[The deacon was preaching this week, so no vid. Here are my thoughts on this week’s gospel. I’ll be in Girdwood at Our Lady of the Snows this evening for the 6:00 Mass if you are in the neighborhood.]
If there is any time in society when we needed strong dads, it is now. Of course, it was not all that different in the days of Jesus either. God knew the times and he knew the situation into which the Word would be made flesh. He knew that Jesus would need a strong dad. He found such a dad in Joseph.
We don’t know much about Joseph’s personality from the scriptures, but we can learn a lot about him from his actions.
I’ve often preached that “Life is messy, and God is faithful.” Nowhere is this more true than how Jesus came into the world. It could have been neat and tidy. He could have waited until after Mary and Joseph were married. But he didn’t. He showed up early. That was messy! The precept of the law that is often referred to in this situation is Deuteronomy 22:16-22. Although it is unclear if or how this could be enforced, this precept says that the woman was to be dragged before her father’s house and stoned to death. Regardless, we know that Joseph was kind because he did not wish to expose her to shame.
But like dreams of Joseph the Patriarch, the dream of Joseph assures him that this is the Lord’s doing, that God’s plan is unfolding in his midst, and he has an essential part to play in that plan. He acts in faith. There is a Yiddish expression that says, “Man makes plans…God laughs!” It was certainly true for Joseph, and it is true for each of us. How many times have we thought we had it all figured out only to have our plans change in ways that we could not imagine. Often it is only in looking back in reflection that we see how the hand of God was guiding not to where we wanted to be, but rather to where we needed to be.
We need the faith of Joseph in our world today. This is the faith that prayerfully perceives the plan of God unfolding in our lives and realizes that we each have a part to play in that plan. I want that kind of faith. I want the faith of Joseph.