Joseph's Quandary

The First Reading (Isaiah 7: 10-14) and the Gospel (Matthew 1: 18-24) for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Cycle A, contrast two figures—King Ahaz and Joseph, the husband of Mary.

Ahaz was King of Judah from 735-715 BC. He resisted God’s direction as it was proposed to him by the prophet Isaiah and chose, instead, to rely on human ingenuity and power.  He did not want a sign from God and so he hypocritically declared “I will not tempt the Lord!”  But God gave him the sign anyway.  It was that God will send “Emmanuel” and will save his people.  Human resources are powerless.  God alone saves.  Therefore, trust God!

Joseph is an example of this.  He trusts God’s guidance and is open to God’s direction even in the most confusing situations.  Joseph is described as “a righteous man.”  He is “Law-abiding” and committed to doing God’s will. 

God gave the Chosen People a Law to help them on their journey through life.  But the Law did not cover every conceivable situation and so the religious leaders and scribes “fine-tuned” the Law with many additional laws to cover every eventuality, to spell things out in black and white in order to avoid any confusion and to help people faithfully follow God’s Law.

But life is not black and white.  There is a lot of gray.

In Joseph’s case, the laws were clear.  Deuteronomy 22: 20-21 states: “if evidence of the girl’s virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father’s house and there her townsmen shall stone her to death because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.”  Mary, Joseph’s betrothed,  was to be stoned.

But Joseph cannot do this.  His love for her is greater than this law.  In a quandary, he chooses a middle path: he will not allow the full force of the law to be carried out, but will quietly renounce his relationship with her.

Speaking about this in his Angelus Address of December 22, 2013, Pope Francis said:

“The Gospel does not explain what his thoughts were, but it does tell us the essential: he seeks to do the will of God and is ready for the most radical renunciation. Rather than defending himself and asserting his rights, Joseph chooses what for him is an enormous sacrifice. And the Gospel tells us: ‘Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly’ (1:19).

“This brief sentence reveals a true inner drama if we think about the love that Joseph had for Mary! But even in these circumstances, Joseph intends to do the will of God and decides, surely with great sorrow, to send Mary away quietly. We need to meditate on these words in order to understand the great trial that Joseph had to endure in the days preceding Jesus’ birth.”

Then Pope Francis went on to compare Joseph and Abraham:

“It was a trial similar to the sacrifice of Abraham, when God asked him for his son Isaac (Genesis 22): to give up what was most precious, the person most beloved.

“But as in the case of Abraham, the Lord intervenes: he found the faith he was looking for and he opens up a different path, a path of love and of happiness. ‘Joseph,’ he says, ‘do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 1:20).”

Faith in God who is Love, faith in the Law of Love, wins the day.  Joseph, open to the Word of God that came to him through an angel, follows God’s will. 

Some say that Joseph knew the origin of Mary’s child and chose to break off the engagement because he felt himself unworthy to be the foster father of the Son of God.

Either way, true humility means obedience to God’s will even in the midst of confusion and the disruption of one’s own plans.  Pope Francis continued:

“This Gospel passage reveals to us the greatness of St Joseph’s heart and soul. He was following a good plan for his life, but God was reserving another plan for him, a greater mission. Joseph was a man who always listened to the voice of God, he was deeply sensitive to his secret will, he was a man attentive to the messages that came to him from the depths of his heart and from on high. He did not persist in following his own plan for his life, he did not allow bitterness to poison his soul; rather, he was ready to make himself available to the news that, in a such a bewildering way, was being presented to him. And thus, he was a good man.”

Joseph was the perfect man to be the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus.  He had the freedom to surrender to God’s will perfectly and to follow the Holy Spirit’s direction in the midst of life’s complexities. 

“Life father, like son.”  Jesus showed similar freedom in following the Law of Love even when it conflicted with the many laws that were designed to offer black and white answers to life’s complex and morally confusing situations.  He was accused of breaking God’s Law by ignoring purification rituals and working miracles of healing on the Sabbath. 

Life is not easy.  It’s filled with competing “goods” that create confusion.  But if we focus on God’s Word, discern the movements of the Holy Spirit, and ultimately trust in God rather than in ourselves and our ability to figure everything out, then, in the words of St. Julian of Norwich, “all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

Saint Joseph

This is one of my favorite pictures of St. Joseph. The artist is Christopher Santer and some of his works, including 75 drawings of various saints, can be found at Pacem Studio. I've used this painting on retreats when I talk about the Hidden Life of Jesus and His relationship with St. Joseph. Very often retreatants look at this image and feel deep sadness and pain because they didn't have the warm relationship with their fathers that is depicted here. Their fathers worked hard to support the family but were both physically and emotionally absent from them. Or else they say that the obvious pride on the face of Joseph is just the opposite of what they experienced from their fathers whom they never seemed able to please. In these situations I tell people that they can turn to St. Joseph for healing. He was the foster-father of Jesus and he can be our foster-father as well. We can turn to him and ask him to fill the emptiness left by an absent father and foster the healing of the pain of a difficult childhood.

St. Joseph is certainly one of our most popular saints. We talked about him on Relevant Radio's Inner Life show today and asked people to call in with their stories about how St. Joseph had helped them or their families. There were calls throughout the one hour show and even the following Facebook post that was written before the show:

"Wish I could tune in! My family has claimed St. Joseph as our patron saint ever since we were drawn to him when my husband lost his job a few years ago. St. Joseph helped to ease our anxieties and showed us how to trust in God in all things, just like he was told by the angel to not leave Mary's side after he found out she would have a baby. Sometimes you just have to let go of the reins and put all your trust in God! Not "sometimes." All the time. After we began daily prayers to St. Joseph, it was only a few weeks before the interviews started pouring in, and two months later my husband started his new job! Praise God and thank you St. Joseph for your mighty intercession."

In preparing for the show and celebrating St. Joseph's feast today, I learned that Blessed Pope John XXIII, the same pope who in 1962 inserted the name of St. Joseph into Eucharist Prayer I, the Roman Canon, chose St. Joseph to be the protector of the Second Vatican Council in an apostolic letter he wrote on March 19, 1961.

St. Joseph is known as the "just man" and the "man of faith." I can't help thinking that Pope Benedict, whose baptismal name is "Joseph," will ask his patron saint to play a special role in the upcoming Year of Faith which will begin on October 11, the 50th anniversary of the start of the Second Vatican Council.

I enjoy "word play" and so was interested to see Pope Benedict engage in it in a homily he gave during the Vespers celebration for the feast of St. Joseph when he visited Africa in 2009. He said: "In Joseph, faith is not separated from action. His faith had a decisive effect on his actions. Paradoxically, it was by acting, by carrying out his responsibilities, that he stepped aside and left God free to act, placing no obstacles in his way. Joseph is a 'just man' (Mt 1: 19) because his existence is 'ad-justed' to the word of God."

May St. Joseph help us all "ad-just" to the word of God so that we may become truly just and righteous people!