An Example of Trust

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” Thus sings David, and thus the Church of God lives. What refuge is there for the man of God but to trust in God at all times?

Today, the Church calendar provides us with an example of what it means to trust in God at all times. St. Joseph was a just man and faithful to the Law of Moses. He was honorable and righteous, and he sought to do the right thing. He was betrothed to the Virgin Mary, and was willing to do for her according to the Law and the customs of their people. And Joseph no doubt expected her to live up to her end of the contract also. So it should come as no surprise to you that he was knocked for a loop when “she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

What is an honorable man to do when him fiancee is found to be with child, and he is certain that it cannot be his, since they have not known one another? He would have been within his rights to stone her for fornication, or at least certainly to divorce her publicly and smear her name irretrievably. But “Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.” From this, the Church has often inferred that Joseph did genuinely love the Blessed Virgin, that he would not seek the full measure of the Law's justice upon her.

But did he trust her word, about the origins of the child she was carrying? Would you?

In Joseph's Shoes

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.” The beginning of our Gospel lesson sounds so clinical, so matter-of-fact; and compared to the Gospel of Luke, Matthew does not say much about Christmas. What Luke takes over a hundred verses to talk about, Matthew boils down to the eight we have before us. But what Matthew has to say is quite a bit.

Mary and Joseph are betrothed to one another: unlike today where the vows take place the same day of the wedding, they have already promised their lifelong commitment before God and man, but their wedding day still lies in the future. They have pledged their faithfulness to one another—and now Mary is found to be with child. Such scandals are not unknown in the history of mankind, but Mary's explanation might be a first: she says the Child is from the Holy Spirit. Uh huh, replies the world; of course He is.

Given the evidence before him, Joseph could have Mary stoned to death; but he resolves instead to divorce her quietly. But as he considers these things, an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and says, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

So begins the Incarnation, and note Joseph's position from the very beginning: he can go by what his eyes see or what his ears hear.