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Title: Dream Sequence 2022-12-18 -- 4th Sunday Advent
● Isaiah 7:10-14 ● ● Psalm 24 ●● Romans 1:1-7 ● ● + Matthew 1:18-24 ● ●
[__01__] This is the 4th Sunday of Advent, 7 days until Christmas. So how did we get here? The Sundays of Advent always have a chronology or structure, the 1st Sunday is about the 2nd Coming of Jesus; 2nd and 3rd Sundays about John the Baptist arriving – then leaving – the scene; 4th Sunday: announcement of Jesus's birth.
And I'd like to like to talk about this
announcement in terms of an alert that comes to us whether we are awake, or
whether we are asleep, whether we are alert, or whether or not we are
expecting, and to connect this to praying and asking God for help.
[__02__] One time many years ago, before I was a
priest, I thought I was living out a dream, I was living a dream, because of
the time I was making what I regarded to be good money, living in a good place
feeling important, this dream would later be interrupted.
And I realized that it was not my calling to
that do that particular task. And I would be entering the seminary to study to
be a priest, spoiler alert, I became a priest. But for quite a while I was
still, as we say, living the dream. I was supervising a small group of
employees and I noticed that one member of my team was not getting along with
someone else.
And this troubled me greatly made me feel
very anxious. At the time, I spoke to my parish priest about the situation. And
he asked me if I had ever uttered a petition or a prayer to pray for those who
were involved to pray about the situation.
I had to admit this had never even occurred
to me. And sometimes, even now, it doesn't occur to me as soon as it should
occur to me to pray for those who are don't get along, pray for people that
aren't getting along with me or pray when I am not getting along with somebody
else. As the saying goes, sometimes it’s not you, it’s me !
Sometimes I forget to do that.
But I could do that because I could be a
better team player myself.
In this situation, of the 2 people not
getting along, I prayed consciously and intentionally for them. Several weeks
later, these 2 individuals were still not getting along. But it turned out that
one of them was now moving to a different location, to a different building.
And one of them said, my prayers were
answered. Well, actually, my prayers were answered. All of our prayers were
answered, though none of us knew that we were actually praying communally.
That was an alert to me about the value of
prayer in a difficult situation.
[__03__] Joseph as the husband of Mary, and the
Gospel today has a dream. But he was also learning a lesson about the value of
prayer.
One biblical commentator, reported that there
are 21 dreams reported in the Bible, 21 “dream sequences”. Joseph has 4 of the 21 dreams. He doesn't
say much, but he's got a large percentage of the biblical dreams. Joseph in the
New Testament is four of the dreams. Joseph in the Old Testament, in the book
of Joseph, Genesis has 2 of the 21.
Joseph of Genesis is also a very important
figure, but different person in the history of our salvation.
What are the 4 dreams for Joseph? 1st: “[today] do not be afraid to take Mary into
your home “ 2nd: take the child and his mother and go to Egypt. 3rd:
come back from Egypt. 4th: come
back from Egypt but by a different GPS route to stay away from King Herod.
Joseph has a dream. But is his dream a good
dream or a bad dream. On one level, it seems to be a bad dream, a nightmare…
Why?
Because so many things about his husband role
and his task of being a husband seem insurmountable to him.
How are we to regard Joseph his words when he
says he's going to divorce Mary quietly? This is not because Joseph is trying
to get away from responsibility. His intention is not to based in Mary being too
much of a scandal, but really, Mary being too high of a standard that he could
not live up to. Joseph was afraid.
[__04__] Are there not situations in our family or friendships or work or school where we feel we can't live up to the standard, where we might want to run away? So we are called not to be consumed by fear, to pray for help to seek out help. There is sometimes more help available than we realize.
[__05__] Joseph is also an example of somebody who's giving us leading us to the dream home of the Church and being one with Jesus Christ, especially amid danger and difficulty.
The church is meant to be our dream
home. Maybe you wouldn't build your home exactly the way this church is
constructed, but it's meant to be your dream home. How can the church be your
dream home?
Well, first of all, it's about people praying
for each other who don't even know maybe you don't know that people are praying
for you right now, people in this building or even if you're going home alone
today, people are praying for you right now.
And you and I are called to pray for those
who are sitting next to us sitting behind us, people whose names we don't even
know whether younger or older. That's one way the church is our dream home.
[__06__] One of the things that I learned from my
own parents and family is that my parents loved me. Not because not simply
because they told me they were praying for me all the time, but simply because
they took me to church, because they took my siblings and me to church, to
Sunday Mass.
This is one way you as parents, as grownups,
show your children that you love them. So – to you – young people, young students and
scholars and soccer players and you have so many different places to be and
things to do, remember that the Church is your home too.
You are not here in church because you are
being punished. You are here because your parents bringing you to the church,
which is your dream home.
We often associate the word dream also with
this other rhyming phrase, The Dream Team. We associate the Dream Team with
gold medals or the World Cup today.
And we
may associate the dream team from that team we got cut from I can think of
teams I didn't make they were the dream team would because I wasn't on it. It
was the dream team, I might say.
Being in the Church – one of Jesus’ disciples
– is to part of His Dream Team, to show up for “practice” each day, even if we
fall behind, to show up with mercy and love and forgiveness and to recognize
that Jesus goes before us to lead us on to his dream team.
[__07__] St. Joseph also is the patron saint of those who are dying and
falling asleep and the Bible is often a metaphor for death. It is a metaphor
for that we will all die. But that's good news.
One prayer that is recited
every night – in monasteries, convents, in the church by religious sisters,
brothers and priests comes from the breviary of Liturgy of the Hours. This is
the prayer: Protect us Lord as we stay awake watch over us as we sleep that
awake we make you watch with Christ and asleep rest in His peace. I pray that whether you are
awake or asleep that we you hear God speaking to you in your prayers, and in
your dreams, both of which are part of your real life.
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