Do the Right Thing: The Fourth Sunday in Advent 2025

                                                      Do the Right Thing:

The Fourth Sunday in Advent 2025 

December 21, 2025

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Isaiah 7:10-14; Psalm 24; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-24

 

This Gospel passage features the importance of Joseph’s role in salvation history. He is portrayed as a righteous man who did the right thing. He said “yes” just as Mary said “yes,” and the events of the incarnation could unfold. Joseph could have been virtuous by quietly divorcing Mary and saving his own family’s dignity. He would have been justified and upheld as a virtuous man. He knew by faith that he could not reject Mary because our faith does not allow us to reject those in great need. Joseph learned that he had to be obedient to God. 

 

St. Paul in the second reading tells us that Jesus Christ saved us through the obedience of faith, and he had to learn it somewhere. Jesus learned it from Joseph of Nazareth, a man in the line of David. It was right that Jesus was born into Joseph’s family because he was the right man to teach him the obedience necessary for salvation. This obedience is learned by being in relationship to the God of Israel. This obedience calls for the importance of heeding one’s own conscience.

 

We have seen in life that fear begets more fear, and the opposite is true. Courage is contagious. We are emboldened when we see someone act heroically because we are then more likely to act courageously. It merely takes one person to do the right thing, and others will come along. Think about the U.S. Bishops Conference coming together as a unified body to represent the situation of immigrants. Courage is contagious. Doing what is right is fulfilling the obedience of one’s faith. What might you do to help correct a wrong in society or within your family?

 

          This week we have seen abhorrent killings: Jews in Sydney who were enjoying Hanukkah, students at Brown University studying for exams, an influential movie director and his wife, an MIT professor, and a local man convicted of his wife’s murder. These are tragic and gut-wrenching. It is difficult to enjoy the lightness of Advent with the sobriety of these tragic events. In the face of these challenges, we need people to rise with courage and do the right thing. We need the average person who will say “enough” and become our hero. The world is filled with too much violence. We need a culture of encounter. We need a culture of peace. We need the energy of love to rise that will halt the progress of evil in its tracks. 

 

          We therefore look to Joseph as a model. In the face of honor or shame, he chose honor. He took the more difficult route because it was the right way to go. He looked with understanding upon Mary and her unborn child and had a heart large enough to care for them both. The mystery of love means that the more we love, the more we can love and the more we have to give. It cannot be exhausted. It is exponential. We have an enormous capacity to love and this ability allows us to do the right thing. We need to tap into this potential when we find ourselves in stress or tension or in situations that seem dark. This love will lead us to a brighter day. Just ask Joseph. My friends, my prayer for you is: May you have courage. The world needs your good heart. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Judges 13) A barren woman was visited by an angel to receive the message that she would bear a son. She named him Samson and he spirit of the Lord stirred within him.  

 

Tuesday: (Isaiah 7) This is the sign that you will be given: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be named Emmanuel.

 

Wednesday: (Song of Songs 2) My lover come, springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. My lover is like a young stag. Arise my beautiful one. Come.  

 

Thursday: (1 Samuel 1) Hannah presented her son, Samuel, to the Lord. She left Samuel to grow as a servant of God.     

 

Thursday: (Isaiah 54) Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear, break forth in jubilant song you who were not in labor.    

 

Friday: (Acts 6) Stephen worked great wonders among the people and adversaries debated with him fiercely. They threw hit out of the city, stoned him, and laid him at Saul’s feet.  

 

Saturday: (1 John) What we heard, and saw with our eyes, what we looked upon, and touched with our hands, concerns the Word of life.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 1) Zechariah, on priestly duty, and his wife, Elizabeth, prayed fervently. An angel visited them to announce that they would bear a son, who was to be named John. 

 

Tuesday: (Luke 1) The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear a son who would become the savior of the world. He shall be named Emmanuel.

 

Wednesday (Luke 1) Mary set out to the hill country to visit Elizabeth and Zechariah. When she entered the house, Elizabeth recognized that Mary was pregnant with the Lord.

 

Thursday (Luke 7) Jesus asked: Why did you go out to see the Baptist? He is the greatest of men born to women.   

 

Monday: (Matthew 10) Jesus said, “Beware of men who will hand you over to their courts and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be led before governors and kings.  

 

Tuesday: (John 20) Magdalene ran to Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciples to tell the news that Jesus has been removed from the tomb. In fear, they ran to see the tomb.

 

Saints of the Week

 

December 21 - O radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come and shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.

 

December 21: Peter Canisius, S.J., priest and religious (1521-1597), was sent to Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and Switzerland during the time of the Protestant Reformation to reinvigorate the Catholic faith. He directed many through the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. He is a doctor of the church for his work in bringing many people back to the faith.

 

December 22 - O King of all nations, and their desire, and keystone of the church: come and save us, whom you formed from the dust.

 

December 23 - O Emmanuel, our king and giver of the Law, the hope of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, Lord our God.

 

December 24: ERO CRAS

In the Roman Catholic tradition, on December 23, the last of the seven “O Antiphons” is sung with the “Alleluia” verse before the Gospel reading at Mass and at Vespers – Evening Prayer in the Divine Office/Breviary. Most ordinary Catholics, however, are more accustomed to hearing these antiphons as verses in the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

But the literary construction of these wonderful antiphons is arranged in a unique and surprising way: The order of the seven Messianic titles of the “O Antiphons” (and the seven verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”) was fixed with a definite purpose. 

In Latin, the initial letters of the antiphons – Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia – form a reverse acrostic – a play on words – ERO CRAS, which translates into English as “Tomorrow, I will be.”

So, in the silence of Christmas Eve, we look back on the previous seven days, and we hear the voice of the One whose coming we have prepared for – Jesus Christ – speak to us: “I will be here tomorrow.”

 

December 26: Stephen, the first Martyr (d. 35), was one of the seven original deacons chose to minister to the Greek-speaking Christians. The Jews accused him of blasphemy. Though he was eloquent in his defense, Saul of Tarsus condoned his death sentence. 

 

December 27: John, Apostle and Evangelist (d. 100), was the brother of James and one of the three disciples to be in the inner circle. He left fishing to follow Jesus and was with him at the major events: the transfiguration, raising of Jairus' daughter, and the agony in the garden. He is also thought to be the author of the fourth gospel, three letters, and the Book of Revelation. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• December 21, 1577. In Rome, Fr. Juan de Polanco, secretary to the Society and very dear to Ignatius, died. 
• December 22, 1649. At Cork, Fr. David Glawey, a missionary in the Inner and Lower Hebrides, Islay, Oronsay, Colonsay, and Arran, died. 
• December 23, 1549. Francis Xavier was appointed provincial of the newly erected Indian Province. 
• December 24, 1587. Fr. Claude Matthe died at Ancona. He was a Frenchman of humble birth, highly esteemed by King Henry III and the Duke of Guise. He foretold that Fr. Acquaviva would be General and hold that office for a long period. 
• December 25, 1545. Isabel Roser pronounced her vows as a Jesuit together with Lucrezia di Brandine and Francisca Cruyllas in the presence of Ignatius at the church of Sta. Maria della Strada in Rome. 
• December 26, 1978. The assassination of Gerhard Pieper, a librarian, who was shot to death in Zimbabwe. 
• December 27, 1618. Henry Morse entered the English College at Rome.