The Fourth Sunday of Advent
50th Anniversary of Ordination
December
18, 2016
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Would you believe me if I told you that I’m lost for words this morning?
Well, I am. There are some words on the paper in front of me but I’m
still lost for words. Fifty years ago when I was ordained to the priesthood,
in my youthful innocence (or was it arrogance?), I had a certain confidence
about words. I had studied my share of theology (with the Jesuits, no less!)
and I was ready to let loose with the words I had learned. And I guess you
could say I’ve been doing that for all these many years. Fifty years of
preaching – nearly 30 of them here at St. James – that’s a lot of words!
Pity the poor people! Pity all of you! No wonder I feel at a loss for words
today! There can’t be many words left that I haven’t already spoken. But
maybe I’ll find a few if I let this be more about God’s word than mine!
In today’s reading from the Letter to the Romans,
St. Paul waxed eloquently about his call from God, but notice that he did so
while talking about the call that God gives to all the baptized. “We have
received the grace of apostleship,” Paul says. We, not I. And we
are “called to be holy,” Paul says. Again, we, not I. The point he makes is
not a small one and I want to underline it today. We are all called,
my friends, not just people like me. And whatever you do today to celebrate
my call, I hope it prompts you to celebrate and give thanks for yours.
I was blessed to be able to study for the
priesthood during the Second Vatican Council, and one of the foundational
teachings of the Council is the call to holiness of each of the baptized.
That teaching made sense to me when I was ordained and I embraced it but, to
be honest, at the time it was all pretty much in the realm of theory.
Only after ministering to and with God’s holy people over the years have I
come to really grasp the meaning, to understand that any holiness I may have
achieved (and I do mean “may”) is a gift God has given me through and with
the people I have been privileged to serve over the years – all of the
people: the obviously holy ones and the maybe not-so-obviously-holy ones (or
maybe I should say the ones who thought holiness wasn’t for them when it
really was. And is!).
Thanks to our baptism, we are all God’s holy
people, and even though people too often give priests and religious a corner
on holiness, we don’t have one. No, we are on this journey to God - this
journey to glory – together, and whatever holiness we have is a shared
thing: yours spills over into mine and mine into yours. And you know
what? I think I may often get the better end of the deal. I do!
In the gospel reading, we met Joseph, the righteous
man of God who listened to God even when God’s message had to have been
baffling and bewildering. Joseph was deeply rooted in the faith of the
chosen people but that didn’t mean he was backward-looking, frozen, or fixed
in the past. Far from it. When God confronted Joseph with something entirely
new and unheard-of - that the child his wife Mary was carrying was the work
of the Holy Spirit – Joseph opened himself to God’s mysterious designs
without hesitation. It couldn’t have been easy for him but he did and,
because of that, Joseph will forever speak to us of quiet fidelity,
unwavering faith, humble acceptance, and openness to the God of surprises.
Over fifty years of ministry, I have met Joseph –
and I continue to meet him - in more people than I could ever count. I have
met him in young couples head-over-heels in love; in parents overcome with
joy at the birth of a child and in parents drowning in grief at the loss of
a child. I have met him in wide-eyed young First Communicants on a
first-name basis with Jesus, whose visions and dreams could rival Joseph’s!
I have met him in young people struggling with their faith but holding onto
it even when not so many of their friends do; and I’ve met him, too, in sick
people who fight their illness bravely, if resignedly, and try not to ask
‘why me?” I have met him in empty nesters looking for new reasons to
believe, new reasons to get up each morning, and in elderly people who
refuse to let the storms of life douse their light or dampen their spirits.
I’ve met, Joseph, too, in people whose lives take difficult, unexpected
turns but who keep going anyway, and I’ve met him in poor people who in
sometimes shocking, often gentle, and always unexpected ways show me the
face of Christ. In these and so many others, I have witnessed and
continue to witness the faithfulness of Joseph, his idealism, his
resilience, his quiet acceptance, his courage, his love.
Joseph is one of the great Advent saints, along
with Mary and John the Baptist. John the Baptist who pointed to the Christ,
never to himself, and who didn’t consider himself worthy to untie his
sandals. Mary who opened her whole being to God’s tender mercies and
mysterious designs, and in so doing gave the world its Savior. Joseph, John
the Baptist, and Mary - three Advent saints greater than us by far – more
humble, more heroic, more generous – but part of our family, companions
along our journey of faith! We should be grateful for their company. How
lost we would be without them, how lonely we would be without them!
And if I may speak for myself and my journey of
faith over these fifty years, to the company of those three great Advent
saints I would add your company because I can’t imagine making this journey
without you. I really can’t! You have challenged me and changed me, taught
me and learned from me, prodded me and put up with me, loved me and forgiven
me, prayed with me and prayed for me. In so many ways I am what I am because
of you. So I’ll say it again: I can’t imagine making this journey without
you.
And aren’t I blessed – and aren’t we all blessed –
to have moments like this one – ‘Transfiguration moments’ I call them – when
we get to leave the low and level plain and climb the mountain for a little
glimpse of where we’ve been and where we’re going, a little glimpse of
glory. It doesn’t last, of course, but it’s great for as long as it does.
And, of course, the Eucharist we are celebrating together this morning
brings us as close as we will ever get – on this side of heaven - to a
glimpse of the glory that is Christ: the Christ we will soon welcome at
Christmas, small and helpless, but also strong and powerful. The Christ who
is one of us but so much more than us, the Christ whose love for us knows no
bounds, the Christ who calls us to follow, calls us to serve, the Christ who
is now and will always be in our midst as one who serves!
So I’ll say it again, my friends. Today is not
about me. It’s not. It’s about God, it’s about the Church, it’s about us,
and it’s about all the ways that, together, we get to be the Church: the
hands, the feet, the heart, the face of Christ.
What a great calling! How blessed we are!
Father Michael G. Ryan
