Year A
Fourth Sunday in Advent
Images
Trusting
God
Points to note
There
are two accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Gospels. The one in Mt (this year) tells it from
Joseph’s point of view while the one in Lk tells it from Mary’s point of view. To understand Joseph’s point of view, one
need to know that Jewish marriage takes place in two stages. In the first stage, where Joseph and Mary’s
marriage was at the time Jesus was conceived, the husband and wife are betrothed
but do not stay together as husband and wife until the second stage a year
later. So, for the first year of the
marriage, the Jewish wife remains a virgin.
Now,
how do you explain this to children who may not have that birds and bees chat
with their parents yet? Maybe, better to
focus on the role of Joseph in his part of the Holy Family and him taking the
second place to Mary. To me, his
acquiescence to his part in our salvation in no less than Mary but his humility
in deferring to Mary’s role is something to emulate.
Liturgy
Acclamation
before the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia!
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son
and they will call him Emmanuel,
a name which means
‘God-is-with-us’.
Alleluia!
Gospel
Discuss with the children about the Christmas
season that we are about to enter in the coming week. This is available in the end panel of this
leaflet & for a more complete explanation, at http://childrenlivingthesundayword.blogspot.com/2013/09/soundbites-about-advent-christmas.html.
The Lord be with you.
All:
And also with your spirit.
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew
All:
Glory to you O Lord
(Mt 1:18-24)
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed
to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child
through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting
to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his
mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because
she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a
son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his
people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfill the words spoken by
the Lord through the prophet:
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him
Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’
When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to
do: he took his wife to his home.
This
is the Good News of the Lord
Dialogue
This discussion could be kept short as
the bulk of the discussions takes place before the reading.
Who
is Jesus’ mother? Mary is the mother of
Jesus.
Who
is Jesus’ father? No, not Joseph, but
God.
Yet,
Joseph is part of the Holy Family. So,
who is Joseph to Jesus? Explain that Joseph was Jesus’ foster
father. Explain what a foster father
is. Explain similarities and differences
with stepfathers, if children are more familiar with the latter.
Explain that while Joseph is the foster
father, not stepfather of Jesus, Mary as the mother of Jesus was the more
important parent. Joseph was there in
the supporting role.
Discuss how Joseph must have felt when
told by the angel in the dream that he is to become a foster father. How did Joseph take it? Did
he accept the task that God gave him?
Why? Like Mary, he trusted God. Discuss what the angel told him. And as a Jew, how he is to fulfil the
scripture prophecy in the reading. According
to the reading, did he even hesitate?
Did
Joseph carry out his task well? Would that be a difficult job? To
take care of a child that was not his son?
Discuss how the children would respond
if they were asked to do a difficult job.
Discuss further if they were asked to take the supporting role in doing
that job and someone else had the leading role.
Maybe an example would be a supporting role in a play, a team game or
something more important: building something or looking after someone.
Discuss how trusting God would help
them as it has helped Joseph.