Four days remain before Christmas. You must have been very busy sending Christmas greetings and preparing gifts for your relatives and friends. Yes, Christmas is a season of giving. First of all, God gives generously Himself to us to be crucified. We follow His example and give out gifts to those we care. These years, to be environmentally friendly, I sent out electronic greeting messages through emails to my friends and my students, telling them that I am still alive and kicking.
Today, we read of two important texts in the Bible: the Nathan Oracle and the Annunciation.
David intended to build a Temple to house the Ark of Covenant. But God did not need a house because heaven is His throne and the earth is His stool, what else can we build for God? Instead, God promised to build an everlasting house, an everlasting dynasty for David. Nathan passed on God's message to David as follow.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men;
but I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.
And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever (2 Samuel 7:12-16).
This is the famous Nathan's Oracle. Solomon, David's son would build the Temple and God promised David that his dynasty would be established forever.
In reality, Judah was conquered by Babylon in 586 B.C. The Temple was burned down. But it is impossible that God told lies. Therefore, the Jews tried to understand the Oracle in a more creative way. The Oracle refers to the Messiah, an offspring of David. God would be his father and his throne would be established forever. This became the background for Christians to understand Christ and the eternal dynasty. Christ would be an offspring of David and the Church would be the eternal dynasty promised by God.
In the homily today, Fr. Kwan focused not on the eternal throne Gabriel mentioned, but on the response of Our Lady instead. Everyone of us tries to figure out the will of God. When we are not sure what God's will is, we need to talk to others. When Gabriel told Mary that she would bear a child, Mary was not sure what to do.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? (Luke 1:31-34)
Mary's question was not meaningful. She was betrothed to Joseph, of the house of David (Luke 1:27). They would live together soon. Naturally, she would have babies. Now, an angel came and foretold that her son in the future would be great and would rule the house of Jacob forever. Great! Wonderful! Wasn't it every girl's dream? What was the problem? Unless she understood the angel's message to take immediate effect. Then, she had a problem because the timing was wrong. Joseph and her had not yet lived together.
Usually, the time frame of God is rather long. When God announced through prophets what He intended to do, He meant generations. Now that the message was conveyed by angel Gabriel, perhaps it meant to be immediate. Otherwise, Mary's question was meaningless. Anyway, Fr. Kwan did not dwell on this point. He wanted to stress the point that when we are not sure about God's will, we should consult. Keeping things to oneself does not help a bit.
Fr. Kwan is the second person to tell me this. The Vicar General was the first when he discovered that I was interested in serving the Church as a perpetual deacon. Perhaps I should make this my 2009 resolution --- besides praying, I should consult.
Fr. Kwan also delineated God's will in general. God intends us to love and to forgive. In fact, loving God is easier than loving man. Man makes mistakes. People around you may offend you unwittingly, however good they intend to be. You don't need to forgive God, but to forgive man is not easy. Loving someone you like is easy. Loving someone offensive to you is difficult and this is the challenge. We are ambassadors of reconciliation. Go and mend fences.
Dear Lord, You are wonderful and adorable. You turn ugliness into beauty, evil to blessing. May we be channel of Your blessings to this world. Amen.
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