Lord lives who led back and brought home the descendants of the House of Israel out of the land of the North and from all the countries to which he had dispersed them, to live on their own soil.”
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 71(72):1-2,12-13,18-19 © |
In his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
In his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
For he shall save the poor when they cry
and the needy who are helpless.
He will have pity on the weak
and save the lives of the poor.
In his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel,
who alone works wonders,
ever blessed his glorious name.
Let his glory fill the earth.
Amen! Amen!
In his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails.
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Ruler of the House of Israel,
who gave the law to Moses on Sinai,
come and save us with outstretched arm.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Matthew 1:18-24 © |
How Jesus Christ came to be born
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son
and they will call him Emmanuel,
a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’ When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.
INTERIOR SILENCE A PRE-REQUISITE IN MAKING CRITICAL DECISIONS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [JER 23:5-8; MATTHEW 1:18-24]
In the gospel, Joseph was presented with an unfathomable challenge when he found Mary, already betrothed to him, was with child. We can imagine what went on in the mind of Joseph. What was happening? Could Mary have betrayed him? Could it truly be a divine intervention and a work of the Holy Spirit as Mary told him? But it was totally unheard of – a woman conceiving a child without a man! It was simply too far-fetched and no one would ever believe Mary or even in him. They would be ridiculed. So we can appreciate the confusion of Joseph when he heard that Mary had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. However, the conundrum was just an aspect of the struggle that Joseph had to deal with.
There was the other practical consideration of what to do with Mary. The gospel tells us that Joseph was a just man. He did not want to accuse Mary wrongly. But at the same time, how could he prove that her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit? To surrender her to the law and have her charged for adultery would not be just because he had no proof that she betrayed him. On the other hand, he had no way to prove that the child was truly from God. True to his sense of justice, the evangelist wrote, “her husband Joseph, being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally.” In this way, she would be saved from being stoned to death. She would be given time to prove and verify the truth of what she claimed as a divine intervention.
We, too, often face challenges in life, perhaps not to the extent of absurdity and ridiculousness as that which Joseph was confronted with. But we have our fair share of feeling betrayed by our loved ones, friends, colleagues and business partners. In such difficult moments, we often react with anger, disbelief and fear. How could someone whom we love so much betray us? How could my spouse betray my love? How could my good friend betray my trust? Or how could our friends and children cheat us of our retirement funds in our old age? It is unthinkable that they could be so heartless. In our state of anger and rage, we may be tempted to retaliate or withdraw into ourselves and fall into depression or even mutilate ourselves.
Today, we are called to imitate Joseph, a man who was always interiorly recollected. We never hear him speak in the gospel. He was always praying, dreaming and contemplating. He was a man who thought through his problems, bringing them to God in prayer. He was not just a just man, but calm, level-headed, sombre, and never reactive or retaliatory. It was in his nature to want to find the best solution for all. Even for those who hurt him, he would want to save their dignity and find a way out for them so that they would not be condemned and have no opportunity to repent. He did not allow himself to fall into the sin of presumption or that of self-righteousness. This is only possible because he was a man of prayer and contemplation. Before he acted, he would make time to pray and bring the issue to the Lord.
We, too, must also do likewise. What we see in the world today is people reacting to everything they see, or hear, or read. They do not take time to pause, reflect and contemplate on what they heard, read or saw, and to discern whether it is true or charitable. We do not try to understand the emotions that go through in our heart. Are we reacting out of our fears, our past conditioning, our prejudices, our hurts and old wounds? Or are we acting to bring greater goodness out of it, to be healers, reconcilers and encouragers. When we simply react without thinking and self-awareness, it shows that we are no better than those who acted wrongly. Our judgement and comments, especially when they are made publicly, must be judiciously stated so that we will be seen to be objective, fair, reasonable, charitable, just and uplifting. We should not become another problem to a problem. Indeed, are we a solution or a problem?
This was what Joseph did. He was a solution to the problem. Because he brought the matter to the Lord, “the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’.” The Lord clarified the mystery for him and confirmed the words of Mary. The Lord revealed to Joseph how the child would be the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. He was given to understand through divine revelation how the child would be the Messiah and the King of David.
Upon hearing what the Lord said to him in the dream, when he woke up “he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.” Once he knew the will of God, Joseph did not hesitate or delay in acting. Until then, he was still deliberating and weighing the course of action he should take. We can take a page from him as well on his decisiveness. When he was clear that it was God’s will, he carried out His will without delay and whole-heartedly. It was not about his interests, or his misgivings and apprehensions, or anxiety about the future. Obedience to God’s will is the way to walk the path of truth and love.
We often fail because of fickle-mindedness. Sometimes we know from indications that it is the Lord’s will for us. We pray for all the signs and these have been given. We ask for confirmation and the Lord sends people to confirm our decision. But the fear of the future, the sacrifices, the uncertainties and the challenges ahead, restrain us from moving forward. We delay and delay until our heart is again numbed by the demands and distractions of the world. In other words, we have not yet woken up from our dream and our calling in life. For failing to be honest in seeking God’s will and being singular-minded in carrying out His will, we will cause ourselves to lose our peace and joy. Only in living a life of integrity like Joseph and Mary, will we find true peace. The Lord comes to restore us to wholeness, as the Prophet Jeremiah said, “See, the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks – when I will raise a virtuous Branch for David, who will reign as true king and be wise, practising honesty and integrity in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel dwell in confidence. And this is the name he will be called: The Lord-our-integrity.”
Indeed, as we approach Christmas, many of us are so busy with Christmas preparations, at least the material ones – the decorations, the Christmas tree, shopping for gifts and attending Christmas functions and parties. So much so, Christmas is a season that tires us out, draining us of our energy rather than filling us with peace, love and joy. We must not forget to enter into the silence of the Christmas night when the little baby was born in the manger, unknown and unrecognized. It was in the silence of the night that His birth was announced by the angels to poor, uneducated, and uncouth shepherds in the fields. We need to make room for Him in our hearts by withdrawing from the hurly-burly of the world into the silence of God. He wants to refresh us with His love, joy and peace as we listen to Him and feel Him in our being. He wants to enlighten us so that we can come to understand our challenges in perspective and so bring courage, hope, confidence and renewed zeal.
Only then, with His peace and joy in our hearts, can we reach out to others, not just to our friends and loved ones but to the poor, the lonely and those who are hungry and abandoned. The psalmist says, “In his days justice shall flourish, and peace until the moon fails. For he shall save the poor when they cry and the needy who are helpless. He will have pity on the weak and save the lives of the poor.” We are called to go forth, bearing His presence in us through our presence and our presents. In this way, we too will conceive Jesus in our hearts and we become the Emmanuel of God to others as we reach out to touch lives. Through our love and kindness, those who meet us will hopefully say, “God is with us!”
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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