Fourth Sunday of Advent/A
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Mt 1:18-24) an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and says to him: “do not fear”, “do not be afraid”.
We know the difficult situation Joseph found himself in and how, as a “just man”, he tried to find a solution that would protect the woman he loved.
The angel’s word to Joseph, ‘do not fear, do not be afraid’ is addressed to each of us. In fact, fear often threatens to ruin our lives, fear that has many manifestations, but always originates from our unresolved.
If fear silently – and even many times imperceptibly – manages our lives by conditioning our choices, selecting our relationships, defining our horizons, we find ourselves living in a great deception, in a great lie that sums up the true and profound temptation that is we frequently face, in different ways, at every age of our existence.
Out of fear we do not make the choices that tell the truth about us, out of fear we do not separate ourselves by denying ourselves the possibility of becoming adults, out of fear we retract from challenges, out of fear we do not protect ourselves and those we love, out of fear we invent a god made of ‘things’ instead of relating to the One who can lead us beyond all our fears.
In that fragile and defenceless child that we will soon celebrate at Christmas there is all our fear, all our unresolvedness, all our fragility. There is everything that destabilises our life, makes us touch our weakness, our inabilities. That child must be welcomed, cared for and loved just like the child in each one of us.
The true God awaits us without defences, with our fears, not to erase them, but to transform them into our best resources, to lead us to “life in abundance”.
The Gradual for today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 144 (Ps 144:18, 21) with the following text: Prope est Dominus omnibus invocantibus eum: omnibus qui invocant eum in veritate.
Laudem Domini loquetur os meum: et benedicat omnis caro nomen sanctum ejus.
(The Lord is close to all who call him, who call on him in the sincerity of their hearts.
My mouth shall speak the praises of the Lord; let all flesh bless his holy name).
The attached music, in Gregorian chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The interpretation is by the “Choralschola der Wiener Hofburgkapelle” conducted by Hubert Dopf. The music track can be found on the CD “Gregorian Chant for the Church Year” published by Universal International Music B.V. in 1997.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
