Perhaps you never thought of Man of La Mancha as a Christmas story, but think again. Two different men in the readings for today were asked by God to dream the impossible dream. King Ahaz was called to stretch his thinking. He was challenged to grow beyond the obvious; he was asked to set aside his plan for victory and to accept God’s plans to embrace peace not paradox. In a pietistic way, Ahaz refused. He’s not really interested in allowing the Lord to enter in. He has everything all prepared for battle. He is not looking for advice or help even from the Lord. Ahaz has the battle planned, the troops are in position, the strategy is set, he will have peace – but it must be his way; no time, no room, no possibility of someone else plan for peace. The Lord enters in anyway and gives him a sign that challenges his basic assumption: “A virgin will give birth to a child and bear a son and he will be God with us.” Where no life seemed possible, there God will give life. Advent calls me to open myself to the great possibilities of God’s reign coming in our time, but coming in God’s way according to God’s plan not my own.
I am always tempted to believe that faith in Jesus brings pat answers, peace and unmitigated joy: “Jesus is Lord and all is well.” But today’s reading from Matthews’s Gospel tells a different story. Christ’s coming does bring peace, but not without a price. The coming of Christ also brings doubt and questioning, contradictions and confusion. No one could be more confused and tense than Joseph. He is faced with the apparent infidelity of the woman he had presumed faithful. The confusion is clear. He is tempted to find a quick solution and “divorce her quietly.” But something, an intuitive insight, a deep love for Mary, trust in her, prompted by a divine messenger invited Joseph not to seek the easy solution, but the Lord’s solution. Joseph’s dreams and plans for marriage and a family, for a simple, peaceful, ordinary life are turned upside down by the coming of the prince of peace, by the woman he had come to love and the strange, unbelievable way that God has entered into their relationship. Joseph was confused and harried. God’s plan, God’s power, God’s actions go far beyond pat answers, cheap peace and easy joy. God calls us to dream the impossible, to believe the unbelievable, to bear the unbearable. During the remaining days of Advent let me dream big and follow the star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far.
- Fr. Vince Gartland is the pastor of the Church of St. Ann (Lawrenceville, NJ).
