Fr Dufe Joseph

20/12/2025

20/12/2025

Saturday 20 December 2025
3rd Week of Advent Year A
Is. 7:10-14; Lk. 1:26-38
Fr. Dufe Joseph OFM Cap.
King Ahaz does not want any sign from God, because he knows that this would somehow bind his conscience. He does not want to test God. For example, when St. Nicholas of Flue, a Swiss saint of the 15th century, asked to leave public and social life to retire to a hermit’s life, the parish priest and the bishop demanded that a clear and obvious sign be given for this, because Nicholas was married and had ten children. The sign came: he stopped eating and his health remained perfect. After months and months of fasting, it was clear that he could go and live in the cave alone, because the sign had been given and could not be ignored. Ahaz therefore prefers not to have anything of the kind from heaven, so that he remains free to act as he sees fit. And here is the surprise: God will give the sign anyway, and it will be a virgin birth. Faced with the Virgin Mary who conceives and gives birth to Emmanuel, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, no one can remain indifferent, because it has never been seen, and will never be seen that a woman alone, without any help from a man, can conceive and then give birth to a child. Does anyone wish to change this narrative? Then technology will set in to try to challenge God’s ways.

There is a dialogue between the angel and the Virgin Mary, which signifies, for all of us, universal salvation. Everything is God’s work, nothing is impossible for him, but he desires to have the consent of his children in order to perform his marvellous works. “The God who created you without you,” St. Augustine will say, “does not save you without you.” The eternal Father is ready to perform the miracle of miracles, sending his Son, in whom he mirrors himself with infinite love, into the world, that is, into human nature, and for this reason he humbly asks Mary if she in turn is ready to welcome the Word of life. This is the guiding dialogue for obtaining every grace. God makes himself present to be asked, he explains the plan, says that everything will happen through his work, and then seems to withdraw into silence, waiting for consent. Thus, at the words “be it done unto me”, of Mary Most Holy, everything happens; and when the angel leaves, Mary is pregnant. And human beings can argue this up and down, based on the knowledge God has given them, but they forget that mysteries are hidden from the proud. Grace occurs precisely in consent. When God asks for something, it is always for the sake of salvation: our whole task is to agree and then let ourselves be led. How easy it is to obtain graces! All we have to do is say “yes” to God.

19/12/2025

Friday 19 December 2025
3rd Week of Advent Year A
Jdge. 13:2-7, 24-25; Lk. 1:5-25
Fr. Dufe Joseph OFM Cap.
The readings of today both begin with a historical narrative clause. In the first reading we read: “There was a certain man from Zorah, of the clan of the Danites, whose name was Manoah.” Then in the gospel: “In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah…” This phenomenon is not appearing by chance. Notice how the barren wife of Manoah repeats to him exactly the words that the angel told her about the conception of Samson. Samson will grow to be a great man, with superhuman physical strength divinely bestowed upon him to begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines. This strength was a visible sign of his consecration to God as a lifelong Nazirite. This unnamed, barren woman from the tribe of Dan makes sure she adds nothing to, or subtracts anything from the message. We are listening to these words at a time when, almost everywhere, human beings are trying to manipulate historical narratives in order to come up with one that pleases their whims and caprices. And war is the consequence. The reading concludes that: “The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up and the LORD blessed him; the Spirit of the LORD stirred him.” Some narratives are done in such a way that the hand of God is carefully carved out from them, which leads to disaster.

Elizabeth was also barren, and she and her husband Zechariah were advanced in age. Both were righteous, just like Joseph, observing all the commandments and looking up to the Messiah. The angel spoke to Zechariah when he went in to minister in the sanctuary, as the lot had fallen on him. It was during this moment of the burning of incense that he was told that Elizabeth was going to conceive and bear John the Baptist. When we look at the life of John, starting from his naming ceremony, we see high level consistency with the parameters dictated by the angel to his father. No one, no human agent is allowed to tamper with divine utterances. In our local context, this holds true to presidential and royal utterances, only if they are faithful to tradition, enhance the common good, social coercion and safeguard the dignity of each member of the community. Otherwise, they are as good as nothing. The birth of Jesus, the celebration of which we are deeply preparing, will also happen within the context of prophecy. Woe betides anyone who is willingly manipulating sacred tradition.