4th Sunday of Advent
23 December, In the Year of our Lord 2001
Christ the King Mission
Scripture Lessons
Palm 24
Isaiah 7:10-17
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25
The character of Joseph
Our worldview as Christians is never very far from the Christmas Story. It is with Easter, a season of joy! That God became man is the centerpiece of our faith, so at Christmas we look most closely at the Holy Family. Today scripture gives us insight into the character of the member of that family who receives the least attention: Joseph the carpenter. Jesus and his mother are the focus of the Christian teaching, music, arts and pageantry of this season. It is important to remember that a good man made it possible for the baby and his mother to begin their lives together as a family. Joseph, like his affianced bride would have to bare a weight of glory. The heart of Joseph, like that of Mary and Jesus, was grounded in a willingness to accept sacrifices of many kinds. Mary became the Theotokos, “the God-Bearer,” and Jesus our Savior and King because they accepted the particular call of God to them. Joseph also discovered God’s way for him and he walked it . If we wish to find the path of blessing so must we.
Two thousand years ago, Mary of Nazareth met alone an angel who told her things both supernatural and improbable. A peasant village girl she was asked to believe that God alone would make her pregnant, that she would be the bearer of a son who would reestablish an independent monarchy in Israel, live forever, and be the divine Son of God. This teenager was engaged to be married to the carpenter Joseph. There were three steps in a Jewish marriage. First the two families [the Papas] agreed to the marriage. Second, a public announcement was made. At this point the couple was “pledged in marriage.” Unlike an engagement today, from this point death or a divorce could only break the union [even though sexual relations did not yet commence]. Finally the couple would be married and began living together.
Mary became pregnant before the wedding, and she had some explaining to do. But she is not ashamed. Although young, the woman had a mature idea of what kind of story her life had become a part of. Having accepted the prophecy, she understood and embraced the role God had given her. In what we today call the Magnificat, found in chapter 1 of Luke beginning at verse 46, we find
My soul praises the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call
me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great
things for me-
Holy is his name.
Such words of power and exaltation do not come from teen that is unsure of herself. As yet, Gods promise of fulfilled prophesy is but a dream, but the child is in her womb, she remembers the visitation of the angel, and the mysterious and powerful circumstances of the Conception [about which even the scriptures are silent]. She continues to believe. We don’t know for sure, but I think she chose to share her news with her kinswomen Elizabeth before her husband to be. But she must now face Joseph. Her apparent unfaithfulness carried a severe social stigma. By Jewish civil law, Joseph had the right to divorce her, and she could even be publicly stoned to death. [Deut. 22:23,24]
Perhaps Joseph thought he had only two options: quietly divorce her, or make a public outcry that might lead to her being stoned. He evidently gave no thought to completing the marriage. Matthew’s gospel gives us the first clue to the man’s character:
Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man he did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
When Mary told Joseph about her pregnancy, Joseph knew the child was not his. His respect for Mary’s character, as well as her attitude toward the expected child must have made it hard to think his bride had done something wrong. Still someone else was the child’s father. And it was impossible to credit that the “someone else” was God. Joseph decided to divorce Mary in a way that would minimize her public embarrassment. In so doing he showed himself to be a discrete and sensitive man, a man who understood the need for mercy. Joseph not only tried to do what was right; he wanted to do it in the right way so as to minimize the pain it would cause. At this point God intervened. He sent an angel to persuade Joseph to go ahead with the marriage, something he had not considered. As children of God we must be prepared for the unexpected.
Angels are created spiritual beings whose origins predate human life. Some allied to Satan in ages past and became evil. Others are faithful to God and are used by him to help carry out his work on earth. In the Old Testament they were spoken of in many roles: bringing messages to Abraham, bringing death to the firstborn in Egypt, protecting Daniel and his friends. The archangel Gabriel had come to Mary; her response to him is the stuff of legend:
I am the Lord’s servant…May it be to me as you have said. [Luke 1:38]
Mary must risk everything to accept the call of God: including the appearance that she has dishonored her affianced husband. Gabriel offered no guarantee of how Joseph would respond when told what has happened. Now it is Joseph’s turn to be visited by an angel.
…An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said,
“Joseph son of David [of the lineage of David], do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. [Matthew 1:20,21]
The strength of what we believe is measured by what we are able to suffer for those beliefs: in our family, our work and our public reputation. Gods messenger had confirmed Mary’s story and placed before Joseph the age-old challenge: obedience. Joseph changed his plans after learning that Mary had not been unfaithful to him in the traditional sense. It still may have irked him. But he determined to obey God and proceed with the marriage plans. We can surmise that others disapproved;certainly people were talking. Joseph did what he believed was right regardless of how he felt or what others thought. Do you think there is a lesson here for us?
Joseph will become the legal and earthly father of Jesus. By so doing he will prove himself to be a man of integrity and a worthy descendent of his ancestor king David. Moreover the lesson he had learned would give him strength for the future in his business and being a good husband to Mary and father to Jesus …and James, Joses, Judas, Simon and his daughters. The Catholic Church teaches that virtue creates a Treasury of Merit. Joseph is never mentioned after the presumed Bar Mitzvah of Jesus when he was twelve and was found in the Temple disputing with the teachers and the doctors of the Law. We do not even know if Joseph under stood what kind of man his son Jesus would be. If he understood that Jesus was to be the savior of Israel, why would he have trained him to be a carpenter? What mattered for Joseph and what matters for us is that we follow the Light to the limit of our own understanding. God wanted him to marry Mary and provide a home for Jesus, so he did it. It is a simple yet wonderful and improbable story. The Lord still puts his people into stories, if they are willing. How do you want to be remebered?
We can live like this as well; we can live here in a mountain town, and live on a spiritual plane. We can be alert to the work of the Savior in this place, and obedient to his call to us, when we hear it. Like Joseph, through a willingness to obey our own call, we can share in our Lord’s glory. In this way we can mirror the life of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
In Advent, we reexamine again, all the wonderful circumstances surrounding the Nativity. There is no festival or holiday season that compares to Christmas. This is a blessed time, permitting so much happiness. We ought to enjoy ourselves to an extent less possible at other times. Revel in the season! Praise God for Christmas! Believe what God has done for and in you, and be happy!
Glory, glory, glory to the Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!
Joseph J. Muñoz
Quincy, California