Ps 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
Rm 1:1-7
Mt 1:18-24
This is not the first time that a husband and wife found themselves in a difficult situation. The Blessed Mother is no liar and yet I think Joseph found the story just as hard to swallow. I love how Matthew’s gospel just sorta skims over it and that’s alright, we don’t need to know details. How many times have you faced a situation – a difficult situation in your marriage – it could be as bad as infidelity (doesn’t matter how small or how big – infidelity is infidelity) or not being attentive to your spouse’s needs; or it could be something as silly as forgetting to buy the organic gluten-free low sodium no transfat free-range chicken eggs. The bottom line is that the Holy Family had a problem and something had to be done.
Before we get into the Gospel today: How many of you have had dreams? How many remember the dreams? How many dreams have told you to do something and you go and do it? I have some pretty strange dreams and one of my more notable ones is me driving around in Eastern Europe in a military jeep, with Pope Benedict in my back seat. [Don’t laugh, we were going to go do missionary work… in the Philippines.] Chances are dreams aren’t usually very helpful – they’re fun to recount and sometimes they give us some deeper insight into life. So anyways, Joseph gets this blessed dream from an angel and this incredible message that speaks directly to this crisis situation:
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
This tells me two of the three things: The first is that this man Joseph was attentive to God – open to God. He probably had a close relationship with God in personal prayer, and not just Temple worship. God is always speaking to us, always giving us signs and showing us the way. “Are we listening? Are we attentive to His promptings?” It’s not because one is “holy” that you get special treatment, but it is because holiness comes from being attentive to His will – practicing the faith and living it out. How many of you *celebrated* Advent? I’m not talking about Christmas decorations, but where you are spiritually preparing. Where you prayed together as a family – asking the Lord to come in a special way this season? We are going into the homestretch of Advent – start celebrating now and preparing now.
The second thing I noticed about St. Joseph is that he is familiar with the sacred scriptures and the sacred tradition of the Jewish faith. So he is not only attentive to God and his promptings in personal prayer and worship, he is also familiar with his faith. It is not just spiritual, it’s also religious. The Scriptures come alive and St. Joseph knows that he must have Mary as his wife because he is an heir to David and the scriptures says the Messiah will be an heir to David. So by process of elimination, if St. Joseph ain’t it, it was gonna be this baby. Joan Osborne sang, “What if God was one of us? ...Just a stranger on the bus?” Would you have the knowledge of Scripture and our Tradition behind you to know what was going on when trumpets blare and the sky turns dark with a bright light from the heavens. Would you know what to do or would just walk away and chalk it up to UFOs and weather balloons?
I am willing to bet that most of you have not studied any the writings of the prophet Isaiah, and yet we have been hearing from this prophet for weeks at our Masses and liturgies. We hear about this Ahaz guy, in the First Reading, not tempting the Lord and not asking for a sign and yet there it is… Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel. Can you imagine if the folks back then did not know their scripture – how would they have recognized the Messiah? They wouldn’t have; it would be just another crazy guy… being born of a Virgin and WALKING ON WATER. A relationship and attentiveness with God and the familiarity of scripture is essential to this crucial point in history… otherwise it is just a dream about an angel.
Finally, having said that, we are at a crucial point theologically. In the Gospel of Luke, it is the Blessed Mother Mary that cooperates with God, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word. Here in Matthew we find St. Joseph about to do something great or in some sense, something “normal” and expected. If we go back to the Garden of Eden and we go back to the story of the serpent and Adam and Eve, you will notice that Adam is nowhere to be found as the Serpent is conversing with Eve. Nowhere. Gone. Vamoose! My take is that Adam was hiding out under a rock or behind a tree… like a coward, a complete and utter coward, for his wife Eve. She’s battling this serpent by herself!! [It would be like me calling my Mom to kill this cockroach because I’m too chicken. Well kinda.] Whereas Adam totally drops the ball and does not defend his spouse, St. Joseph steps up to the plate and takes it on – scandal and all. He knows the situation, he knows what’s at stake, he knows he has to protect and maintain honor to his spouse, he knows that he must be obedient to God.
But wait, wasn’t he about to divorce her quietly? My personal answer to that is that what he was doing was legal and the right thing within their culture, but look at allegorical lesson here: This relationship is greater than the relationship of husband and wife – this involves the salvation of mankind, this relationship involves God Himself. God keeps them together because it is not about them – it is about His love for all mankind. This holy relationship – this Holy Family – is the model for us my brothers and sisters. For your sacramental marriage, every one of your baptized here, points to a reality beyond yourselves: a witness to God’s love for His people and a free full faithful fruitful witness to all.
As we move into the final days for Christmas – keep the preparation strong, imitate the Holy Family and prepare your hearts for our Lord. Our Lord comes quickly, He is the King of Glory, coming to us in the stillness of night. Let us rejoice and be glad.
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