The readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent - Year A may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122125.cfm
Today,
as we celebrate
this Fourth Sunday of Advent,
with Christmas almost here,
the evangelist Saint Matthew
brings us right into the heart of the mystery
of the Incarnatation,
of God becoming man -
not with choirs of angels,
or cosmic displays,
or with shepherds rushing to a manger,
But by quietly bringing us
into the struggle of Jesus’ adoptive father,
Saint Joseph.
Matthew tells us,
“This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.”
And then shows us a man caught
between a rock and a hard place,
between fear and faith,
between what the law allowed
and what love called for.
Joseph discovers that Mary,
his betrothed is pregnant.
This betrothal, a legally binding commitment,
between husband and wife,
was to last about a year,
even though they did not live together.
Joseph knows the child is not his.
Put yourself in his place.
What would that be like?
What would people think of him,
when they found out Mary was pregnant?
That he disgraced her
and couldn’t even wait until they lived together.
But Matthew tells us
that Joseph was a righteous man.
The kind of man God relies on
to do great things.
A man who loves God
and shows that love
by aligning his actions
with the will of God.
Despite his difficult situation,
Joseph’s first instinct is not to lash out.
His first instinct is mercy.
He does not want to expose Mary to shame -
he could have divorced her quietly.
But, instead, he chooses compassion -
even before he understands God’s plan.
Joseph stands in that spot
where all of us are at times,
between self-interest
and willing the good of the other,
between control and letting go,
between certainty and trust.
It was 100% completely within Joseph’s right to walk away.
But love invites him to stay.
So, when God speaks -
not loudly, not publicly, but quietly, in a dream, saying,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid.”
Joseph listens and when he wakes, we’re told,
“he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.”
“Do not be afraid.”
Those words are not only for Joseph.
They are for all of us.
Because Advent - and life -
can find us exactly where Joseph stood.
Where things don’t make sense.
Where plans unravel.
Where God seems to be asking something of us
that feels risky, unclear,
or beyond our understanding.
Asking more than we feel
we can comfortably give.
In his dream, Joseph was told -
This child is from the Holy Spirit.
Mary is still your wife.
And you are to name the child Jesus,
because He will save his people from their sins.
And faced with this,
Joseph does something extraordinary,
he doesn’t fight it,
or chock it up as a hallucination,
or choose what is quick or easy,
instead - he trusts.
He does what God asks.
And the gospel writer reminds us why this matters,
because this child will fulfill the prophecy
of the prophet Isaiah:
“They shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”
And that, right there is what Christmas is all about.
God is with us.
Not watching from a distance.
Not waiting for things to be perfect.
But God is with us -
in our weakness, our anxiety,
our illness, our hardships,
our unworthiness
and in the ordinary, pain in the neck
struggles of daily life.
And this is important,
because God did not come pretending to be human.
He did not merely appear among us.
He became fully human.
He entered our tiredness, our uncertainty,
our fear, our work, and our suffering.
And in the process,
transformed human life from the inside out.
That means Christmas
is not about escaping the chaos of life.
Christmas is about discovering
God right in the middle of our mess.
Joseph didn’t have all the answers.
But he was quiet enough to listen,
open enough to trust,
and loving enough to say yes.
In that same spirit,
let us ask
for the grace of Saint Joseph,
the grace to trust
when we do not understand,
the grace to choose love
over fear or self-interest,
and the grace to recognize,
each day,
in our real and imperfect lives,
that
“God is with us”
As we pray -
Saint Joseph,
righteous man
and faithful servant,
pray for us.
Amen.
