Do We Really Believe?
December 21, 2022
Fr. John Riccardo
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’” (Matthew 1:18-21).
As we rush towards the Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord, I find myself thinking more and more about St. Joseph. The above passage, proclaimed last Sunday, continues to echo in my ears. Is there another man who can seriously rival Joseph for faith? Is there any intercessor who can better help us know what God can do to shattered dreams? Aside from Mary, who can teach us that, truly, nothing is impossible for God?
In his third and final volume on Jesus, Pope Benedict XVI writes, “Now Joseph had to come to terms with the fact that Mary ‘was with child of the Holy Spirit.’ … Joseph had to assume that Mary had broken her engagement, and according to the law he must dismiss her. He has a choice between a public juridical act and a private form. He can bring Mary before the court, or he can issue her with a private writ of divorce. Joseph decides on the latter option, in order not to ‘put her to shame.’ … After the discovery Joseph made, his task was to interpret and apply the law correctly. He does so with love: he does not want to give Mary up to public shame. He wishes her well, even in the hour of his great disappointment” (Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, italics mine).
All too often, many of us immediately move on to what happened next, namely, the dream and the angel’s message to Joseph. We should allow ourselves to linger here a bit longer. The saints have so much to teach us! But they cannot teach us if we do not remember that they were ordinary men and women like us (Mary excepted, of course). We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us get into this scene, to imagine what Joseph is experiencing and feeling? What would we be feeling if this was us?! The woman of my dreams, with whom I had been looking forward to spending the rest of my life, is pregnant. And I do not know who the father is! Imagine the hurt, the anger, the confusion, the sadness, the anguish, the sense of betrayal, and the turmoil going on inside his heart.
Then, sometime later – who, after all, knows how many days lapsed in between Joseph making this discovery and the night of the dream – Joseph is stunned to meet an angel (!) in a dream. He’s stunned even more by the angel’s message to him! Mary has not been unfaithful; she has not broken her engagement. The staggering reality is that Mary is pregnant, but her new situation is not because of a man.
Are you kidding me? What rules of discernment could possibly be applied here?
Pope Benedict concludes, “The message conveyed to Joseph is overwhelming, and it demands extraordinarily courageous faith. Can it be that God has really spoken, that what Joseph was told in the dream was the truth – a truth so far surpassing anything he could have foreseen? Can it be that God has acted in this way toward a human creature? Can it be that God has now launched a new history with men? Matthew has already said that Joseph ‘inwardly considered’ the right way to respond to Mary’s pregnancy. So, we can well imagine his inner struggle to make sense of this breathtaking dream message: ‘Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived of her is of the Holy Spirit.’”
Nothing is impossible for God.
Nothing is impossible for God.
Nothing is impossible for God.
Nothing is impossible for God.
Do we really believe not just this text, but all that we are about to celebrate? Do we live like it? Do we pray like it? Do we act like it?
St. Joseph, please pray for us for an ever greater faith in the One who is the Author of history, and who has entered our world as one of us so as to rescue us!