One line jumps out at me in this gospel. “Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary into your home.” He had good reason to be afraid. Mary was pregnant. How scandalous! He wasn’t the father but what would others think of the situation he was in? Who would blame him for divorcing this young woman? Imagine how different our world would be if he had chosen not to welcome Mary into his home.
Imagine how different our lives would be if we were not so inclined to invite others, including Jesus, into our lives. Perhaps you can relate to what happened to a young girl when she celebrated her tenth birthday.
Nancy was planning to have the biggest birthday party ever. The guest list began with a few close friends, but it quickly grew from seven girls to a whopping total of seventeen. Nearly every girl in her fifth grade class had been invited to sleep over at her house. It was going to be a night of pizza, games, scary stories and lots of presents. Little did Nancy know that she would get a present that night that she would truly treasure.
The family room was a flurry of shouts and bursts of laughter. The girls were lining up to do the limbo when the doorbell rang. Nancy hardly paid attention to who might be at the door. All of her friends were in the room preparing to lean under the stick being held by her two sisters. “Nancy,” her mother shouted, “Come here for a minute.”
Nancy rolled her eyes, wondering, “Now who would dare to bother me at a time like this?” As she neared the front door, her jaw dropped and she could feel her face turning red, for there on the front porch stood Sarah, the quiet girl who sat next to her in music class, holding a gift. “Oh God! How did I forget to invite Sarah?” Nancy wondered quietly.
Then she remembered that she only added a name to the guest list if someone showed an interest in her, like kids do when someone is having a party and they don’t want to be left out. Sarah never once asked about her birthday party so somehow Nancy hadn’t thought to invite her.
Accepting Sarah’s gift, Nancy asked her to stay. “I can’t.” Sarah replied. “My dad’s waiting in the car.” Nancy pleaded, “Can you at least come in for some cake?” “Thanks, but I have to go,” Sarah said. “I’ll see you on Monday.”
Nancy stood in the hallway with Sarah’s gift in her hands and an empty feeling in her heart. She didn’t open the gift until long after the party ended. Her gift was a small ceramic tabby cat that looked just like Sarah’s cat.
Looking back, Nancy realized that Sarah was her one true childhood friend. While the other girls drifted away, Sarah was always there for her, ever loyal and supportive. She was an unconditional friend who stood by her, encouraging her and understanding her. Although she felt bad about her slight that night, Nancy also realized that she might not have discovered Sarah as a friend had she invited her to that unforgettable tenth birthday party.
Nancy’s story is our story. Instead of Sarah, the ignored friend for many people is Jesus. Like Sarah, Jesus doesn’t push his way into our lives. However busy we become, however aloof we might be, like Ahaz in that first reading, Jesus is always there, loving us unconditionally, offering us the gift of salvation. As the world awaits the coming of his birth, just days away, are we inviting him to stay with us?
Joseph and Mary did. That was no easy choice on their part. To save herself from being accused of adultery, Mary could have turned the angel down. To save his honor, Joseph could have quietly divorced Mary. But they didn’t turn away from each other or from God. To the contrary, they welcomed God’s son as their son. They said “amen” to what God was asking of them, thus allowing Isaiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled, “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’ ”
Even when we don’t invite his son into our lives, God is with us. In faith we celebrate that God is present to us in the flesh of Jesus Christ; that is the foundation of our Catholic faith.
Jesus is with us every time we celebrate any sacrament, but like Nancy, we don’t always see the obvious; that this true friend always wants to be with us offering his love, but first we have to invite him into our lives.
Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador put it this way, “No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God with us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.”
That angel is speaking to all of us, “Don’t be afraid to take Jesus into your home!” He is urging us as Christmas nears to not be afraid to forgive and to seek forgiveness, to embrace the good that every person possesses and to “take into our homes” the needy, the unimportant, the forgotten. To do so is to discover the promise of Christmas, and to see that God is with us in the compassion, peace and healing we bring into our hearts and homes. The Archbishop is right; we truly remain poor unless we invite Christ to be with us, not just at Christmas but every day of our lives.