“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ. Joseph and Mary are both people of extraordinary faith deeply rooted in the tradition of God’s covenant relationship with his people Israel. They are betrothed to one another as people who want to serve God and belong to one another. As pious Jews, this will-to-serve comes first. It is this divine service that forms the basis of their commitment. Their betrothal and their whole lives were consecrated to this service, and they entered into their betrothal with this awareness. The openness to one another in their gift to one another would have in no way displaced this primacy of the love of God in their hearts. It was only within this love for God that their love for one another would have been meaningful to them.
For Mary, as a first-century Jew, marriage was a duty. In her betrothal to Joseph, she fulfills an obligation to God, a law, and through her betrothal she is bound more firmly to God. For Mary, surrender to God and surrender to her husband would have been a unity, not the same, but a unity. Due to her freedom from original sin, this surrender means that Mary’s whole being was caught up in the activity of discerning God’s will, this will was primary, its discernment, its acceptance and its implementation, over any specific expectations of what form her married life would take, children, how many, etc. All would have been joyfully left in God’s hands, in union with her bridegroom.
Joseph’s case is different. He is a just man, deeply rooted in the traditions of God’s covenant relation to his people Israel. He is chaste. But his is also subject to original sin. For him, the betrothal is the prelude to a normal earthly marriage. In his betrothal to Mary, he experiences real feminine love, and this love of his bride will enrich him as only a feminine love can fulfill a man. But since he is preparing for a normal human marriage, he will have to take a step back from his plans more than Mary. For Mary, being free from sin and thus always totally at the disposal of the divine will, although she was not expecting the angel’s appearance, and was “greatly troubled” by his message, his coming would have functioned more as a clarification of her mission, a determination of the purpose of her life, than as a going back on her plans. Joseph, on the other hand, had to forget his former ideas and begin anew. He will have to make a renunciation, but in doing so he will receive everything back many times over. He will receive the hundredfold Jesus will later promise his followers. Because Joseph makes his renunciation in faith and love, it will result in an openness toward the mysteries of God, which God will unfold for him.
We do not know when Joseph became aware of Mary’s pregnancy but at some point, it becomes clear that it can no longer be hidden from others and so he must come to a decision about what to do. The Gospel tells us: “Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.” This statement tells us a lot about Joseph. He is determined to act within the divine will and discerns this will by considering, at one and the same time, the divine law, its expressions in the traditions and customs that have been passed on, and the concrete situation itself with the persons involved, Mary and the history of their personal relationship. He recognizes that there is a mystery in his wife’s pregnancy that lies beyond his understanding. Free from judgment, self-righteousness, or the impulsive response of a wounded ego, and in great respect for her person, whom he loves, and from whom he has experienced nothing but love and full surrender, a person of extraordinary sincerity, genuineness and transparency, in whom he can discern no ill will, not even any fault, he decides that the best way to act and remain within God’s covenant is to divorce her quietly. He is firmly rooted in the Old Covenant but is about to be brought over into the New.
At this point, God sends his angel to Joseph in a dream. The angel encourages him to take Mary as his wife, because it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived, and in the process, he reveals to Joseph his mission. As son of David, his task is to name the child. Everything hinges on his response. For by naming the child, he claims it as his own. As his legal son, he would have all the hereditary rights of a son, including Joseph’s royal Davidic descent. He would make this child a legal heir to David, he would pass on to him his own royal lineage. Much is at stake if Joseph leaves Mary and does not accept this child. God takes a risk here. God gives Joseph an extraordinary task, but he leaves Joseph the full freedom to make a choice, to give his assent or not. God needs this “yes” from Joseph but there is no coercion, no threat, no compulsion. Simply the presentation of the mission.
Nevertheless, Joseph did not just happen to be the one who was betrothed to Mary. He was chosen. God selected him from all eternity for this commission. The Spirit of God was present to Joseph from the beginning, accompanying him and those around him, preparing him for this moment, as a culmination of all that went before. At the same time, his consent will mean a binding to the divine will that will determine the whole of the rest of his life; all else will flow forth from this revelation of his mission and going forward it will always remain his point of reference.
Joseph, for his part, did not just now begin to assent to the divine will. Throughout his life he has been cooperating with this shaping power of the Spirit. From the beginning there has been this fruitful interplay between God’s divine freedom and Joseph’s created, human freedom. With each discernment of the divine will and with each ‘yes’, Joseph grew in his capacity to trust and surrender to God. He learned to see the rewards of an obedient faith and to experience its fruits. He learned that although things did not always turn out the way he had expected, what God had in mind was always greater than what he had imagined. In this way, the original freedom that had been bestowed on him by virtue of his dignity of being made in God’s image began to grow into a deep personal freedom that expanded into ever-greater knowledge of God and his ways and a fundamental interior accord with God’s freedom. So when the angel approached Joseph, he found a man already deeply attuned to the divine will, open and ready to receive it in whatever way it should make itself known.
The angel presented Joseph with a definite task: to be faithful to this woman, to care for this child as a father, and to remain so completely at God’s disposal that all that he does is for the sake of this task. In a sense he has certain insight into how his life is to unfold. But at the same time the angel has presented him with a great mystery that lay way beyond his comprehension, and with a great responsibility – to be guardian of the mystery of God.
His wife has conceived by the Holy Spirit, her son is destined to be a king, but not just any king but one with a very particular mission: to save his people from their sins. Joseph cannot possibly acquire an overview of a mission of such vast dimensions. Its implications lie beyond him. They must unfold over time. Much of his responsibility will consist of providing a home for his wife and her child, for this he will plie his trade, but he will also have some share in her task of initiating him into the traditions of Israel. For guidance he will certainly look to the Scriptures and to the law and traditions of Israel. And he will strive to serve his family by means of its teaching. But how to interpret them in accord with this extraordinary new thing that God is bringing about?
Once the angel ceases to appear, he will look to the Son and his Mother. As the Word Incarnate, the Son is from the beginning Scripture’s definitive interpretation. In him, Joseph will see the face of the Father. In Mary, Joseph will see pure readiness to receive and to respond to this mystery. In them he will find the deepest meaning of the Scriptures break open and his path made clear as guardian of the mystery of God. Through them he will learn what it is to be totally at the disposal of God and in them he will discern his will. Joseph will lead by being led.
Today it is no different. St. Joseph is our patron. He is the guardian of the mystery of God as God wishes it to unfold at St. Joseph’s Abbey. He is our protector. As such he offers us Mary as our Mother and Jesus her Son in whom we are to be led to the Father. Let us open our hearts and minds to receive this gift as we celebrate this sacred Eucharist.