4th Sunday of Advent
Anniversary of Blessed Michael McGivney’s Ordination
Basilica of the Assumption
December 21, 2025
Blessed Michael McGivney’s Ordination in the Basilica
On this 4th Sunday of Advent, with just four days until Christmas, we recall Blessed Michael McGivney’s priestly ordination. Fr. McGivney was ordained here in this Basilica, on December 22nd, 1877, by then-Archbishop James Gibbons of Baltimore. Fr. McGivney went on to distinguish himself as a model parish priest and a true spiritual father. He was the visionary founder of the Knights of Columbus, today, the largest Catholic lay organization in the world. In 2020, Fr. McGivney was beatified, and we pray soon he will be canonized.
The Gospel for today’s Mass focuses our attention St. Joseph’s unique vocation. Reflecting on St. Joseph’s singular role in God’s plan of salvation, we easily find parallels with Bl. Michael’s vocation as a priest, and his unique role as the founder of the Knights of Columbus. Identifying the similarities between St. Joseph and Bl. Michael is meant to help us all embrace more fully our vocation to holiness and discipleship. Let me suggest three points of comparison:
First, God Raises Up the Lowly
Although St. Joseph was of royal descent (he was of the House of David), he was, nonetheless, a man of humility and modest means. Pope St. Paul VI once said that “St. Joseph is the model of those humble ones that Christianity raises up to great destinies. [Pope Paul went on to say] He is proof that in order to be a good and genuine follower of Christ, there is no need of great things; it is enough to have the common, simple virtues, but they need to be true and authentic.”
It is easy to see a parallel with Bl. Michael who came from a struggling Irish immigrant family of the 19th century. When his father died prematurely, his seminary formation was interrupted because he had to go to work to support his family. Eventually, after much struggle, he re-entered the seminary and was ordained, and would spend his priesthood ministering to immigrant families like his own. Together with St. Joseph, Bl. Michael McGivney verifies Mary’s Magnificat: “God raises up the lowly” – to the great heights of holiness and service.
Second Is St. Joseph’s Obedience of Faith & Bl. Michael’s Obedience of Faith
We read today how the Angel revealed to Joseph that Mary had conceived of the Holy Spirit and that the Child to be born was to be the Son of God. The Angel’s revelation solved a great dilemma for Joseph – “Do not be afraid,” the Angel said, “to take Mary as your wife . . .” And when Joseph awoke, he did as the Angel commanded. If Mary uttered her assent to God’s will aloud (“let it be done to me as you say”), Joseph assented silently; he simply did as he was commanded. And he did so without really knowing the challenges & sacrifices that lay ahead. St. Joseph thus exemplifies what St. Paul calls, “the obedience of faith.”
Some 148 years ago, young Michael McGivney was called forth to be ordained. When his name was called, he responded with the Latin word, “Adsum” – which means “I am present”. That word signals more than physical presence. It means that the one to be ordained is there, present, willing, and ready, to give his all to God and to the Church. As the ordination rite unfolded, Michael McGiveny knelt before Archbishop Gibbons who asked him, “Do promise respect and obedience to your diocesan bishop” – To which the young man responded, “I do!” . . . That was Bl. Michael’s “fiat”, his resolve to do the will of God by obeying the Church and his bishop, again, without really knowing the kinds of challenges he would face. Thus Bl. Michael also exemplifies “the obedience of faith.”
Third Is St. Joseph’s Fatherly Love and Bl. Michael’s Fatherly Love
Reflecting further on today’s Gospel, we see that the Lord called St. Joseph to love the Child Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit as if he were the Child’s own father. He would do this by giving this Child his name, “Jesus”. And as the mystery of the Savior’s birth unfolded, it would be up to Joseph ‘to [do] the worrying, the deciding, and the self-renunciation for the sake of nurturing the Divine Child his wife [would] bear.’ St. Joseph loved Mary with a pure and chaste love and he loved Jesus ‘like a father.”
Surely, something similar can be said of Bl. Michael. He loved his parishioners with a fatherly love. He cared for them in their sorrows and tragedies, and rejoiced with them in professing their faith and celebrating their lives. And he did the worrying and the deciding, at great cost to himself, to make sure that the material and spiritual needs of his people were met. That is especially true of his work in founding the Knights of Columbus to help men stay close to the Church and to provide support for their families in the event that the breadwinner died prematurely. Like St. Joseph, Bl. Michael McGivney’s love was fatherly and sacrificial.
Lessons for Us
What, then, can all of us draw from these parallels between St. Joseph and Bl. Michael McGivney? Three things: First, God has called all of us and each of us to holiness and greatness, no matter where we are from or what our situation in life may be. He provides the grace for us to be virtuous, credible witnesses of his love. Second, each of us must continually give God the assent of our faith. Like Mary, like Joseph, like Bl. Michael, we need daily to renew our “yes” to God, seeking his will, and saying, “Let it be done to me as you say!” Third, following the example of St. Joseph and Bl. Michael, let’s be clear that faith is not a spectator sport but requires our involvement – our worry, our decision, our self-renunciation. In a word, we must love sacrificially, just as the Lord loves us, sacrificially. For then it is that the peace of Christ descends upon us, not only at Christmas but throughout the year.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!
St. Joseph, pray for us!
Bl. Michael McGivney, pray for us! Vivat Jesus!