During the celebration of Christmas, the message comes to us that if we are to get to heaven, we can not do so, under our own terms. The Good News is that God, knowing how we often lean towards our own self-interests and trust our own plans rather than His, provides us with a sign whether we like it our not. The question we have to respond to is simply, do I believe that God is a threat or a savior?
St. Joseph, in the Gospel today, is the model for each of us, how to faithfully respond to God’s unprecedented initiatives in the circumstances of our world and lives. When we allow our mind, heart and soul to be open to the mystery of God, our lives do change. St. Joseph was engaged to be married to Mary and has now found she is pregnant. His reaction is not one of anger as a jealous boyfriend. St. John Chrysostom puts it this way. “Joseph was so free from the passion of jealousy as to be unwilling to cause distress to the virgin, even in the slightest way… so he determined to now conduct himself by a higher rule than the law (that would have seen Mary, an unwed mother thrown to the dogs).
Joseph never asked for a sign, but he was given one, a dream in which the same angel spoke to him, that same angel from God who announced to the Virgin Mary that she would bear a Son. He was made aware of the heavenly mystery lest he think otherwise of Mary’s virginity. The angel even calls her, “your wife” and by doing so, even though no human being had any hand in Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph is called to be faithful and make sacred his role as husband. But the angel goes further and gives St. Joseph the responsibility and honor of publically and formally naming this child to be born. Even though he is not the father, he is, by God’s initiative, placed in a special relationship with this child whom the world will come to recognize as the Son of God. (Is this not also the God-given duties of all parents who find themselves now as guardians and protectors of children who may not originally have been their own?) St. Joseph, believing and trusting in the love of God, agreed to what was asked of him, to cooperate in God’s plan for the salvation of the world.
In the events leading to our savior’s birth, St. Joseph was asked to take the Virgin Mary into his home as his wife. In the events of our savior’s death on the cross, our Savior asked us to take the Virgin Mary into our home as our Mother. May the coming days find that there is room in our lives to welcome and embrace the savior of the world and not be afraid to respond with the humility needed to accept necessary change that will point us in the direction of heaven and our salvation.
